Study Tips for Teens
by Amanda Charles
As the end of the year draws closer, many teens are facing assignments and exams and many parents are wondering how they can help their child successfully navigate this stressful time. Here are five important tips for helping your teen get organised and motivated for study...
Tip 1 - Create a study area
This will be a quiet location with minimal distractions such as television, younger siblings, and so on. Ideally your teen should have his or her own desk where papers, books and pens can be set out for study. Having a noticeboard on the wall with schedules, important dates, assignment overviews and so on will be a big help and regular visual reminder of what needs to be done and when. Make sure the chair is suitable for your child's height and comfortable for long periods of study.
Tip 2 - Routine, routine, routine
If you have encouraged your child to develop regular study habits from a young age, then the routine should be working well at this stage. If not, it's never too late to develop routine study habits as it's a useful lifelong skill. When does your teen work best? It's no use forcing your son or daughter to sit down and study straight after school if he or she is too wound up and in need of burning off some excess energy from the day's activities. Such a child might benefit from quieter times in the evening to concentrate and focus on studies. Alternatively, your child might maintain a 'study' frame of mind straight after school and find this time works best to continue the day's studies. Whatever the best time, ensure it is a regular time each day. The brain will soon adjust to the particular time of day and be ready to do focused mental study.
In the teen years, more and more study time is required of them outside of school. This can be very draining on your child, so allow plenty of breaks - chances for him or her to stretch the legs, drink plenty of water and get a few minutes of fresh air.
Tip 3 - Plan it out in detail
Planning is essential for completing assignments on time and being fully prepared for exams. It is all too easy to put off working on something when it seems so far away, but soon that due date will be only days away and panic will set in. This can be avoided by having a calendar on the wall with key dates (assignment due dates and exam dates, times and locations) clearly marked in a bold colour such as red or green (red often has a negative connotation so that is why I recommend an alternative such as green). Usually these dates will be added to a student diary but it's highly recommended to have the study calendar on the wall because it is so readily visible not only by your child, but by mum and dad who can check on the child's progress towards those impeding dates.
On the day a due date/exam date is received, count how many weeks between now and that date. Divide the time into chunks such as a week to gather information and resources, a week to work on a draft copy, and a week to finalise the assignment. In the case of exams, you could divide the weeks into chapters to be revised or areas of study to cover. I have created a monthly study planner where information for each subject can be entered in weekly overviews. There are three subjects per page so you would print two copies for six subjects, for example.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Monthly Study Planner
(Click to open or right-click and 'Save Target As...').
The monthly planner can then guide a detailed weekly planner where actual pages or chapters to read can be noted on a per-day basis. Your teen can also break weekly tasks down into smaller tasks, e.g. finding the key questions for their assignment, planning their assignment structure, taking notes from a particular book, going to the library to research, writing a draft for one aspect of their assignment, and so on. For exams, your teen might note particular pages of their textbook to review on particular days, set up practice exam questions, review key points and questions from their textbooks and notes, and so on. The key to using such a planner is being able to spread out tasks across all subjects so the work is not overwhelming. Days that are not available for study can be crossed off and the planning slotted into the remaining days.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Weekly Study Planner
(Click to open or right-click and 'Save Target As...').
Tip 4 - Be creative and use colour
That's right. You might be surprised to see such a heading, but it can be an invaluable tool for helping your teen study, especially for exams. Provide a range of coloured markers, highlighters and paper. Encourage your child to rewrite their notes in the form of a 'concept map' using a range of colours. For example...
Usually notes are written in linear fashion, line after line down the page. This isn't very helpful for the brain. The brain makes links between concepts and some people are especially visual in their learning so drawing images could help them learn some of the vital information needed for their exams. Concept maps can be done in many ways, but generally you would write the topic/key word in the centre of the page. Lines would then extend out to sub-topics or key ideas related to the larger concept, and so on - very much like a web. Creating these webs can help your child put concepts together and help with revision of key ideas and information. Using different colours for different sub-concepts can also help the brain remember different bits of information. Encourage your teen to try it out and be creative as he or she likes. Perhaps they would benefit from poster-size sheets of paper which they could place on the wall for revision.
Basically, anything your teen does to organise their notes in a different way can help with studying for exams. So for instance, allowing them to type some key notes on the computer using different coloured fonts, or printing in black ink but using a range of highlighters to draw attention to main points can be beneficial. Adding additional notes in the margins individualises the study notes even more.
Tip 5 - Provide support and encouragement
Often the issue of homework, assignments and exams can be a source of conflict between parents and children. Rather than telling your teen what he or she should and shouldn't be doing, try becoming involved by asking questions in a supportive manner and in turn having your teen take responsibility for what does or doesn't get done. If assignments are marked in a visible place as mentioned above, you can pop in and see how they are going. Ask your teen to describe what is required, where the assignment/study stands and what else is needed to get it completed. If they are running behind, rather than criticise your teen, offer to help plan out what is needed to get it done on time, using any of the tips mentioned above. It's also nice to acknowledge your son or daughter's hard work, perhaps by occasionally turning up with a cup of hot chocolate and providing a few words of empathy or encouragement.
This time of year can be a stressful time for all involved, but by utilising ideas such as those provided in this article you can work to make the experience a little easier on the whole family.
These tips are also relevant for higher education studies and beyond.