WRITING matric today is a lot more pressured than it used to be, said registered counsellor, Kirsten Harrison.
With a special interest in higher education as well as trauma, Harrison addressed the recent student hacks webinar hosted by the South African College of Applied Psychology (Sacap).
She said the matric class of 2021 was under additional stresses brought about by the global pandemic.
“It’s a life-changing time, writing these final school exams marks the end of the school era and the anticipation of a different life ahead which is filled with uncertainties,” said Harrison.
“There’s a demand to perform at your peak in the midst of a storm of expectations, hopes and fears. The good news is that you don’t have to be at the mercy of all this. There are practical ways that you can manage your matric experience, and putting these strategies into practice brings about growth and competence in facing challenges in life.”
Harrison highlighted how repetitive learning was not enough to pass matric, and unpacked the importance of finding the study approach that best worked for you.
“The idea behind repetitive learning is to strengthen the memory of a concept by practising and rehearsing it multiple times. While this can be helpful to memorise, it doesn’t help with understanding and being able to apply concepts.
“A person can also spend eight hours reading and re-reading a paragraph, but this doesn’t mean that they have engaged in effective learning and will actually retain that information. This type of learning can also teach a regurgitation of the information rather than being able to apply it to answer questions effectively during exams.”
Harrison said a good starting point was to be curious about the different study approaches out there and follow a trial-and-error process until you met one that fits.
“Reflect on past study approaches you have used. Think about when you felt the most confident. First, finding out what type of learner you are is helpful to see which technique might be the most effective.”
She said there were sites that offered resources to help pupils figure this out. These include: HowToStudy.com or Thestudygurus.com
“There are a variety of techniques and approaches out there. I will outline three. The first one is ’interval studying’, which is based on the premise that when you are first exposed to a concept you learn 80% of the new content, if you revise it in the 24 hours following first exposure. This helps you understand the content, as opposed to trying to cram as much into your memory. The idea with interval studying is that you break up the content based on how the brain retains information.
“The Feynman method is also a helpful one, where the aim is to explain the concept you wish you learn, as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old.
“A third option could be to quiz yourself with practice questions. This is helpful as it assists your brain in retaining the information in relation to how it may be asked,” said Harrison.
For more tips and to access recordings of both the learner and parent webinars, visit SACAP’s YouTube channel here.
*The examinations were initially scheduled to start on November 1. This was recently amended to October 27 due to the Municipal elections which will take place on November 1. According to the revised time table, the finals will still wrap up on December 7.