Year 10 is the time to identify your strengths and interests. Find out what subjects’ interest you, and perhaps what type of careers you might want to do in the future. My experience is that if you do your best to identify your favourite subjects in year 10, you will be able to make informed decisions for choosing your subjects in year 11 and 12. Also start considering your options after High School. Finding something you want to pursue after High School is a great motivator for the years ahead. Signing up to Flinders Explorer is an excellent start!
Year 11 is your chance to lock in good study habits and routines for year 12. Treat this year very seriously; the more you study this year the easier next year will be. Talk to your teachers and other adults about the best way you can prepare for the academic years ahead at school. You should also work out your balance of social and academic commitments, so you don’t burn out from too much study, or so you don’t fall behind! Keep in touch with the University through the Flinders Explorer or by looking out for the career events held during the year. You’ll thank yourself next year if you work hard this year!
Year 12 is considered one of the toughest and most important years in your life. Why? Because if you don’t do well, your life will fall apart, your hair will fall out, you will have no money, no food, no one will like you and your parents will probably disown you. Am I right? Of course not!The truth is, year 12 is just another year and it should be treated just as that. In fact, it’s a great year, you’re presented with an awesome opportunity to pick your subjects, to build stronger friendships and become just that little bit more independent.
Below are my 3 tips for the school year ahead of you.
- Make sure you have a strong support network. Whether it be with your parents, siblings, friends or teachers, make sure you have some people to talk to, who can help keep you on track. Admittedly, your resolve can be tested during the year, so having a support network is very important.
- Enjoy learning. “Better to have a short life, that is full of what you like doing – than a long life that is spent in a miserable way”. Doesn’t the idea of spending an entire year, studying something that you don’t really like sound crazy? Treat class time as something you want to do! Build friendships, venture outside of your normal group of friends and say hello to every person in your class when you sit down. Also, when you pick an assignment, get creative. Assignments are great because they give you some freedom to research and learn about something that interests you. Choosing something that interests you will not only make that assignment more fun, but it will help you to achieve a better grade.
- Thirdly, and probably most importantly, don’t be afraid of failure. Every mistake you make is merely a stepping stone to success. We’re meant to make mistakes, it’s human! At the accounting firm where I work, we don’t call mistakes “mistakes”, we call it “experience”. I can honestly tell you that I make dozens of mistakes every day, I’ve messed up major assignments and once said “okay bye, love you”, at the end of a conversation with my boss. What’s important is not whether you make a mistake, but how you learn from it and how you recover from it.
Good luck for the year ahead!