People ask me all the time...
how much study should i do in year 12? I say to them 4 hours a night, every night! Then I tell them I'm kidding.
Ok, before I respond directly to that question, let me tell you a few things...
I have spoken to heaps of ex-VCE students who have achieved over 95 ENTER score, and from what I have gathered, 95% of them studied less than 6 hours a week.
What equates to about an hour a night on average.
This is obviously just during the year and not around exam time.
Around exam time, things are "slightly" different.
Think about it this way...
If you knew that you had a race to run in the Olympics in 4 weeks, would you do things differently to if that race was going to be run in 4 years? Obviously you would, so around exam time, every bit of your time should be geared towards kicking ass in the exams.
We'll talk about that later on in the year.
When I was in yr 12, I don't remember actually doing that much work until exam time.
I'm sure I did something, maybe a couple of hours a week, but as far as I remember, I was playing golf and playing video games almost every day.
So, to answer the question of how much study should YOU do in year 12? My real answer is...
It DOESN'T MATTER! Results matter, not how long you study for! Ultimately, you want results, right? If you had a choice of studying 3 hours a week or 30 hours a week to get the same result, which one would you choose? Most people would go with the 3 hours, but it surprises me that some strange individuals would go with the 30 hours, as if they "earned" their results more so that way.
If you're like me, you want to minimise your study time and maximise your results! Seriously, I have loads of other things I rather do, and plus, I hate studying, and I hate homework.
(Don't tell anyone that tho, it's our secret!) So, the real secret here is what results you aim for.
It's all about creating goals for yourself.
If you aimed for eg.
95 ENTER score, and that you have that as a standard for yourself, then you will reach that.
If your aim is to sit on your ass for 4 hours a night staring at your books, I cannot say you will do well or not.
Your energy is not focused on creating results, but to sit on your ass for four hours.
I have known students studying for four hours a night and scored below average.
Just don't do that! Do you think it would take a bit more work for a C student to suddenly achieve a 95 ENTER than an A+ student to get a 95? Most likely.
So here's my tip...
Create a vision of a goal for yourself.
Something that isn't easy to achieve.
Takes no guts to do what's easy.
Someone once remarked, if it's easy, it ain't worth doing.
Create a goal that pushes you to what's uncomfortable, what will certainly make you grow as a person.
And here is the second step, and this is the real secret.
If it's easy for you, do it easy.
If it's hard, do it hard, but do it.
(this is the secret to life, this is what gives you esteem, pride.
Not ego.
) Do whatever it takes to get your results, your goals.
Get the job done.
It doesn't matter if you spend 3 minutes or 30 hours to understand a certain concept, just get it done.
(Obviously there are easier ways to learn, eg.
A friend explaining things may take 3 minutes, reading text books may take 30 hours.
) Leaders do not do what's comfortable.
But they grow as a result of that.
If you can do this, if you can step up and give it everything you've got, when it seems impossible, that's when you will grow the most.
It's like everyone else is lifting 10kg and you're lifting 100kg! You will build more muscle than anyone else! So in the future, when a challenge comes up and no one knows what to do, you can step up and handle it.
Because you have muscle, emotion and spiritual muscle to handle what seems tough to others.
So it really doesn't matter how much you study, it matters what standard you hold yourself to.
Remember, if it's hard, do it hard.
If it's easy, do it easy.
But just do it.
Do whatever it takes to get the job done.
When you start to come from this mentality, you'll find that you can decrease how much you spend studying by a huge amount!