In my last post, I wrote about how the beginning of the new calendar year is a good time to set study skills goals, even though the new calendar year falls in the middle of the school year, and could fall at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a grading period, depending on how your school’s calendar is arranged. In this post, I will continue to focus on goal setting by providing you another opportunity to look at your grading periods, to see what improvements you’ve made from one grading period to the next, what you will do to continue to improve as a new grading period begins or approaches, and how the New Year’s resolutions you make will fit in to your plans for your new grading period, as well as for your school year as a whole. Since the new calendar year falls either at or near the halfway mark of the school year for just about everyone, it is a good time not only to make New Year’s resolutions that include making improvements to your study skills, it is also a good time to look again at how your grading periods are structured to see how best to use the time that remains to you to make this school year the best it can be.
If your school calendar has you starting a new grading period this week, remember what I have already said about a new grading period giving you a fresh start, and apply your New Year’s resolution to improve your study skills with that in mind. New quarters, trimesters, and/or semesters all have a very important thing in common: your grades start again from zero, so the only way to go is up. Whether you’ve chosen to focus your goal or goals on improving your grades in a subject or two or on a skill to improve across multiple subjects, keep in mind that focusing on your goals at the beginning of a grading period and applying them consistently throughout will give you the best chance to see improvement at the end of the grading period and have something to build on for the grading period or periods that remain for the rest of the year. Write or type reminders to yourself to follow through on your goals, and make sure you put them where you will remember to read them! Each time you refer to them, take action – commit more study time to that challenging subject, try out a new study method, participate more in class, ask your teacher for help – one positive step at a time, one reminder at a time. The more you do it, the more you will be able to do, and the more you are able to do, the more progress you will see.
If your school calendar has you still in the middle of a grading period or approaching the end of one, make sure you do what you can to apply your New Year’s resolution study skills goals to the grading period you’re in, no matter how little difference you think they might make before you receive your grades. Even if they only manage to raise the affected grade or grades by a point or two, every little bit counts, since your year-end average will include your grades from each grading period. Having some time left in the current grading period will also give you the opportunity to apply your new goals and make them part of your study skills routine, so that when you get the benefit of a fresh start in the new grading period, you will be ready and willing to become more consistent with your new goals. If you haven’t already done so, make sure you start to follow the advice I gave in the preceding paragraph no later than the first week of your new grading period – even if you have to wait for it, the fresh start your new grading period will give you will be well worth the wait.
No matter where you are in both your school year and on your study skills journey, remember what I said in my last post about not making your New Year’s resolutions and study skills goals too big, too unrealistic, or too dependent on what other people think. Make sure the goals you set can be reevaluated frequently. No matter how your school’s calendar is structured or how much time remains to you to make improvements, remember that every grading period, month, week, day, and class period offers you another chance to focus anew and try again to make progress. Trying to fix too much too soon because you fear running out of time or letting yourself or others down will only frustrate you more and make real progress seem unattainable. That kind of mindset is exactly what torpedoes New Year’s resolutions so quickly. In order to not let that happen to your study skills goals, remember that you can always reevaluate and readjust your goals. Keep what works and change what doesn’t, and most of all, if something doesn’t work, don’t be too hard on yourself! Knowing you can always change what isn’t working will keep you focused on continuing to improve and build on what is working, which will in turn help you make more progress and achieve greater success.