In every stage of life, whether you're in high school, college, or already navigating the demands of work or postgraduate studies, academic success comes with its own set of challenges. But what really helped us drive as students? And what can hold us back no matter how driven we are? Hi there! In this video, we will explore the strategies, challenges, and experiences of three academically inclined individuals.
One from secondary school, one from college, and one from postgraduate studies. Through academic insights we aim to understand what helps and what hinders academic success through different stages of life. Let's get started! To start, please introduce yourself by stating your name and the school that you are currently attending or have attended. I am Hazel Jarreas.
Hi, my name is Sofia Isabel Arellano. Good day. I'm Ariste Udosho, a grade 12 STEM engineering student from Fidelis Senior High. And now I'm currently a first year college student at De La Salle University Manila campus. I am a graduate of eight colleges, so from senior high school to...
to college and currently I am a senior high school teacher. Let's start with something positive. What strategies have best worked for you in your academic journey? I usually study at night because everyone is asleep and it's quiet which helped me focus better. I study for about one to two hours then take a 15 to 20 minutes break to avoid burnout.
I also use a daily to-do list and schedule specific time for studying which improve my time management. I'm also the type of person who tends to cram because I feel more motivated, but I don't recommend it as it can lead to mental instability or burnout, something I've experienced myself. So the strategy that I do every single time or it's the best for me, it really works for me as a student right now, is arranging all of my tasks or backlogs, ranking it from easiest to the hardest.
So basically I'm gonna do all the things that are easy first for me and then I'm gonna do the hard ones at the end the reason why i do that is because easy tasks requires Less energy, less amount of time, and less effort. Your brain doesn't need to think really hard when doing easy tasks, right? So accomplishing them first would be time-efficient for me than doing the hard ones first.
Because when you do the hard ones first, you're gonna get tired right away. You're gonna get drained. You're gonna say, Oh, I don't have a brain to do this anymore. And then the other tasks, you're gonna do it the next day. Because you're already tired doing the hard ones first.
I feel like it's more time efficient for me to do the easy ones first up until the hard ones. So for me, the best method or strategy that best works for me is the mnemonic. Even before, during my college or when I was still in college, mnemonic talaga. Every time na magre-review ako for exam and just like what I did during the board exam. mnemonics.
On the flip side, have you tried any strategies or study methods that didn't work for you? We'd love to hear about what didn't go so well and why it didn't work when you're in style. One strategy I tried that didn't work out for me was studying with musics that had lyrics.
It distracted me and made it hard to concentrate. I also tried multitasking like studying while watching TV or browsing my phone but it lowered my focus and end up not retaining much information. So the strategy that did not work for me as a student ever since I was in high school it's not really affected to me at all is the pomodoro technique i know that that it's weird because some people most people especially students find pomodoro technique as effective efficient time convenient but for me it's not i tried it before it's not really effective for me i get distracted easily and i feel like the break of five minutes is really short with the time you consumed in studying it feels short and it drains me because you're gonna spend a lot of time studying and you only have five minutes break and i like handling my time on my own that's when i realized that i like handling time on my own rather than having a timer for myself like i will handle my break if how long will i have my break or how long will i study for this certain subject and then i realized that My mind gets tired easily so having a lot of 30 minutes directly, it's not for me. So Pomodoro is not for me.
It's not really effective for me. I always look for something in social media and what I think worked for me is that it sticks to my back. The notes. So I'm into mnemonics. Now let's talk about the overall experience.
What would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of being academically inclined? Being academically inclined has its pros and cons. On the positive side, you often get good grades, understand lessons easily, and have more opportunities like scholarships or awards.
People may also look up to you or ask for help. However, it can also bring pressure to always perform well, which can be stressful and tiring. Sometimes others expect too much from you and you forget to have fun and enjoy your teenage life. So based from my observation and my experience, the pros of being an academically inclined first would be the praises, the recognition from your parents, family, friends. Classmates, teachers, and even strangers.
Because being academically inclined automatically means you're smart. Being academically inclined means that you have these achievements, you have these rewards. That some people, or I mean every people would be proud of you.
And also, being academically inclined means that you have these traits. Such as being a... being good in problem solving you have this problem solving skills you have this critical thinking skills you have discipline you have a good mindset you have a good study habits like that and then the pros and the cons rather the cons would be more on the pressure that you will feel because when you're academically inclined most probably those academically and inclined students are straight A students. There are...
There are a lot of achievements. There are consistent honors students like me. So like the pressure is on. One time, I lost my honors and then disappointment came to me.
And that's the cons. I feel like your mental health will be damaged at some point when you're academically inclined. Because people would have a lot of expectations on you when you're smart. And when you fail... it will feel like everyone would be disappointed to you and the constant of being academically inclined too much if too much should be academically inclined would mean that there are no social life which is bad it should be balanced like your academic life and social life it should be balanced so too much studying can make you go crazy so i feel like there's a cons for being too much For me personally, the pros of being academically inclined is you make yourself proud and particularly your family and then the person too.
The expectations on you. On the other hand, those expectations will also be their cons. Because if you don't meet their expectations, you're also scared. You become grade conscious when you have a lot of friends because you think, for example, you only have one quiz and you got a good score or you're not satisfied. Until you finish the quarter, you think about that.
So I guess that's what will be her cons when she becomes grade conscious. Let's talk about performance grades for a moment. How do your strengths and weaknesses affect your performance? My personal strengths like being focused and organized help me stay on track. with my studies and complete tasks on time.
However, my weaknesses such as getting easily overwhelmed by too many tasks or procrastinating can sometimes affect my academic performance. These challenges make it harder to manage deadlines that leading to stress or rush work. Okay, so let's start first with my personal strength. It affects my academic performance by applying those strengths to achieve excellence in academics and further enhance those strengths with the help of the university where I'm currently studying. Those strengths are the reason why I do get such high grades and gives me an excellent academic standing in college.
My personal weaknesses naman, it affects my performance in a way na it do slows down my performance and progress in academics. And those weaknesses is something that is hard to get rid of, let's be honest. But it can be an opportunity.
they improve and turn those weaknesses into strengths that can make you a much better student. For me, I always look for something in a positive way. For example, even though the deadlines are very hard or the deadlines are very tight, I always think about looking for something positive. So my weakness personally is Studying consistently can be tough, especially with all distractions on.
What do you do to stay focused? I make sure to create a quiet and free environment. I also turn off my notification and use Do Not Disturb. to avoid distractions. I also break my study time like one to two hours with short breaks of 15 to 20 minutes to keep my mind fresh that can help me stay on track.
Okay so there are two things that I always do while I'm studying especially during midterms and final season in our school. So first is first things first is I turn on my do not disturb mode in my phone so that there would be no notifications from Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, TikTok. Because social media is my number one distraction when it comes to studying.
And then I turn off my phone. Like, sometimes I'm gonna power it off so that I will not check my phone from time to time. And then I put it away from my table.
I put it away from me somewhere far that I cannot reach easily. Second is, I make sure that my mind is relaxed first. Like, I will do, I will eat first, I will take a bath, I make sure that my surroundings are clean. Because if my surroundings are not clear, it's not clean, I'm gonna get distracted.
So, I do the things first that will make my mind at ease first before I go study. I will be more focused by doing those things. For me, I'm really far from my cellphone.
Because I personally don't like notes or when I'm reviewing or studying on gadgets. Because the tendency is that I scroll something on social media. That's why I'm doing it far away. And I'm more on, for example, when I'm reviewing, it's hard copy.
Thank you to all our interviewees for sharing their strategies and experiences with us today. And before we wrap up, we'd love to hear your takeaways from our conversation today. A major takeaway for me is how different strategies can work for different people.
I agree. I think it's clear that some methods worked well with certain individuals. Others had to adjust and find ways. Absolutely.
The important thing is to stay open to trying new things and learn from what doesn't work. And with that, we would like to thank our interviewees for taking their time with us today. Thank you!