Highschool, in itself, is a key experience that strengthens and builds on critical skills needed in the real world. In all four years many people have questioned, when is it best to experiment and get into routines and habits? As many peers and myself have found, grade 10 is the ideal year to get comfortable and find the perfect habits that fit you! Not only will grade 10 give students enough time to get comfortable, but it will also enforce habits the year before marks count for post-secondary education.
Build On Study Habits:
Writing notes, repeating definitions out loud, taking practice tests, going over homework, and hundreds of more techniques all build effective study habits that could make or break your test results! If you don’t have a set tactic yet, grade 10 is the year to search for one! Grade 10 is vital for testing out as many study tactics as you can and choosing one that works efficiently and helps you retain information immediately. The following study styles are the most commonly used between myself and my peers throughout the years: colour coding, teaching others information, creating visuals, skimming through notes then doing chapter summaries and even more in-depth methods like the SQ3R, PQ4R, Cornell and more! Not only are study tactics important but establishing factors around you while studying is a big help too. These factors include anything from location to people around you during the process. Next time you go to study, think about whether the people around you might bother you or create constant distractions. If the answer is yes, environments such as school libraries or even your local cafe with other students is a great fit. For those who work well in groups, even collaborating together, quizzing each other and arranging study groups is a huge help to many.
Work On Communication Skills:
The majority of classes that students take either in grade 10, or further grades, will have immediate focuses on different forms of communications. Classes such as science require good oral presentation skills, while other classes, such as the humanities like history involve a plethora of communication skills to be used, including both writing and speaking, these being especially incorporated in class presentations. The most effective way to build on communication skills are to incorporate them into your studies or pick upside activities and clubs that exercise them to the maximum. Incorporating communications into your studies could include improvised presentations to test your knowledge of a subject, or even simple writing and note taking. In addition, communication skills can be exercised in clubs such as debate teams, literature clubs, DECA, HOSA and plenty of others. At many schools, there are even grade 10 courses that hint at building communication skills, coming from my personal experience. For example, when I was in grade 10, taking a business course was the number one thing that helped me with this. This course consisted of a handful of presentations and many essays on topics that are both common and unfamiliar to me.
Ask Questions:
From personal experience, asking many questions in the majority of my grade 10 courses set a good foot forward for me, as it helped me build my academic reputation and routine. Setting the habit of asking enriching and necessary questions will help teachers in each department see your interest in the subject and desire to build on your knowledge. Getting a good reputation with teachers will prepare you for future grades and courses, as well as possibly make learning much easier. Although many bring up the point that “Curiosity killed the cat (...)”, many forget the part that follows: “but satisfaction brought it back”. Essentially, building the skill of asking questions and being curious will fully allow you to understand many topics brought up in class and further help memorize information or even visualize it. These are crucial skills needed in future grades as there will be heavy topics to understand.
Learn Teacher Expectations:
With every subject, teachers have different expectations, teaching styles and more, however, while in grade 10, learning the likings of each teacher will make future grades easier. We all know a teacher that sets high expectations, like taking spelling into account, even when it's not an English class. Learning the ways and adjusting overtime to go beyond these expectations will produce higher grades in that class. Not only do teacher expectations matter but learning about the course layout, reading over the syllabus, and adjusting to a variety of teacher’s teaching styles are useful in every class. As someone who is a visual learner, classes that were primarily auditory with teaching were hard to follow along with at times. However, once adjusting and finding ways to incorporate my own learning style, I was able to succeed and earn higher marks. In grade 10 it's vital to find the right motivation and use it to your advantage to be independent if a teacher’s teaching style does not meet yours.
In conclusion, although high school is filled with many academic challenges, some including habits and routines, many of these obstacles can be avoided in the future if preparation is made in grade 10, when most important.
Sources: “10 Effective Study Tips and Techniques to Try This Year | USAHS.” University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, https://www.usa.edu/blog/study-techniques/. Accessed 28 August 2022.
Edited by Jamie Zhang
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Hannah Saban is a grade 11 International Baccalaureate student from Michael Power Saint Joseph. She enjoys playing piano, flute and guitar, writing, doing literary analysis and creating art. Her favourite subjects are English, French, math and music, and she hopes to help the greater community around her.