School is a word that is almost universally thought of in a negative light. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but I think my point still stands. If you ask any student or anyone who remembers being a student, they will tell you just how much they hated school.
From little kids that would play sick to get out of class, to teenage high school students, I doubt there is a single student that could say they liked the majority of their education.
I have heard countless horror stories from everyone of all grades. Kids who are worked so hard they get depressed, and the amount of stress is too hard to bear.
Indeed, it seems as though everyone loves to talk about how they could improve the education system. Everyone has their two cents on how the public schools could be made some much better if they would just change this, this, and that.
But, this is just a never-ending circular conversation. The fact of the matter is that the average student is just going to have to trudge through school. There will be no guardian angel coming to save you from those seven tests you have coming up.
So, what are some things the students themselves can do? If you don’t like the way something is, I say to change what you can. What are some things that are in your control, that you can change to make life easier?
Use Technology
The single greatest tip I can give any student who can is to switch from the analog world to the digital. This will save you an immense amount of pain and headache and will make your life as a student so much greater.
Specifically, I am talking about using a laptop with your studies. Instead of taking notes with a pen and paper, I think it could be very useful to take digital notes. There are a few key advantages that are worthwhile to consider.
The single greatest advantage digital notes have is their simplicity to organize and keep track of. If you use an online cloud service to store notes, such as Google Drive, this can easily help an unorganized person keep organized.
This can be done simply by splitting your documents into specific folders. Then, you can even have subfolders. In addition, you can easily keep your notes themselves organized cleanly on the page.
Keeping your notes organized cleanly can be achieved through a few ways digitally. The first is by using the power of a word processor. This may sound complex, but it is simply a program you type in such as Google Docs, or Microsoft Word.
Word processors are great because they can help you format your notes in simple ways. You can use long bullet lists that are easy to follow or divide your notes into sections that are simple to jump between.
The second advantage of a word processor is the grammar and spelling autocorrect. This is very useful if you have to write long papers. I find it very nice to be able to forget about simple spelling mistakes and be able to go back and fix them later. It allows my main focus to be on what I’m writing and not how It’s being written.
The second great advantage of technology is the ability to quickly find resources to learn from or check things you are unsure about. Want some synonyms for that word you keep reusing? Look it up! Need to check what year Abraham Lincoln was killed? The internet is your best friend.
The final advantage of technology I will state is speed. You will always be able to be faster on a laptop than you will ever be able to be with a pen and paper. Well, at least if you want to stay legible.
But, what if you aren’t a fast typer? What if you are faster with a pen and paper than you are with a keyboard? Well, that leads us right into my next tip!
Learn Touch-Typing
By far, touch typing has been one of the single most useful skills I have ever had to learn. I will always be thankful for being forced to learn it by my parents. At the time, I hated it. I thought it was hard and a waste of time. Boy was I wrong.
Touch typing is something that I would say is not an option, but a requirement for anyone who is a student. Being able to type quickly and accurately is useful in many more ways than you may think.
The single greatest reason to learn how to touch type is speed. Speed is the name of the game and you want to be lightning. If there is a teacher who is talking fast, being able to take quick notes can be a Godsend.
Another reason speed is useful is if you have a writing project or essay to do. It will simply take you less time and you will be able to have more free time or do other assignments.
This will be a way to ease up some of the pressure and stress school can put on you. The faster you get work done, the faster you can move onto bigger and better things. It is also the more time you will have to do what you actually want.
Stay in Perspective
School can be a great drag and source of stress on many students. There are many stories of the stressful and overwhelming nature of schools driving some students, sadly, to suicide.
This is a terrible thing. This should not be allowed to happen. Even if you live in a country where school is easier, or where you find it less stressful, that doesn’t mean other kids aren’t suffering.
Stress and anxiety are rampant amongst young people, and I think you would be hard-pressed to find another explanation for all of them than school. But, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things you as a student can do to help yourself.
The single biggest thing that had helped me get through school was keeping myself in perspective and keeping a good headspace. It is something that can be hard to come to terms with or believe, but I had to force myself to realize school isn’t everything.
And, this will help alleviate the stress that school and tests can put on you. If you realize that there is more to life than those numbers on a paper.
Now, I am not saying you shouldn’t try to succeed. School is important in its own way, but that does not mean you should beat yourself to death over getting a 70 or even less than that.
The important thing to remember is that this is your life. What do you want to do with it? Once you realize that, you can decide to focus on the things that are most important to you. Do you want to take chances playing at an online casino, or do things that you know will be good?
Besides academics, something I have seen with my own eyes and heard stories of with my own ears is people letting their relationships suffer because of school. They will push aside friends and family for school.
The thing to remember is that people are usually what make our lives worth living. Friends, family, loved ones. They are the things that motivate us to be better. Other things should move aside for your relationships, not the other way around.