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What Should You Do When Studying Isn’t Your Forte?

Updated: Oct 28, 2023

I've dealt with quite a few students who were confident that studying wasn't for them. And that could be true for some students, but what I don't want them to do is to define their intelligence by what grades they get because intelligence can be measured with multiple different metric systems. Now, the question becomes then how do I survive through school?


Well, the first and most simple step is to talk to various people, ideally those older than you, and ask them "Why do I need to study?" The reason is that perhpas you're struggling with school because you lack the motivation. I want you to spend time finding someone that can give you answers you need (you may not get one, in which case, you should resort to other ways). Some examples of figures you can reach out to include parents, senior students, counsellor, teacher, principal, coach, manager, or even your boss if you guys are close.


The other thing is I want you to build yourself a

reinforcement (or reward) system in which if you get above a certain mark or spend a certain number hours per day studying, you get a reward for these achievements. These rewards can be in the form of allowance from your parents when you get above a certain mark, or it could be a frappucino to treat yourself to after a 3-hour study session, or it could also be new clothing, accessories or shoes after you get As or higher in more than 3 of your classes

(These are exampless, set realistic goals for yourself). You will have to be proactive with constructing this reward system as it makes an effective tool for motivational purposes. Over the long run, sticking with one reward might bore you, so come up with a variey of rewards to include into the system.

Here are some ideas:

  • Trip abroad or local if you get straight As

  • New equipment for your favourite activities or sports

  • New PlayStation or Switch or other gaming devices

  • Your favourite drink or food

  • Dining out

  • Clothing, accessories

  • Shoes

  • Money for new app you want to install, new games

  • Allowance

  • Day off from studying

  • New book

  • Going to the movies

Obviously, this system has to be reasonable in that you can't be giving yourself a new game for every 3-hour study session. That would only increase the amount of distraction. Be reasonable with your rewards, and make it so that it can be maintained for a long time.


Other thing you must do is to discover what you are interested in. You can't be uninterested in studying AND uninterested in everything else as well. Because this indicates a problem with your attitude and mindset rather than studying simply not being your forte. If you genuinely have no interests, then you need to try out various activities to discover one you like. I personally have tried sports, sewing, cooking, debating, journalling, and more. I eventually discovered that my interest lied in both studying and various sports like tennis and badminton. Cooking and sewing definitely weren't my go-to activities. Then I began to delve deeper into ones I had genuine interest in. And these naturally became part of my reward system wherein I would allow myself extra time for these activities once I've achieved a certain academic goal I set for myself (e.g. playing tennis with my friends one extra day this week, gaming 3-4 extra hours throughout the week, attending one extra cooking class , etc.).


Overall, I want ro remind everyone that academic success doesn't define happiness nor overall success. The so called "book smart" may be some people and the "street smart" may be others. You may belong in the latter category, and if that's the case it is important to accept it and find realistic ways to make a reasonable earning with the skillsets you have. But in the meantime, I do want to encourage you to find strategies for effective studying while you're in school (you might as well) and I want to help all of you stay motivated and succeed.

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