Guide
Top 5 Strategies to Set Top Students Apart
Students often fall in despair when seeing loads of homework and looking at their tight schedules. So, it’s natural to be surprised by how some of their peers manage this immense workload, have an excellent state of health, sleep at night, and still have some free time for fun and relaxation.
It’s indeed awe-inspiring but really accomplishable, as more experienced experts from Educibly, a paper writing service, (former straight-A students) share in this post.
#1 Fall in Love with What You Do
The main secret to success is to love what you do and be sincerely interested in the subject you’re learning. What’s the value of sitting and complaining about the dull math task? Or how can you progress in Literature if you hate reading? All these student reactions are natural because students are heavily overloaded with educational and non-educational tasks. So, every new assignment they get is another nail in the coffin of their psychological balance.
But fancy that it’s all only in your mind. Hating home tasks will never make them more manageable, while their completion is mostly unavoidable. Otherwise, you can approach the new assignment with an excitement of a young, adventurous researcher. Act like a detective, trying to discover the hidden facts and intriguing details about some concept, process, or theory.
Get fascinated by the life of a famous biologist, thus presenting an exciting, attention-grabbing research paper about his discoveries and contribution. It’s all about your attitude; we all do something we don’t like slower, and more reluctantly, while activities bringing us joy are quick and hassle-free. So, why not make your homework enjoyable?
#2 Track Your Time
Effective time management is always a bonus for a top-performing student. If you want to succeed in multiple domains of student life (e.g., attending lectures, doing homework, participating in joint projects, doing some sports, keeping your apartment tidy, etc.), you need thorough planning. Focus on the most urgent and most important tasks first, completing the most challenging things at the beginning of the day.
All the rest will go easier if you feel a sense of accomplishment after finishing arduous tasks. Besides, you can plan entertainment and rest much easier once you’re done with top priorities, as the rest of the tasks gets much more flexible.
Another helpful tip is to divide your day into chunks and fill them with the type of work you do the best in this period so that you achieve maximum productivity. To use this approach effectively, you need to know your circadian rhythms and understand your productivity peaks. This way, you’ll be better positioned to distribute tasks flexibly.
For instance, if you’re an owl, plan the household chores for the daytime and sit down to study in the evening. If you’re an early bird, then don’t waste your top productivity time on breakfast or gym workout; complete the challenging home tasks while your brain is fresh and your body is energetic, doing all the rest in the afternoon.
#3 Ak for Help
The primary skill of all top-performing students is to understand it clearly when they need to ask for help. It’s vital not to try to handle everything on your own as your body resources are finite. Thus, by draining yourself and studying days and nights, you’ll soon experience a complete breakdown, which often happens on the eve of exams or essay submissions.
If it happens to you, you won’t be able to study for some time at all, trying to put yourself together and revive the inner energy. So, why push yourself to extremes if you can team up with peers, clarify some troubling points with your professor, or order essays from an external provider? It’s necessary to make strategic decisions when the time is scarce, so delegating some assignments to others, leaving time for other pressing priorities, is an excellent decision in periods of educational emergencies.
#4 Do Everything in Due Time
Procrastination is the worst companion of students; nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of students of all courses suffer from this problem. You tend to think that tomorrow will be a much better day for completing all home tasks, while today is the best time to watch TV or go out with friends. But the bitter truth is that tomorrow will bring new social pleasures and tasks, and your workload will pile up without being adequately handled.
At the end of the semester, you may realize that ten essays and three projects should be submitted in 48 days. Is that a manageable workload for two days? We seriously doubt that! Was it doable within three months? Sure, it was, but who cares when there is so much time ahead?
A great solution to combat procrastination is to set strict deadlines for yourself and reward yourself with some social activities or entertainment only after you do some work. It’s so pleasant to get a pizza and go to the movies after the task is done and you’re free.
#5 Appropriate Feedback
Using feedback to your benefit is the right approach for well-performing students. Instead of feeling broken and disappointed by a low grade, look through all errors carefully and work them through. If you oust those gaps in knowledge and don’t make those mistakes again, the professor will give you a much higher grade next time.
It also relates to getting poor feedback on your essay draft or speech. You should keep in mind why you approached another person for feedback and opinion. Probably, you’re unsure of the quality of your text and want to have it improved? In this case, honest feedback will be of much help. Otherwise, if you were looking only for odes and praises of your genius, bad feedback may be of no help. So, be open-minded and don’t treat negative feedback as a personal offense.
Top Performance Is Rewarding
As you can see, top performance requires discipline and a positive mindset. Once you develop a healthy attitude and focus on your goal, even the most demanding workload will become manageable. Good luck!