I originally wrote this article for Seton Magazine back in August 2017, and it was published by the Bayley Bulletin in January 2018. Whether, you live in Australia and have just started the year, or in America and currently half way through your school year, I hope some of these tips will help you out. 😉

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Weeks behind in school?  And just don’t know what to do to catch up? Here are some of my tips for catching up when you’re really behind in high school!

For several reasons, I didn’t have access to my online Science course until late October one year.

As an Australian, and the school year starts in early February and ends in early December, so you can see there wasn’t much of a chance I could complete the course in the one and a half months we had left of the school year.

I did what I could then, but didn’t get far with it.

So, the next year, I resolved to finish it as soon as I could, and I am happy to say I have since then completed the course! I hope that at least some these tips will help you to catch up!

1. Do one subject until you’ve caught up.

This won’t work for everyone, but I have found that focusing on the one subject until I’ve caught up is much easier than doing little bits here and there and not accomplishing the work you were hoping to get done.

For example, with the Science course, I ended up putting all my other work aside for about 2 weeks and worked on that until I finished it; it was exhausting, but definitely worth it!

However, if doing only one subject causes you to fall behind on all your others substantially, then try to do one subject by itself for a week, even if you don’t catch up by then, you’ll have some out of the way.

2. Read the whole chapter in one day.

I can’t emphasize how much this helps! Instead of taking the assigned week (or however long it’s supposed to take), you simply read the whole chapter; take notes do the review questions, etc., all in one day.

First, this saves time (which is what you want!), and second, I found it helped me to remember the material better. Hand-writing out the review questions and any other notes is something I would recommend. I mean, yes, you get a sore hand by the time you’re done, but it’s supposed to be more beneficial for memory retention than typing all the answers up on a computer. I would say it makes it totally worth it!

Also, use note cards! They’ve helped me so much when trying to remember different concepts and other things for tests!

Finally, the next day, take the test and repeat the process!

Now, this method may not necessarily work for say History, as an example, as there is far more material to learn per chapter and so much more to remember for tests.

However, I’m sure you could still read the chapter and do the review in one day, but then perhaps take an extra day or two to review for the test. It might not work for you, but give it a try!

3. Find a quiet place to study with minimal distractions.

I know quite a few people would recommend going to your local library, or even a university library (which I’m sure are great suggestions!). But if you’re like me, neither of those are an option because we don’t have a library in our town, or a university! So, if you can find a quiet place to study in, such as a quiet spare room/area, or even somewhere in your backyard, then, by all means, take advantage of it!

I recently had the chance to move my desk into our study, and I’ve found if I’m studying for tests that it’s a great to do it in quiet. Because even if you have just two younger siblings, I can guarantee they provide noise and distraction at least some of the time.

Stay tuned for next week’s part 2 of this post.

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Feel free to comment down below! Do you have any other tips that you would like to add to this?