Last Friday, my work for Marketing took me to an orientation day Q&A session for several hundred first year engineering students. Before being bombarded by questions such as “what should I take to a lecture” and “should I use a Mac or a PC”, I was fortunate enough to listen to a senior academic presenting some information about how to “pass MATH1110″ (MATH1110 seems to be rapidly becoming well known as “that subject everyone fails”). Upon consideration, “how to pass courses” seems to be a very commonplace topic across University at large. Whether or not this is the cause or the result of the “P’s make degrees” mentality adopted by many students is something that I will not hazard to guess, but nonetheless, it is an epidemic which is causing perfectly capable and bright students from reaching their academic (and consequently career) potential.
As a result, I decided to write this article – “How to get straight High Distinctions”. To put this into context, the idea that HD’s are the domain of people who received 99 ATAR/UAI, or who otherwise have no lives, is a complete myth. In fact, amongst the students I have taught, it seems the individuals who regularly outperform the majority are quite social people, who often invest a lot of time and effort into external and unrelated past-times. They aren’t geniuses, but simply motivated. Let’s take my own grades from last semester as an example:
Despite having a lot of external commitments (teaching, music, martial arts training, etc.), I was still able to manage some quite healthy high distinctions, purely by managing my time and study correctly. Below I outline some of the lessons I have learnt over four years as a university student – advice that should, in theory, help you increase your academic performance without taking away from your social life or working commitments (in fact, you may find you have more spare time as a result from allocating your time more efficiently!)
1 – Manage your time
Perhaps counter-intuitively, it has been my experience that having more spare time actually reduces my productivity in all areas. The more I try to jam into a 24-hour period, the better I seem to do at everything. I imagine this type of psychological waffle varies from person-to-person, but I certainly recommend you actively investigate what structure of daily events maximises your productivity and motivation, and stick to it.
More importantly, keep a calendar of due dates of all assessment items / examinations for all your subjects, and stick it somewhere where you will see it every day. I chose directly behind my PC monitor, so it’s perpetually lurking in my periphery. Have it haunt you. I guarantee you will never have another assignment or examination sneak up on you again.
University marks are not a function of your intelligence. They are a function of your ability to self-manage.
2 – Over-perform in assignments
There is no excuse why you cannot get 100% in all your assignments (or at least very close!). You are allocated several weeks (typically) for an amount of work which can almost certainly be completed in considerably less time. Not only that, but you have a marking criteria (if not, ask for one), access to any text book or online tutorial you want, a class full of people working on the exact same task (I’m not encouraging plagiarism or collusion, but there’s nothing wrong with asking for a bit of help if you’re stuck), and a lecturer who is being paid to sit in his/her office and answer any question you may have (a.k.a. consultation hours).
You can never be fully prepared for curve-ball questions or stress-induced moments of temporary insanity in exam situations, but assignments are free marks, and should be treated as such. If you take a look at my marks from 2011 (see above), I’ll let you in on a secret – I had 100% assessment marks going into all of my final examinations. I still managed to drop down to a 93 in one course – 7 course marks in an examination that was only worth, from memory, 30%. If I’d been content sitting on 90% in all my assessment items throughout the semester (which I guess the vast majority of you would be!), I would have missed my HD. Keep this in mind, and ensure the mark you aim for in assignments is higher than the mark you want on your transcript, or you’re doomed to disappointment.
3 – Study efficiently, not excessively
Reading notes is not study. Similarly, picking up an exercise book and summarising the entire course into 500 pages of hand-written waffle with the original notes sitting beside you isn’t study. It’s an epic waste of time. I literally filled 5 192-page exercise books with notes and exercises for MATH2420 back in 2009, and despite the fact I scraped in my HD, I’d forgotten the vast majority of the content 2 weeks later.
Writing notes is effective iff (if-and-only-if) executed in the correct manner. Read your page of notes, put it aside, then write your summary from memory. If you can’t reproduce the information without reference one minute later, you certainly will not be able to the next day or week. Similarly, when working through exercises, don’t have similar examples or worked solutions available to glance at. Do as much as you can without supervision. Stop. Check where you went wrong. Close your notes, turn to a new page and do the entire problem again. Repeat process.
4 – Use “cheat sheets” correctly (a.k.a. avoid MATH1110 syndrome)
I have a theory about MATH1110’s legendary status, and it’s one that I like to repeat at every opportunity (and one that will probably get me in trouble from the math faculty one day). Allow me to share.
When I completed MATH1110 in 2008, we were allowed to take three things into our final examination – our pen, our calculator, and our brain. In my honest opinion, this is extent of what should be allowed into any exam. The fail rate was high, and as a result, the math faculty decided in 2009 to allow students to bring a cheat sheet (for those who aren’t familiar with this term, a “cheat sheet” is a double-sided a4 page of hand-written notes) into the exam. Evidently the fail rate was either equally as poor or perhaps worse, as in 2010, the policy was extended to allow students to bring a text book of their choice (not a typo) into the exam.
Astonishingly, to the best of my knowledge (I should note that I have not been shown any official statistics), the fail rate did not improve, and herein lies the foundation of my advice. For any course where you are allowed to take notes of any form into the final examination, assume you are not, and study accordingly. It’s far too easy to be slightly confused about a method or question, so rather than asking for assistance from their lecturer/tutor or practising more examples, students just write it on the cheat sheet. Come the final exam where the questions require a fundamental understanding of a topic rather than a few rote-learned examples, the cheat sheet proves useless. The problem is amplified in the text book case – by the time you look through your 1000+ page Calculus text book to find a related example and make sense of it, then modify the procedure to suit the problem at hand, the examination will be half finished. Know your course material, commit your important equations to memory (and if you struggle to remember an equation, it’s because you do not understand it), and use your cheat sheet / text book as a backup to check your work or clarify points you are not entirely confident with.
All of that being said, cheat sheets are an amazing tool for study, as they force you to make enough sense of 12 weeks worth of content that you can succinctly describe it on a single sheet of paper. I actually write one for every course prior to the final examination – even if I am not allowed to take it into the examination itself.
5 – Share your knowledge with others
There is no greater way to test whether you understand a topic than to try and explain it to somebody else. In fact, you may be suprised to discover that you lack a fundamental understanding of something you assumed you understood fully. Why do you think I tutor? By teaching others, the concepts are reinforced in my mind, which allows me to perform better in my own courses. As a result of my better grades, more academics approach me with offers to teach more challenging courses. Positive feedback 101.
I realise that the opportunity to hold a formal teaching position is not available to every student, but the process can be emulated at many different levels. Organise group study sessions. Help out the guy in the back row who is clearly struggling with his tutorial problems. Teach your bird to recite the Schrodinger equation. As silly as this may sound, I guarantee that all of these approaches will help solidify your understanding of course content, and as a result, obtain substantially better grades.
In conclusion
University is a perfect example of “you get out what you put in”. Despite the fact that, in a literal sense, “P’s make degrees” is not an inaccurate assertion, the people getting a transcript full of P’s are paying the exact same amount for their education as those who frequently earn marks in the 90’s. Arguably, they statistically pay more, upon discovery that the margin between 51 and 49 is actually very slim; and don’t forget that there are literal millions of dollars worth of undergrad scholarships floating around the university for those who show a little initiative. Not to mention the opportunity to graduate with honours and potentially pursue postgraduate study, which opens up an entire world of new and fascinating opportunities.
Nevertheless, if my perpetual optimism and academic passion hasn’t rubbed off on you, and you’ve reached the end of this article not particularly caring about the effective difference between a 55 and a 95, keep this in mind – a large proportion of students who aim to pass, fail; I am yet to meet a student aiming for a high distinction who has met the same unfortunate fate.
Thats an inspiration article you wrote there David, thank you very much for it. As I was reading through it I got an idea, this year I’m going to put myself to a challenge. I’m a 2nd year student at Unisa and I’m currently doing the LLB degree, well im getting sick and tired of mediocre grades. I decided to do something about it, I’m going to use your methods of acing exams and getting destinction, I’ll be back again in December to tell you that I got distinctions for all my exams. Thanks again for the article, may God give you strength to continue inspiring and motivating us.
Thanks David for a paying push, it really seems to be rewarding dude, in my school years i never did well, i have always been paranoid and lazy to persue a field of my interest, but with the article you share, i feel bailled out of failure!
I’m a second year student currently studying microbiology and I refuse to have mediocre grades ever again… the way you wrote it sounded enticing… thank you, and I’m looking forward to beautiful distinctions this year…
Thanks David, this is a great article. I got a scholarship to study BSc Physics at the University of Pretoria and I think this will be beyond helpful as a first year student.
Oh and I’m not sure if you’ll still remember but I’ve commented on this article before and I stated that I was an under performing student. Turns out that I finished matric among the top academic achievers from my school. Thanks once again for a very insightful and helpful article.
This Year around I’m doing my Grade 12 Thanx 4 da Advice
Dear David,
I have done well with all my previous undergrad and a master course, however getting into a new course for a masters to upgrade my career , it suddenly appeared that I do not reflect my true potential as I am just under sixties. I have good time management but it appears that I put in poor quality to my work to ear such grades and I started with the aim for a high distinction as I have always aimed and achieved. What do I do differently, I still want to achieve my high distinction. Please help
It’s hard to guess what specific things that might work for you and your degree beyond what I have suggested in this article. Just keep in mind that Masters is fundamentally different (and hopefully more difficult!) than undergrad, so you may need to slightly re-adjust your definition of high mark
Thanks for this I’m not the same after reading this text
Hi David,
Thanks for the inspirational blog post! I am currently in my second year of a bachelor of science degree majoring in physiology / nutrition and metabolism. I was wondering if you have any tips on memorising facts and concepts, and if you could elaborate on your most effective and efficient study techniques. I am a committed and ambitious student but I can’t seem to find a study technique that works for me. I have tried creating study notes but find that I get behind because I get assignment(s) and it takes me a long time to write the study notes.
Thanks again for the great post!
Unfortunately “memorising” things was never my strong point. Thankfully, you’ll find that the latter years of most degrees focus less on rote-learning and more on developing fundamental understanding and application of concepts
Hi David. In my high school years i used to get 90s in most of my subjects but not maths and physics but still i wanted to be a haematologist i never really studied hard i used to shy away from studying especially maths but now im a 2nd yr student studying a degree in social work bt old habits die hard i only ge motivated to study hard 2 days left to right an exam bt dis is varsity i just got 2 of my exam results out of 7 dat i wrote i got distinctions for both bt some how im worried only abt pyc1502 and enn103f so dis article is a motivation starting from next yr i will do my best in all of my modules thanx David
David hi,,,my problem is I easily can bored when I studying and I can’t find a studying strategy that is suitable for me??
I’m not entirely sure what your question is, but if you’re finding your subjects ‘boring’ (and presuming that you’re referring to university-level content), I’d suggest changing degrees.
Hey
Your article is actually helpful.
I appreciate the way you’ve taken out time
Just like everyone even I am suffering through the same anxiety
I am determined towards my aims but after failing in 3 subjects of bsc social sciences my confidence is trembling down
I worked day and night to score a distinction answer but then again it went disaster
I am reappearing but I want to get 90% or above
I really want it
But I’m going through panicking stage
Please guide me regarding a perfect essay writing
Unfortunately, as an engineering and computer science graduate, I have quite little experience in writing undergraduate-level essays (perfect or otherwise). Sorry that I cannot be of more assistance, but I am sure that there are a wealth of other resources on the internet!
Hi David, I’m going into my 3rd year Bcom Accounting and I’m a highly motivated and positive person, I am also very open minded, I ask a lot of questions and I study hard and in groups if need be.
I procrastinate sometimes but when I work I work. My only problem is that I can’t find balance in my studies, I get very high 90s while getting very low 50s at the same time. It’s as though I put little effort to these subjects than I do to others. This is really affecting my average and it makes me really sad.
How I can I get good grades for all my modules? How can I study for more than 2 modules at the same time, my exam timetables are usually congested and that’s how my marks suffer, e.g I could have a 10day period to study for 3 exams that come after 1 another. How do I study for such without having one subject get high marks than the rest.
Also, how can I stay consistent throughout the semester, I usually start up really well and then the energy dies out and I get really overwhelmed when the work piles up and I have tests coming up.
Thanks for an awesome article, it really gave me hope
It’s always hard to guess what is going to work for particular individuals, but if you have quite a large discrepancy between your best and worst subject performance (high 90s versus low 50s), the only thing I can suggest is investing more time in the subjects that you’re struggling with. Don’t feel that you need to invest the same number of hours into each subject each week; if you invest 2x more time into these subjects and are still performing worse, invest 3x more time, and so on. Different people will naturally understand topics at different rates, and it’s very easy to fall into the trap of investing more time into the subjects you’re -good- at (because they’re more enjoyable!) than those you’re struggling with.
Hello David,
Firstly, I wanted to thank you for the useful information. I am studying a Masters in Robotics (something I believe you are well versed in). I just wanted some extra tips for getting the top marks in assignments, I will elaborate:
So I am doing an assignment where we must compare 3 types of method for controlling a robot arm.
I can explain what I did and why, analyse the results and suggest further improvements to the study.
I am just curious what it takes to take a decent assignment to a high scoring one. Is it more about linking to the theory and referencing? The structure and the flow and easiness to read? Or the depth of reasoning and understanding that is attained?
Do you have to get to the point where there is nothing more you could possibly do? Or does making suggestions for improvements (combined with analysis) work just as well without having to redo the whole experiment?
In the past I have been scared to go for the top marks (through my own fear of failure). I don’t like to go for things if I think it might be fruitless. But I am determined to change for this course as I know that Robotics is truly going to be the future and I think I can help to make it happen. I am just unsure about how to go for the very top marks as I haven’t aimed for it in the past (I always tried to do the bare minimum to get a decent grade (60-70%)).
I know that if I want to do well at masters level then I need to aim much higher, so any help you can give me would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Paul
Ah, robotics…
By the time you get to postgraduate coursework, the focus is typically in preparing you for a research career, so you should try to structure the task as much like a ‘research paper’ as possible. Not all papers were born equal, either.
One approach would be to construct -a- scenario, perform a test of your robotic arm using each of the three methods and summarise some statistics that capture how ‘well’ each one performed (accuracy? execution time? whatever). A far better approach would be to devise a number of different scenarios that capture different complications that a robotic arm might experience; place the object really close, or really far away, or place some obstacles in the way that the arm needs to navigate around. Then repeat each experiment multiple times to gain a distribution over your performance metrics, as anything that uses real machinery is going to be inherently noisy.
Of course, you can always do more, and how much time you invest should reflect how much the assessment task is worth. You could try to identify and eliminate confounding factors in your experiment. If you always run method 1, then method 2, then method 3 (in that order), perhaps the performance of method 3 is confounded by the motors being warmer than with method 1? Etc.
Beyond trying to extract some statistical significance from your analysis, it’s always worth relating back to the theory. If method 3 performed the best, why is this the case? Is that what you expected from your understanding of the theory? Is this a general results (method 3 is -always- the best), or is it specific to the type of experiments that you are conducting?
You might also enjoy this paper:
http://jmlr.org/papers/volume11/theodorou10a/theodorou10a.pdf
Cheers,
David
It seems that getting a PhD is not enough for you David, you feel the need to make a website bragging about your achievements and what not. Pathetic!!!
Thank you for your feedback, Bobby. Just to clarify (I don’t want to be misrepresented), I don’t actually have a Ph.D, although I am certainly working toward this as we speak! (also, you’ll note that I wrote this article several years ago during my undergraduate degree)
It saddens me that you’ve taken offense to the nature of my website, but I don’t make any apologies for its content. I’m trying to cover a lot of bases simultaneously, and I can definitely see how having a website that is both a) trying to provide useful advice and experience to students, and b) serve as a landing-pad for those interested in my research could leave a sour impression. Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor the energy to maintain both separately.
I can assure you, however, that I’m not trying to ‘brag about my achievements’. My greatest achievements all involve personal relationships with my friends and family, to which I make absolute no reference on this website. Unfortunately we live in a society where peoples’ value are evaluated against silly metrics. One unfortunate side-effect of this is that no one is going to care about my advice of ‘how to get high distinctions’ unless I can validate that I was indeed capable of earning them. Just as no one is going to value me as a researcher unless I can show them a long list of peer-reviewed articles. I wish these were things within my power to change, but alas, they are not.
Well, I would say it’s rather nice that he is doing this. Making the time to help people who are trying to achieve high grades. His writing is exactly what I needed to hear, and I think it is great that he is actually making the time to help others understand how he has achieved such great things.
I super love your article but i would like to ask something, is it possible for me to obtain hundred percent in all my final exams especially on my maths(pure), science(physics) ,english and accounting if got level 4 in all of them in all the previous terms(term 1, 2 and 3). I’m currently doing grade 11.
I am glad you enjoyed my article. I don’t know how any of your assessments are graded, so it’s impossible for me to say whether 100% is feasible. My own experience is that tasks are often graded relative to your cohort (particularly in more-subjective areas), so ‘100%’ requires that you ‘do better than everyone else’. This obviously depends as much on -them- as it does on -you-, and I always advise against judging your own merit and performance relative to other people or factors out of your control.
Hi thank you very much for sharing your varsity academic experience with us it really is an eye opener. i have two questions that id like to ask. A week that leads to my major test or exam time i get stressed i cant sleep well and when i do sleep i have terrible nightmares about the coming tests and during major tests and exams, sometimes i panic too much i end up getting frustrated and forget almost everything that iv learned and obviously this lead to an automatic fail. How do i stay calm for exams so that i can perform well? How do i read and grasp something that i have learned without having to read it 5 times before i can totally understand it, Thank you.
It’s difficult to say, as I’m not particularly well-versed in psychology. The main source of my own stress has usually been leaving important things (study, assignments, etc.) to the last minute and worrying about running out of time, so perhaps try to perform the bulk of your preparation earlier in the process? Hopefully this helps!
I am actually impressed with the blog, there is a lot of stuff to be learnt from your experience. However, my challenge is this; i work about 46 hrs/wk in an office setting and i am taking 2 graduate engineering courses (master’s student) this semester. I obviously don’t have enough time to study. How do you suggest i balance life, fun, work & education as you mentioned in you text not to study excessively!
Secondly, i kind of think i lack a strong engineering background from my undergraduate days and this requires me to revise a lot of concepts before i can even jump into understanding the graduate work itself but this can’t happen overnight. So often times, i end up copying home works because i don’t want to fail. And sometimes i put in effort and time but i just can’t seem to understand whats in the text books. I really wish I good get distinctions like a few others that only put in a little effort. What would u advice? Thanks..
I am glad that you’ve found my blog to be valuable! Obviously working 46 hrs/wk is going to be a major limiting factor; universities suggest that a standard subject workload is 10 hrs/wk/subject, so even undertaking two subjects would push your workload to 65-70 hrs/wk. There’s no way to work 70 hrs/wk and have a healthy balance of anything (even if you forced yourself to do it, you’d be so low on sleep/energy that you wouldn’t be able to mentally retain anything that you’re reading). I wish there was a miracle solution that would make doing 100 hours of productive things in a week possible (trust me!), but there’s not, so it’s always going to be a trade-off where you decide how to balance your priorities. If you want to do considerably better at university, you’ll need to allocate some of the office hours to study. If there is zero flexibility in the 46 hours that you’re working in the office, then it’s necessary to accept that you won’t be able to achieve the same level of understanding (thus grades) as those who allocate 46+ hours into study. You’re the only person who can make this decision!
Hi David, pls am actually an aspirant aiming to study chemical engineer pls give me some tips i could follow to make good grades in each semester.and on how i’m to use my time.
Beyond what I have suggested in this article, just keep in mind that the most important thing is to love what you do! That doesn’t mean you’ll always enjoy every minute of every exam, or that things won’t sometimes be stressful; just don’t take studying so seriously that it consumes your life, as that effort is impossible to maintain in the long run.
Is it possible for me to pass matric?? failed twice da termz i study but i guess i don’t study enough.. my class teacher once told us dat if u fail 2 termz it’s impossible for u to pass.. is dis true thou??
It’s always possible to pass, but it obviously requires hard work and motivation. I don’t know the specifics regarding the system in your country, sorry; I’m sure the information is available online!
I m studing 2nd puc commerce me not have much time to prepare Please give me top advice more than 6 time I planned timetable to study daily 2 hours ya I will studied but only 3 to 4 days interest on studies me want continuosly study many times I prepared notes like 3 to 4 chapters I will write then I boor to write also any have my (aim is to score 100 marks and I have to prepare good notes like purly understanding I m so tired,so much tension please give me good ways…give me answer in whatsapp,or send message in this number (…)
I’ve edited your comment because you probably don’t want your number public on the internet. It’s difficult to suggest anything beyond what I’ve already recommended in this article, but be careful not to work -too- hard. It’s important that you maintain hobbies, sports, a healthy social life, etc. If you focus too hard on trying to get 100 that you burn out and lose motivation, you’ll probably end up doing much worse than if you aimed for something lower (say, 90) instead!
I never set myself the goal of getting 100 (which I never did!), or 95, or 90 for that matter. A HD at Newcastle was 85+, so 85 was my target! Any marks above that emerged naturally because I loved the topics that I was studying, and that’s really the key to doing well at anything
Hey david I was reading your article just now. It was interesting and I learned much from it….I wrote my matric 2011 but I’m going to study LLB next year. So I’m going to that field with a blank mind, so what advice can u give me, so that I can complete my degree on a record time with distinctions?
Be careful trying to ‘complete your degree in record time’. As one of my good friends and colleagues regularly reminds me, “this is a marathon. not a sprint”. Beyond that, without knowing your specific circumstances, it’s difficult to suggest anything beyond what I’ve already presented in this article. Good luck!
thanks for your invaluable advice.
my problem is that I lack principles for high distinction because I always get A2 instead of A1 please help
A H2 is a very respectable grade, so you should be very happy that you’re able to maintain this level of performance consistently! Without knowing your specific circumstances, it’s difficult to suggest anything beyond what I’ve already presented in this article. Hard work and perseverance!
Hi there David,
I’m currently studying a Bach. Of Computer Science at Usyd, currently at second semester. I didn’t do so well in first semester, failing calculus and algebra. During this year, I’ve had the most insatiable desire to discover the most efficient study technique, that is retaining conceptual and relevant information in the quickest time, so I could have more free time for other activities.
Last semester I’ve ruled out that rereading content or transcribing notes from lectures simply doesn’t work for me. The other factor that was considered was that I skipped lectures from week 4 onwards due laziness of commuting to uni and studying at the local library instead. There was also an issue of motivation during some points in the semester due to cramming exams, assignments and etc but I knew that I loved my course.
Anyway, this semester I’ve come to a point that the most efficient way of retaining information for me was to place an emphasis on doing questions and turning up to lectures. I feel as though I’m not studying hard enough this semester and I was expecting 100% on my homework tasks and assignments, instead I’m getting in the high 90s percentage for most of my tasks. I’m midway through my semester so far and I was hoping you can share how much time did you commit towards studying weekly? What study techniques did you find the most efficient? In general what I’d really like to know is what does it take to get a HD in university?
“I was hoping you can share how much time did you commit towards studying weekly? What study techniques did you find the most efficient? ”
I’m reluctant to comment for risk of incriminating myself, as the majority of my good grades were -despite- my study techniques rather than because of them. Honestly, I was notorious for hardly attending a single lecture throughout my degree, as taking away anything from those 2 hours required me to read through the notes beforehand, and once I’d done that, I typically couldn’t justify the investment of time to have them re-presented to me.
Consider this article more of a “what I should have done to make my life a lot easier”. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
Hi David, I’m in matric and I want to study BSc Physics. I under perform at school ( I usually get sixties when I could get distinctions) so I’d like you to give me some tips on how to get high distinctions in your final matric year. I was awarded a university entrance scholarship to go study a science degree at the University of Pretoria when I was in grade 10.
Thanks for the message. I am happy to hear that you are doing well at High School, and if you already have a scholarship that guarantees admission into your degree-of-interest, I wouldn’t stress too hard about your marks (as long as you’re genuinely putting in lots of effort).
High school and university are -very- different things; the former requires intensive rote-learning, which some people simply don’t have the memory for, whereas the latter requires you to develop a deeper, fundamental understanding of your chosen field. I know a lot of people who have been incredibly successful at university, and none of them were at the top of their class in high school
I have a daughter at a age of 15 in grade 9, she is not studying hard she fails first and second term, she is lazy to study I buy her all sort of books but she does not read them. she concentrate only on her music as she attend music school but academics she is failing. I try to talk to her with my husband but nothing. can you please advise what to do
Encourage her to pursue her passion in music in any way that you are able, but explain that pursuing this passion at a tertiary education level will require a particular average mark across -all- of her subjects (universities typically have previous years’ entry cutoffs published online). The only way to be successful is to do what you love; if anyone had tried to force a book under my nose about a topic I wasn’t interested in when I was 15, I certainly wouldn’t have read it either
I’m currently doing grade 12 and I find it so difficult or rather challenging to study,but after reading this page I’m motivated to study smart and attain some distinctions and go to varsity and study Law next year,thanks a million times and good luck to all learners who are writing their matric this year,God be with you!!
Hello David,
Thank you for sharing your success story…really inspiring…
I am a 2nd year Civil engineering student and for this semester, I am taking up 9 subjects/courses altogether. In my university, I’m given assignments and lab reports every week. The due dates for every assignment and lab report is weekly and every project is fortnightly. And this is very workload. During weekends and free-time while getting excessively involved in doing assignments, lab reports and projects of each course, I regretfully realize that I don’t have much time to study whole lots of handouts and notes filled up on my table. And in the last minute, when it is time for tests and quizzes, I always rush up everything resulting in getting poor marks especially in tests and quizzes. Please help me how to manage my time wisely…Thank you
9 subjects per semester? That certainly is not an enviable position to be in.
I think the only additional thing that I can suggest is to create a study schedule and stick to it. If you allocate (say) 10 hours to finishing work for subject X and only get 80% completed, it might be tempting to break away from your schedule to finish. The problem here is that there are only a finite number of hours in a week, so that extra time is time that you cannot put toward subject Y.
Also, don’t fall into the trap of investing extra time into subjects that you enjoy more. Quite often you will enjoy a subject because you are better at it than the others, and being able to solve questions quickly and correctly is a very rewarding feeling. This subject doesn’t need your time; it’s better invested into the subjects that you are finding more difficult (i.e. the ones that you probably don’t enjoy)
Hope this helps!
Hi David……….am dng matric an i hve been performng bad in my studies thou am attnding maths n science afternoon classes from friday 2 sunday spending lots of hours but producing nothng,i nolnger have hope…….is the stil a chance that i can pass with distinction???
Yes,you can make it as long as you belive on your self and commit your self on study groups and try to work out prevously question papers
Appreciate it for helping out, great information. bkacacfbbddd
The only subject i have problems with is maths but David you have just gave me hope of actually passing it
Hey hey! I’m a first year law student, i really struggle to manage my time and study smart. Can you please give me tips on time-keeping skills and study methods?
Unfortunately there is no miracle solution; everything still requires hard work and self-discipline, and there is no way to avoid this. You just need to identify what works for you. This article contains just a few of the things that I have found to work for me, and they seem generic enough that I hope they can also help other people!
hie david, am doing grade 11 and am not sure abt which career i want because of the marks am getting. i do study hard but the marks i get ate not what looking for. so is it possible for me to get higher marks?
Don’t decide what career you want based on the grades you get. Decide your career based on what you will enjoy spending the rest of your life doing, identify the grades you need in order to follow this path, and use this as motivation to invest the necessary time and effort into succeeding!
I was quite successful in high school, and had a lot of options open to me. I could have studied (say) law, or medicine, but these weren’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to study computer science (which had a -far- lower admission requirement), and the reason that I’ve been relatively successful (so far!) in this field is because of how passionate I am for my work.
Hi David, I am currently studying Civil Engineering and I am really stuggling with one module I keep failing it, I feel so helpless at times. It is very hard for me to study because I don’t know how to pass it.
The only additional thing that I can suggest (in addition to the content of this article) is not to fall into the age-old trap of investing more time into subjects that you are good at. It’s easy to do! Normally the subjects that we do well in are the ones that we enjoy, and when we enjoy things, we’re more likely to invest more time into them. This is fine, except that it leads to the difficult subjects that we don’t understand as well being neglected; both excelling and struggling are self-perpetuating cycles, and it’s critically important to identify the latter in order to break free of it.
david
i get low marks i feel very horribl i have two.weeks for my exam within those two weeks will i be able to get high marks if so.how could u please tell me i need som help from you.
that was very inspiring…i believe I am gonna pull it through and get straight A’s at the end of the year..Thnx again MR BUDDEN
Hi David,
Does Melbourne Uni confer distinction or recognition award to its graduating undergraduate students who performed very well in academics, say, lots of H1s in their grades? Or this reserved only for masters or doctorate levels?
Thanks.
Jack
There are two types of honours degrees in Australia: those that require an additional year of study, and those where honours is “embedded” for those who achieve over a certain average grade/mark during the standard degree duration. My undergraduate engineering degree at the University of Newcastle fell into the latter category. To the best of my knowledge, the “Melbourne model” doesn’t include scope for this. However, UniMelb certainly does offer the former:
http://search.unimelb.edu.au/#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=honours&gsc.sort=
I was motivated enough nd encouraged beyond. Nd i belve in mkng it nd doing my best,nd managing my time of study…thanks godbless.
Hello David. I am currently a grade 12 student and while I maintain an A aggregate, I find that my marks are just on the A mark and sometimes below. This article is very inspiring and I feel very motivated to work harder to get 90’s
HI DAVID
I ALWAYS GET DISTINCTIONS IN MY GEOLOGY COURSE BUT I FIND IT HARDER TO GET THE BEST BURSARY,i AM IN MY FINAL YEAR OF STUDY NOW…WHAT MUST I DO?
Unfortunately I do not have much advice on this topic – I am not sure how your bursary system operates. I am happy to hear that you are maintaining good grades, though!
Hi david..currently am doing grade 12 and am interested on getting atleast 5 distinctions..i try by all means to work hard and my perfomance is bellow 70% on maths and sclence..how can i improve my perfomance?
Dear David,I want to tell you that ever since from my late Grade 8-9 my performance was very low since I was lazy to study and found it stupid but ever since from Gr10 I got motivated started studying and my performance improved rapidly.Gr11 I was the top performing student and was awarded a merit award.Now I am in Gr12 my performance has declined a little bit because l spent most of my time helping other student and often study for test at last minute.My goal is to grab all 7 distinctions is that possible and often loses confidence in myself help me David should I change my study methods,or never help my fellow learners?
I certainly would not suggest that you stop helping your fellow learnings. In addition to being a kind thing to do, it actually assists greatly with the learning process! (See my 5th point)
That being said, it is important to maintain balance. You do not want to spend so much time helping that you do not leave enough to study, yourself!
Dear David I am currently in grade 12. My problem is that I do bad in my biology, physical sciences and mathematics. I try to do my best everytime but all I get is 48% and 49%. How will I know that I have studied hard, and because it’s already mid year do you think that it is late to get 7distinctions at the end of the year?
Hey Thato
I’m doing my 1st year in medicine this year, I was like you doing matric last year and I got 5 distinctions.
I won’t lie its not water under the bridge,but it takes time which by now u see is very scarce.
I’m going to give you methods I used and I hope you’ll be helped
1. Pray without ceasing
2. Motivate yourself
3.Create a clear space
4.Use past papers
5. Join the perfect study group
If u have Dstv I advice you to watch Mindset learn Xtra
U Can do this! U know why?? ..Because God didn’t bring u this far to leave u
Family support is quite important
Goodluck on your exams!! All the best
Hi Nomfundo am currently in matric and I want to study medicine afterwards and my performance is nt very well, nt because I don’t understand bt because of family problems that lead to me nt studying at all.I hv being a student that teachers really admired but lately they hv seen changes. I hv decided to stop going to school n restart my matric next year because I would have moved to another place (better) by next year, is this a good or bad idea with only a few weeks left to write my exams??
Plz help
Thank you
Hi Thato,
Without knowing more about the way that you study etc., it’s hard for me to provide any advice beyond what I’ve already mentioned in this article.
That being said, it’s certainly possible to still obtain distinctions! At my alma mater, the threshold for a distinction was 75 (and a HD was 85). Assuming your school is the same and that semester 1 and 2 are equally weighted, this means that you will need to increase your semester 2 average mark to ~ 90. This will be hard work, but if you apply yourself and study efficiently, it is certainly possible!
Good luck!
I’m sure one dsy my dream will comes true.I will try my best.
Hi, i am a first year student at uct currently studying chem eng but i want to do medicine next year. My problem is that when I study hard i get like 65-69 which is not what i want to get as i want to change what i am studying and the problem is that i dont enjoy chem eng and dont feel motivated. During first term i failed 3 of my courses and after that i changed my method of studying but i am still not satisfied with my marks as i want to get distinctions in everything. Please help as i dont know if i have to study all night, read the text books or go through my lecture notes everyday or listen to people who say that i must study all 4 of my courses in one day as i only do 2 courses a day.
I think you have identified your own problem here: you don’t enjoy what you’re doing. Enjoying your work is critical to maintaining the effort required for good grades, and you’re right to be changing degrees if you’ve discovered that chem eng is not for you. The tricky part, as you’ve also identified, is that you need to do sufficiently well in your current subjects in order to gain admission into medicine. I would recommend that you try to use that as your source of motivation! Every time you need to study but lack the motivation, just remind yourself of how incredible your future career in medicine would be
Now to address the specific “study tips” you suggested. Firstly, I would never suggest that people study all night. Sleep is a critical step of committing what you’ve studied to long-term memory, and your brain simply will not function correctly if you’re tired. I am incredibly strict on myself when it comes to sleep; no matter how busy I am, I make sure to have at least 7 hours per night (typically 8). Reading text books is also a very painful way to learn subject material. I would suggest working through all of the example questions in lecture slides, tutorials etc. until you believe you are comfortable with the content, then put your notes away and try to solve similar questions without assistance. I also have no idea why anyone would suggest that it’s necessary to study all four subjects in a single day… I understand the importance of investing equal amounts of effort into each subject, but I think you can accomplish this by ensuring you revisit each subject at least twice per week. If anything, trying to study for four subjects simultaneously is probably going to clutter your mind and make life much harder.
Hope this helps, and best of luck!
Thank you for everybody who has posted their questions or thanks over the last two years since I posted this article! I wish you all the very best with your future studies and careers, and will continue trying to reply to all relevant questions as soon as humanly possible
Sir I am one of those worst performers.Although I work hard to get the best I still get symbol E(40-49% ) ,I only get 50 by mere luck.I study hard everyday to get the best grades but now I am really just discouraged.I don’t want to conclude by saying “I am about to leave college because my bad performances”,because I have got this big and high desparation about achieving distinctions.By the way I am at an FET College studying Mechanical Engineering.
It’s quite difficult to provide advice for individuals without knowing their individual situation and what aspects of their subjects that they are struggling with, so perhaps the most useful thing I can suggest is trying to apply some of the general advice already applied in this article. Some of them are not necessarily convenient (e.g. finding a group of friends or colleagues to study with), but I can assure you from personal experience that -any- additional time or effort you invest into your studies will inevitably improve your grades
Good luck!
thannks
Dear David ,
I am pursuing a double major in neuroscience and neuropsychology and currently receiving high credits and low distinctions . My assignments are a huge let down and with exams though I know the content , I am not doing justice to the questions asked .
Any advice for me would be appreciated
Deepika
There are really two questions here: How can you perform better in assignments, and how can you perform better in examinations. Although both are obviously correlated with your overall understanding of the subject content, the approaches to improving these two areas are quite different.
With assignments, the only advise I can give is reiterating the content of this article. Start the assignment early (as soon as its released) and work through the questions to the best of your ability. If you’re unsure about anything, ask. Asking is the most important step. Ask a friend, tutor or the course coordinator, but keep asking questions until you understand the answer. Academics are inherently busy people, which is why its important to start early; if you email your lecturer with a question about an assignment the night before it’s due, there is very good chance that you will not receive a reply!
Exams are a bit trickier. With the exception of tracking down similar exams from previous years (or other universities if this isn’t possible – Coursera/Udacity/etc. are great resources for this), all you can really do is “study harder”… Or more importantly, study smarter! Hopefully this article provides some useful tips to do exactly this
Sir my problem is that am really good in my subjects but when it comes to my languages,,i perform poorly.. I’ve been trying my best to try and pass those subjects but am really far from that. I get distinctions in all my subjects but i always get 4O% in languages. Am scared i won’t be accepted in varsity due to low marks in my languages. Your help will be more that appreciated.
Unfortunately I have very little experience in learning a foreign language, so I am not qualified to provide a useful answer. The only thing I can suggest (from my minimal experience) is that the quickest way to learn is to surround yourself by people who speak it. I spent a month in Japan in 2011, and I came home knowing more (conversational) Japanese than friends who had studied it for 2-4 years during High School.
Good luck!
Hi David
I am in my second year of a combined chemistry/maths major. I am in what feels like a unique situation where I mostly perform very well in exams, but mediocre in assignments. Consequently, my marks have ranged from low-range credits to high-range high distinctions. Other students seem to perform better with far less studying. Any advice you can impart would be greatly appreciated because I am aiming to do a PhD and need an APA to facilitate it.
Eddie
Happy Easter, Eddie!
The fact that you’re doing well enough in your exams to get credit-to-distinctions grades suggests that you are definitely studying hard enough. All I can suggest is that you approach assignments more “iteratively”, for lack of better word. Start early (as soon as they’re made available) and work through all of the questions. As maths and chemistry are both very quantitative fields, there will typically be a unique “right” or “wrong” answer. Take your solutions along to a student-organised study session (if there aren’t any that you know of, grab some friends and start your own!) and see if your colleagues got similar results. You obviously need to be careful not to cross the “collusion” line, but you can 100% guarantee that other students are comparing their assignments answers to identify silly errors. If there are questions you’re really unsure about, don’t just “have a go and hope for the best” (although this is a very Australian thing to do!); get in touch with your tutor, lecturer or course coordinator and have them check! Tutors will typically be more receptive and quick to help out, but you will find that all academic staff have consultation hours for this exact type of thing.
A good sign that you are handling assignments correctly is that you should know what mark (+/- 5%) you are going to get before you even submit, by virtue of the fact that at least one other person (ideally the assignment marker!) has already validated your solutions. Obviously this is more difficult in more subjective fields, but this certainly applies for maths and chemistry. After this, everything just becomes a matter of hard work: Put in the hours until you know you’ve solved all the questions correctly (or 90%, or whatever threshold you’re happy with) and you will be rewarded accordingly
I’m in grade 10,currently sitting on an 80% overall average.I study almost every day but still do not exeed the 90% limit,how exactly can I know and be sure that I’m studyng correctly?
Personally, I think that you should try a few different study methods. Rather than reading a textbook for hours ever night try making summaries and condensing those summaries before exams. I have also found that flash cards are actually very beneficial as just the process of making them makes you learn. You are in grade 10 so this is your best opportunity to experiment as it will only get more difficult from here.
After you try a different study method just see how you went on your exams. Eventually you will find what works for you. Good Luck!
What James said!
Hi david. After reading your article I feel optimistic a little,I’m a third year university student and my books are really getting to me.I have failed zoology 2601 two times before and I’m doing it for the third time…its practically haunting me and its my worst nightmare,I’m also doing several botany modules and theory of evolution as well as geography modules…its all so overwhelming..I really struggle to study recently coz I hate it,last semester I didn’t attend any exams cozz I was too scared of the paper..I usually get around 2 or 3 distinctions but not high distinctions and I want those high Distinctions….please help me!!!!oh and I procrastinate a lot!!!!!I guess its a way of hiding from the intimidating books
Hi Fathima,
Firstly, it’s great to hear that you’re getting 2-3 distinctions per semester. This is a great accomplishment in itself, and certainly better than what the majority of students achieve. Rather than being upset by this, you should take great pride in these results and use them as motivation to put in the extra effort required in your zoology subject.
I could be mistaken, but my understanding of zoology is that it would involve a lot of rote learning rather than applying previously-learned concepts. There are some people (like me) who just generally struggle with rote learning, as we are far better at “understanding things” than “memorising facts”. Perhaps you should try some simple memory aids, like writing questions on small palm-cards and having your friends test you over coffee. If you haven’t tried this before, group study sessions can also help. Sometimes other people have clever little ways (e.g. acronyms) to remembering things. Beyond that, it’s always good to have a fresh perspective on subject content.
The last thing that I can recommend is not to fall into the trap of putting lots of effort into subjects you understand (because it feels rewarding!), and neglecting the subjects that you’re struggling with. If you find a subject difficult, that’s the subject you need to be putting the majority of your time into. And that takes a lot of self-discipline, but look on the bright side: Once you’ve passed zoology2601, you never need to take it again
dear david
i am currently in grade 12 i have a study time table but its very hard to stick to it . i even stoped following it because i mostly do maths and not giving other subject much attention … please assist
Hi Mashoto,
In addition to the advice I’ve provided in this article, I can only suggest that you avoid the temptation of putting all of your time into subjects that you are good at. Solving questions correctly is inherently rewarding, so it’s very easy to fall into the trap of putting all of your study effort into solving questions that you can already solve (i.e. not learning anything).
Just try to stay committed to your timetable and ensure you put equal effort into all of your subjects. If/when you start university, you will have much more freedom to take only subjects in areas that you enjoy
I am a grade 12 learner this year(2014) I am experiencing some problems academically.the problem is that at primary school I was one of the top students but immediately when I came to high school all of that seemed to change.I get less than 60% for any subject of which I do not understand why.as a result,I lost faith in myself.I want to study dermatology at WITS but I don’t think I’ll be able to fulfill my dreams.whenever I have to do my work,its like this evil spirit gets inside of me and makes me lazy and want to fall asleep.I pray each and every night but nothing seems to work out extremely well.it is my wish to get distinctions but I don’t believe I will achieve that.please tell me what to do! HELP! Thank you
Although there is no miracle solution to feeling unmotivated (although I find coffee helps a lot!), the real trick is self-discipline. When you’re my age, you won’t be looking back at high school and wishing you’d spent more time partying/playing video games/watching TV; you’ll be wishing that you’d invested more time into your classwork.
A similar thing happened to me during my first year of university. I had moved from a small country town to a much larger city, was living away from home for the first time and had all of the freedom in the world. It’s very easy to waste a lot of time when no one is forcing you to do work, because there’s always other things you’d rather be doing. It’s often hard to look into the future, but you’ve said you want to study dermatology. In 5-10 years, when you’re a dermatologist and loving every day of your job, all of the sacrifices, long nights and lack of spare time now will be 100% worth it. So just try to keep your eye on the big picture and let that be your source of motivation
Wow, nice article!
Where do I begin? Ok, I’m in my 3rd Year of IT, (I used to be really motivated in High School and my first Year of uni was really great! (I got a HD in Java Programming!), though in second semester, I had a mandatory f/t internship and I was placed into a role I loved to hate -Data Analyst- (I didn’t get to choose the role, just the company), any ways, I found that during and after that experience I started to doubt my course and the industry I was really trying to enter. I used to study on the trains to work (since I had a long 1 hour and 10 minute train ride one way, every day. I found this time really productive, and I still do find public transport one of the best environments, to put it simply, *get-shit-done* (It’s away from all of the constant distractions we usually receive at home or at university and it’s like a temporary place of solitude to focus on the tasks at hand or some spare-time reading!
In 2nd Year, I got a casual job at a high profile company in second year, which involved social media (sometimes I see it as a drawback, but it opened up a new world of online marketing to me). Any ways, I still tried my best, and passed semester 3 in flying colours (subjects were OO Programming in Java, SQL, Programming on the Internet [PHP/AJAX/JS/XML] and a info sys core (which I hated, because I pretty much knew the material already but the tutorials were compulsory – it was very high level fluffy system methodology life cycle stuff e.g. Agile, Waterfall), then Semester 4 came around and involved two big team based Web Development projects (one with 10 students in Agile, the other with 4-5 students in Waterfall) + a lightweight business info sys core, this semester made me become really unmotivated! One of the subjects didn’t even have a designated lecture and it sorted of feeded off another subject since it was so similar! Any ways, I ended up getting a Credit for the business info sys one, a HD in a group one (because my friend was a person who always gets HDs) and the 10 group one, I got a pass (50), because it was assigned as a group, by peers (it was unfairly assigned imo, because the Project Manager gave himself 100 (from a pool of 700/1000 group allocated marks), and other students argued for more marks based on going on exchange and what not), any ways, two students I was working with failed.
Come last semester, (Semester 5), I had another f/t internship and a business info sys core again (which I loved to hate, because it was so common sense, about reading articles that I found that it didn’t need to be taught!), however, at was at the point where I was so demotivated at uni that I failed it, and now have to redo it next year. I’m not in my 6th Semester and I’m starting to submit things by a day late, I’ve just stopped caring that much now, but this article has certainly brightened me up a bit. (I also have a casual 2 days / week role at the moment as a Tester, but I’m thinking of dropping it, as I got to uni 3 days a week and really need the other 2 days to study – but I’m really demotivated right now, so all my spare time just goes into procrastinating on the web, browsing interesting news and sharing it. It’s really bad, but it’s almost over. I also have two reports (one which was half-arsed (which I probably have to redo) and one which i haven’t done yet, because I want to do a good job). I actually just read this article too, it helped a little: http://lifehacker.com/5884439/burnout-is-real-how-to-identify-the-problem-and-how-to-fix-it
I think most of my demotivation is coming from:
a) I don’t see much significance in my degree any more (especially when I’ve been rejected/semi-rejected from a high-profile company because of my chosen degree and ‘limited’ skillset, therefore I never think I’m good enough for where I want to see myself going). Also, I originally wanted to do CompEng, but it required too much Maths and Physics and I was turned off by that. (I still sort of am, because I have next to no knowledge or experience now in those fields).
b) Competition for fierce friends. > University marks are not a function of your intelligence. They are a function of your ability to self-manage. If only I viewed it like that beforehand, I used to just view it as the first sentence only, and therefore wouldn’t try very hard. (I’m would thinking about dropping out many times, but I wouldn’t know where else to go).
c) A lot of startups companies couldn’t care less if you have a degree, they just want people mainly coding up and testing their products/services, but ofc, it looks/sounds good to them if you say you are studying a degree, it’s a good ice-breaker when introducing yourself. Then again, all those success stories of college drop-outs founding massive tech-firms today doesn’t help either. (I’ve read too many things to startups), Google is an exception, though I think Larry Page and Sergey Brin dropped their PhDs to found Google.
d) Shit info sys subjects I have no interest in because it’s business related and it’s all rehashed content. (Some stuff I even did back in High School and it’s all wrote learning!).
I should be writing up a report atm, if only I could write this much on my report, instead of venting, I would get further than I am now, sigh.
PS: Sorry if there’s any typos, it’s 5:26AM and I haven’t slepted yet (and there’s no edit function to fix later), I had an assignment due yesterday and I’ve lost 2 marks already.
Thanks a lot for your advise, it is very helpful for me, i just start my first semister in Uni, But i have been confused and felt very anxious with massive assignment in the last two weeks which are just begining of the semister. I have not been studied formally for a very long time. I am trying to get involved in this new enviornment, this chance is very very important for me and even for my life. i hope i can really do that and achieve a good result.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you so much for this inspiring message and believing for HDs this semester .GOD bless u David
Thank you very much for your advice. I am a mother of two and currently studying Mathematical Statistics(full-time); but i want to be an Actuary. I had been feeling very sorry for myself for a long time and have failed most of my first year modules twice. This year i believe that anything is possible- i can be an Actuary if i want to. Now that i know that i have to manage my time. I had felt like i don’t belong in a university for a very long time. I am about to start my schedule now- thanks to you. I feel like this blog could help me a lot. Would you please keep this up.
For the first time ever, I vow to do as you say and post my marks at the end of this semester.
Thank you
I hope your story inspires more and im gonna try use your methods in highschool
I read each and every paragraph. I’m doing grade12 this year and ol I want is distinctions. Not only 1 but ol .thnx for the encoragement
Thanks alot for dis wonderful and helping article. But please like how many hours can u read to get distinction?
It depends entirely on the subject, but the typical university policy is that a four-subject semester is equivalent to a full-time job (i.e. ~ 40hrs/wk). Getting good grades doesn’t require any additional time than that (if anything, I have guilty of putting in less). It just required that you use your time productively
Hi davy, I thank you for your phenomenal inspirations.definitely and willingly trying your technque.some times school is arduous and hopefully with your help+god’s help I will finally achieve what I’ve been aiming for years (straight DISTINCTIONS.)
David,your advice is really helpful and indeed,you are right,’Managing your time’ is actually key because if your time is set right,you can plan,organise,and control your work ethic to get better results. Thnx:)
Thanks very much. I hope i am going to attain distinctions in this year after reading your script. I used not to teach others what i think i know and never put exam dates somewhere to be seen and i never adopted using a cheat sheet
Thanks for the blog, I really hope it will work for me next year 2014 as of point number 1, 2, 3 and 5 will help me out…needed a change of my studies to achieve good grades…or distinctions
I’m a grade10 student at Inanda Seminary and next year I’l be doing grade 11.I just dont sem to be getting the symbols i want.I’m sitting on Bs and its driving me nuts.I will definately try your technique.THANK YOU!
Hi David thank you for sharing your information I found it very helpful and I hope that I will achieve the grade
that I am aiming for. I have been struggling a lot previously to achieve a distinction and I always manage
to achieve a B or a C. Many thanks
David Budden – you have just changed my level of thinking.
Thank(ing) you (in advance for my distinction:))
your article was phenomenal but I’m getting 50 and 60 percent in all my sudjects at school. if I may ask ,how can I get 90% and above in all my subjects and stay there?
I’m starting my main tests on Friday and I had a negative view of getting distinctions in mathematics & mechanics…after I read this article im gonna be optimistic every time I study…I know I’ll get distinctions
Hello David, I am Basani , I’m a second year student @ rosebank college Johanesburg in Public relation (diplom a) since u know that my course has plenty of theory while aiming 90+u article came to my rescure.I am confident now that I will achieve my goals after your methods of studying..thanks
Hi hi,thank you so much for your advice and sharing your secrets.i know that with the things i know now i will defnitly be a great succes.xoxo
Hi David
I found your article very positive and motivational. I understand what you are saying, but I do not feel in full control. I struggle with writing assignments, and it is crucial to do well to get into honors in Psychology. I am studying through USQ. Any advice?
Looking forward to hear from you.
Kind regards
Annelie Peusschers
Hi Annelie,
The first thing to note is that I wrote this article from an engineering background, where the assessment style is fundamentally different (i.e. very quantitative, rather than essay-style responses). This may suggest that point #2 is not as relevant for you as for me, but I’d disagree with this first impression and suggest a few things.
My understanding of USQ is that it’s a relatively small university, just like Newcastle. You should therefore find that the majority of the lecturers/coordinators are more than happy to address your concerns one-on-one. I would start by attempting to “finish” assignments as quickly as possible (i.e. start as soon as you get them), and then email your lecturer a draft copy asking for feedback on particular points. As you’ve shown enthusiasm by diving in early and already attempting the question, you’ll get much more useful/specific feedback then the masses of students saying “I have no idea how to start”.
If your main issue is with the “writing” and not understanding the course content, perhaps it’s worth investigating if USQ has essay/academic writing support services. A very quick Google search returned this:
http://www.usq.edu.au/learningcentre/smarthinking
Long story short, never feel ashamed in asking for help. The worst someone can do is refuse, and you’ll find this is very (very) rarely the case.
– David
Thank you very much for such wonderful words of encouragement,I learnt a lot from this blog,especially tip no:3,I will certainly utilise this information in future as I want to study accounting sciences @ Unisa,after reading this,I’m confident that I will do my best,again thank you.
Thanks for the advice, I try to summarise my work, but I will try to summarise from my memory.
Im a grade 12 learner…i have found diz grd so deficlt i ddnt knw wat 2 do…i dnt do bad thngz bt de prblm abt abt me z 2 study…i alwyz lv thngz in a mddle bcz i get tyad nd i slp….aftr readnd dz atticle it motvatd me a lot surely i wl chnge de way i do thngz…
1st yer student at UNISA corresponding in programming in public procurement supply management 23 yrs old married.Your time keeping & over_perfoming in assigments are two advises i intend keeping.thanx alot
I Thank you for the most powerful & brighter words,im just about to enter Matric & i was so desperate for getting distinctions but now you have gaven me the best principles & im so grateful
As a 2nd year medical student, I cannot say how useful this blog is. I’ve also noticed that when you associate yourself with people who aim high and not just for a pass, your motivation to do well increases, in the fear that you might be the only one in the group who hasn’t done well. However, I’m not sure if this kind of competition is unhealthy? Any insight?
Thanks for the advice, it really has made me change from a fail to a decent pass, now to aim higher
Thanks a MILLION for the advice!! You are a lifesaver
Thanks heaps for your knowledge. It’s motivational…. I need it atm
Thank you for sharing your success tools.I am a primary school teacher in South Africa evrytime I go for my exam Itell my learners then two to three weeks down the line they ask me how I have performed I am get around the 70+ output,I then report back my performance ,they’d follow-up with a question that keeps me on my toes Why didnt you
get the total amount that was required in your exams.or atleast 90+?
So your advice is helpful in that I will report to my PRIMARY JUDGES ,THAT MY PERFORMANCE HAS IMPROVED WAY BEYOND EXPECTATION!!!
They {my LEARNERS] are my sunshine!!!! I look forward to seeing them everyday .I feel so lucky to have them in my life!!
Thanks once more for sharing your skills
INGRID.
Thank you for the kind words, Ingrid. I’m glad that my article has been useful for you!
Thanks for the helpful hints. I love this blog and will be looking out for new posts again.
No problem, thank you for the kind words! For the time being, I will be aiming to post 1 new article per week, so please keep checking back, and spread the word!
Thanks for sharing!
No problem, Daphne!
This is so helpful. Thanks a lot for posting it.
No problem, Jack! Glad I could be of assistance
i love your blog, i have it in my rss reader and always like new things coming up from it.
Thank you! I’m just trying to help out students by providing some insight to the lessons I’ve learned (often the hard way) over the last 4 years. This is a very new website, so please help me reach out to a larger audience by suggesting your friends/colleagues take a look
There will be many more articles to come, both providing advice to students and covering aspects of my major research projects.