Studying so hard it hurts

Phoebe Harrop, 17, surfs the study websites and

finds there’s help out there, but first she’s got to get off Bebo 

There’s everything from maths tips and writing techniques, to two

that belong together: procrastination and spelling long words

It's 15 October, 2008.

There’s exactly one month to go before the dreaded NCEA exams begin. Right,

it’s time to get studying.

Study. Yep, I’m gonna study. Right now. Yep, now…Er, now.

Alright, to be honest, I have no idea what to do. Should I read my notes?

Write out new ones? Do some practice questions? Actually, that sounds good.

But where do I get some of those? I know — I’ll consult my handy NCEA

handbook! Hmmm, online help — how convenient. I can check my Bebo while

I’m at it… Three hours later, with a decent amount of love shared, I’m all set to

hit the education websites. The www.studyit.org.nz site is up first. I’m slightly

embarrassed to be on a website with the word study in the URL, but

a wee number halfway down the main page tells me that 48 other people

are surfing it too. Yes! I’m not alone in being an internet nerd.

Actually, this looks like a pretty sweet site. The links at the top offer

helpful topics like NCEA requirements, encouragement, subject info, and study

and exam advice. I’m set! There’s even a template to make my own study

timetable. Now that sounds like a good idea. There’s also advice on diet, how

often you should have breaks when you’re revising, and heaps of other

websites with good information. So, basically, anything you ever wanted to

know about exams is available on the net.

But wait, there’s more. Further discovery reveals discussions between

teachers and students on everything from scholarship chemistry (vomit) to an

essay on a James K Baxter poem. Using the drop-down menus, you can find

advice on each paper in science, maths and English, for levels one to three,

and practice papers. There’s even a box with the title ‘E-mail an expert teacher’.

But this is just the beginning. Google ‘better study’ and you’ll get a whole lot of

exciting pages to explore. For instance, there’s www.how-to-study.com. This

sounds amazing. Although this isn’t a New Zealand site, the topics look very

helpful: everything from maths tips and writing techniques, to two that belong

together — procrastination and spelling long words.

And then there’s www.wcl.govt.nz/teens/studygroove.html, which has lists

of study tip links. This is a Kiwi site, but has advice from all over the world.

Further investigation into these links makes me glad (dare I say it) to be doing NCEA.

If we were in England we could be taking up to 12 subjects!

A favourite of mine is the TV3 website. It has a video clip about how iPods help

students study. You see, we knew it all along. Unfortunately, the

website’s idea of ideal revision music isn’t Akon, JT or Britney Spears. Sorry

guys. Bach and Handel composed some pretty sweet songs, though, I promise.

Something that most people struggle with is essay writing. The trouble is,

if you take anything from English to biology to art history you need to be

able to express your thoughts well. Fortunately, if you google ‘how to write

an essay’ you will be bombarded with helpful websites, and any of these will

offer some useful tips. But, of course, you want specific

exam-oriented study websites. One website, for English in particular, that’s

very handy is www.sparknotes.com. It has plot and theme analyses, character

profiles and example essays for hundreds of books, plays, films and poems. And,

yes, even the dreaded Shakespeare is dealt with. There is heaps of information

here about every play our friend William ever wrote. So there is no excuse for

claiming that Shakespeare is too hard to understand. Sparknotes.com breaks it all

down into plain English, making study easy.

A word of warning here, though: don’t be tempted to memorise a practice

essay and reproduce it in the exam. The exam markers will realise you’ve

plagiarised (I learnt that one in ‘how to spell long words’).

Sparknotes.com is a veritable goldmine of study information. There

are ‘study guides’ for biology, chemistry, maths, physics, astronomy and even

computer science, as well as numerous articles on American history (after

all, it’s an American website), and on European history, and biographies of

famous figures in world history. A bit more clicking reveals help

pages for psychology, philosophy, economics and even health. Basically,

this website is the answer to all your prayers, as it has information on almost

everything. You know what? I’m feeling rather inspired by all this. Maybe I’ll go and

make a totally sweet, colour-coordinated study timetable, and a countdown

calendar for the exams. Then I’ll read the Sparknotes about King Lear; do

a practice chemistry exam from the Studyit website; make myself a no-word

music study playlist in iTunes; and write a shopping list for some brain food.

Oh goodness, this is way too exciting.