The start of the school year is probably the most hectic time of the year, especially when it is your leaving certificate year. You might be worrying about how you are going to tackle the tremendous amount of workload that will soon head your way. Information is being given to you from every angle, between class materials and Leaving Cert. preparation, to the CAO application form, attending college open days, deciding what you want to do in college and essentially planning the rest of your life! With so much information, it is understandable if you start falling behind on your study time. After all, you have a lot on your mind. In times like this, it is certainly a good idea to start thinking about attending after school tutorials.
After spending eight hours in school, the last thing you probably want to do is spend more time in a classroom environment. However, there are many benefits to attending after school tutorials and it is certainly worth considering investing your time (and your parent’s money!) into.
1. Bridge Knowledge Gaps
Tutorials are a great opportunity to expand your knowledge on a certain subject or to simply catch up on notes. In most tutorials the goal is to tackle the workload at hand, but you can also attend tutorials to simply get a recap over a certain topic that was hard to understand in class. When attending tutorials, see it as an opportunity to boost your knowledge on the subject and pick-up new things that you might not have heard before from your teacher in class. When solely sticking on the notes taken from school the chances of other students handing up work that is very similar to yours is very high, after all, you are all in the same class, being taught by the same teacher. This makes it difficult for your work to stand out. Having extra notes from tutorials at your disposal can help make your notes unique and stand out, both in class and to your teacher. Also, the chances of gaining extra marks are high considering it will be refreshing to see a student putting in the effort as well as presenting it on paper. By using the extra helping hand that you will receive in a tutorial, you could very well bump up your grades from a solid C to a definite A. And yes, jumping two grades by attending tutorials can be shocking, but from personal experience, it is possible! However, these changes cannot happen overnight after attending one tutorial. Your work starts paying off after you invest the time and commitment into your studies. So, it is all down to you!
2. Thinking Positively About Tutorials – The Outcome will be Better
One of the best approaches you could take towards tutorials is to treat it like a regular class at school, class that you have work due for. Have the mentality that it is due first thing at 9.00AM on Monday morning. Do not brush it off to the side since it is technically not really homework. Having equal dedication and determination with tutorials will be beneficial and will be worthwhile in the long run.
3. New Structure to Your Thinking
Tutorials can provide a structure to the student when it comes to study techniques and flow and help develop an effective routine that works for the student. Experts say that it takes 66 days, on average, to form a new habit. Once the 66 days pass, the new habit will be set, leaving little room for procrastination to seep through and helping to increase study productivity.
4. Building Greater Self Discipline
Tutorials also allow people to practice self-discipline. In today’s day and age, social media and technology has become a huge part of our lives, especially for students. People are heavily influenced by social media and quickly find themselves wasting hours on their phones when that time could be better invested doing something that is far more beneficial to you. Being disciplined when it comes to your study habits from an early stage is vital in preparing you for college and the real world. Learning how to avoid procrastination effectively is an important skill to have.
5. The End Justifies the Means
As already mentioned, making use of and attending tutorials can improve your academic performance drastically over time. Of course, nothing comes easy, so a lot of hard work is required on your part.
It is also important to think about what you are trying to achieve by attending tutorials. What are these countless hours being spent in tutorials doing? No one can answer that question but you. When thinking about where you want to go to go college, what course you want to be studying this time next year and what your future might look like, that is when the motivation starts to become more evident as the only outcome of this is the end goal, the dream payoff. With hard work comes improvement of academic performance because realistically it all comes down to grades and again, you.
One way to undoubtedly improve results and make sure what is happening in the classroom is understood, is to look back over your notes. Tutorials are the perfect environment to revise notes, everyone is in their own bubble but nonetheless still have the freedom to ask teachers or supervisors who are on standby any questions that may come up. Quite literally you are getting the best of both worlds in this position. One common mistake that many students make is realising that you do not understand the notes until you are back at home and attempting the homework. In tutorials, you have the freedom and confidence to ask an unlimited number of questions on any topic, despite how long ago the topic was covered.
In summary, tutorials are important to start considering if you want to take the extra step to achieve the desired results to have the best chance of meeting the requirements for your top Pathway recommendations. No matter where you are in the academic year, it is never too late to start attending after school tutorials. Before you know it, the long extra hours eventually start to pay off. You must understand that deciding to make use of after school tutorials brings with it its own challenges, but it is you to you to make it work and pay off. Always remember, what you put in is what you will get back.
To summarise, here are the advantages of taking after school tutorials for your school subjects:
- The opportunity to gain extra material and knowledge for your subjects.
- Having a peaceful and comfortable environment to do your studies, without worrying about any distractions or about procrastinating.
- The freedom to ask an unlimited amount of questions to a teacher without feeling ashamed or embarrassed.
- Learning self-discipline and self-dedication for your studies.
- Easily developing an effective and long-lasting study routine for the year ahead.