A lot of you recently have mentioned that you’ve drawn up a study timetable and immediately admitted to not sticking to it. So I wonder are study timetables a good idea to begin with? Personally I don’t have one, although I do have my own system of effective study. In my opinion if you have no intention of completing everything on your timetable then it really is quite useless. You probably would have done just that amount if you had no timetable at all. So what I suggest, and it has worked for me so far, is to make a list every time you are about to start studying and base it on what you feel you need to study the most and prioritize it. This way you can base it on your mood or attitude towards studying. For example instead of studying a single part of a subject at a time I like to alternate my subjects continually, today for instance I might do 15 mins french then 5 mins maths, followed by another 15 mins french then 20 mins Chemistry and then 20 mins of french again. Because clearly I dislike french but I need to study it the most. Also this allows you to take short breaks while still doing something.
Another thing I would suggest is that if you are doing after school study or saturday study then only bring the books you really need to study in with you and perhaps leave your strongest subjects behind. This way you are forced to concentrate on improving your weakest subjects.
Also the most effective kind of study I find is when you don’t have to think of what you’ll write down next. This is when you revise and make summaries of your notes or rewrite essays you’ve already written. I find that when you study at a faster pace you learn more and remember more because it comes automatically to you eventually. This probably only works for subjects with lots of definitions and particular processes that always need explaining (e.g. sciences, geography). I say this is most effective for me because most of my subjects are science. However I do not promote learning off essays for Irish or English (especially english) because the particular answer you learned may not be entirely suitable to the question.
Anyway you don’t have to listen to me, I’m just trying to suggest an alternative to the study timetable.