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No motivation to study! Help :(

:frown:

All I really need to get into my first choice Uni and do the best subject ever IMO is 85% in 1 Physics exam (G491) and pass the Access2Leeds Module.

But I feel so unmotivated!! I came on TSR for all of 5 minutes, and now 2.5 hours have been procrastinated away!!

I failed my A Levels last year (I got BCC, Maths, Physics, Chem), and didn't get the ABB needed for Leeds Uni and didn't fancy going anywhere that was available through clearing.

I continued with A2 Psychology (I dropped it after doing AS in Year 12 because the workload was too high, although I got an A and everyone told me not to drop it), and retook 2 Maths, 1 Chem, and 1 Physics exam in Jan-the only exam I improved on was 1 of the Maths ones!! Waste of time!!

Now this summer i'm doing 2 Physics exams (G491 & G495) and 2 Psych ones. I've only just started Psych revision (because I'd rather focus on Physics-it's all I need for Uni).

However, I just can't seem to focus!! Because I only have 2 twilight Psychology lessons a week and 1 hour with my form tutor, I spend half the time sleeping til late, and not sleeping in the first place till like 1 or 2am.

I REALLY want to get into Uni, and when I start revision I can do it for a few hours. But I usually start too late (8pm ish), and then obviously feel tired mentally to continue.

I got a tutor (previous Physics teacher) for these summer exams, and that's helped but because I was ill and now she's ill etc I haven't seen her for 3 weeks and it feels like I'm on the brink of failing this exam again.

I don't know what to do, how to motivate myself etc, so any advice would be helpful!!
I haven't started revision for the G495 exam (7 weeks time!!) and feel it's too late. /self-pity-self-wallowing-rant-piece

How do I motivate myself to study? I have so many incentives, but they're all long term (ie: getting into Uni, career, studying something I love etc), but only short-term ones seem to motivate me (ie: going out after doing x topics). Thing is, I can't always have the short term incentives.

Sorry for the essay! I've looked at many websites etc on how not to procrastinate, time-management, motivation etc...but I just seem to waste time looking and nothing seems to help! Any help would be awesome :frown:

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Reply 1
Bump?
Reply 2
First of all know that 7 weeks is not too late, to start - any revision is better than no revision!

Things that help me to study:
- Try not to study with the laptop on, or if you need the laptop to revise then don't leave the internet open where you can easily get distracted by Facebook etc.
- Don't try and multitask, i.e. no TV, loud music
- Try studying in a different environment, where you wouldn't usually have your downtime e.g. I usually chill in the living room, so instead I do my revision in the kitchen
- Make a list of topics/chapters that you need to go over and cross them off as you complete them
- Quiz yourself as you go; see the progress that you're making

Hope this has helped in some way!
Reply 3
Original post by Pwhiskers
First of all know that 7 weeks is not too late, to start - any revision is better than no revision!

Things that help me to study:
- Try not to study with the laptop on, or if you need the laptop to revise then don't leave the internet open where you can easily get distracted by Facebook etc.
- Don't try and multitask, i.e. no TV, loud music
- Try studying in a different environment, where you wouldn't usually have your downtime e.g. I usually chill in the living room, so instead I do my revision in the kitchen
- Make a list of topics/chapters that you need to go over and cross them off as you complete them
- Quiz yourself as you go; see the progress that you're making

Hope this has helped in some way!


Some good points there, thank you!
This is what I do...works a charm!

Take a page and write on it in big letters (so it fills the page) what you're aiming for. For example I'm aiming for good enough grades for Oxford University so I write OXFORD or CORPUS CHRISTI or even print out a picture of the prettiest part of the university I can find.

Stick it up on the wall in front of you, for example above your desk and in your line of sight so any time your attention drifts away from your books, glance up and get freshly motivated!
Ahhh I have the very same problem. :L
- Stay away from anything that distracts you. GTFO TSR!! :biggrin: that includes phone, laptop, internet etc.

- Buy a new revision book, felt tip pens, highlighters and a notepad.

- Create a realistic schedule with plenty of breaks. Say you study for an hour, you can take a 20 minute break. Then you cross off one hour of your schedule. You won't believe how good it feels to know you're one step further.

- Revise in different ways. Don't try and memorise the book, you'll just get bored and do something else. Draw diagrams, use colours, if it helps talk to yourself. Don't worry about someone catching you-- it happens to the best of us :colone:

- Try a different environment, and try and stay clear of noise. That means kidding yourself that you can mulitask- revise and watch TV at the same time.

- Think about what you want in life. Or if you're a cynic, think of the day you open those grades and find E, D, U.

- Quiz yourself at the end of the topic. Or print some past papers and ask your teachers to read your answers.

Good luck!
Reply 6
Original post by La_Mignonne
This is what I do...works a charm!

Take a page and write on it in big letters (so it fills the page) what you're aiming for. For example I'm aiming for good enough grades for Oxford University so I write OXFORD or CORPUS CHRISTI or even print out a picture of the prettiest part of the university I can find.

Stick it up on the wall in front of you, for example above your desk and in your line of sight so any time your attention drifts away from your books, glance up and get freshly motivated!


That is an awesome tip! Thank you :biggrin:

Original post by buildalegohouse
Ahhh I have the very same problem. :L
- Stay away from anything that distracts you. GTFO TSR!! :biggrin: that includes phone, laptop, internet etc.

- Buy a new revision book, felt tip pens, highlighters and a notepad.

- Create a realistic schedule with plenty of breaks. Say you study for an hour, you can take a 20 minute break. Then you cross off one hour of your schedule. You won't believe how good it feels to know you're one step further.

- Revise in different ways. Don't try and memorise the book, you'll just get bored and do something else. Draw diagrams, use colours, if it helps talk to yourself. Don't worry about someone catching you-- it happens to the best of us :colone:

- Try a different environment, and try and stay clear of noise. That means kidding yourself that you can mulitask- revise and watch TV at the same time.

- Think about what you want in life. Or if you're a cynic, think of the day you open those grades and find E, D, U.

- Quiz yourself at the end of the topic. Or print some past papers and ask your teachers to read your answers.

Good luck!


Thank you! The cynic tip is the best :P
Thanks for your help guys!
Gonna GTFO TSR now:colondollar:
Reply 7
Original post by Preetinder

Thanks for your help guys!
Gonna GTFO TSR now:colondollar:


i find it's best to spend the majority of your time not revising! so plan to do exercise every day, like just walking to the park or even going shopping! (walking around shops is exercise!) meet up with friends every few days. plan things for friday or saturday nights like going out for a drink or something.

i've found for motivation, it's the non-work things that you do that are more important than the actual work. when you know you've only got a few hours, you will use them properly. when you've got 8 hours to work, it seems like an infinite amount of time. and you are not going to work for 8 hours, so don't even bother giving yourself that much time! 2-5 hours a day is good. and i always left weekends free, so if i wanted to work i would, but if not, there would be no pressure and i could relax.

keep spending time with friends, it will stop the feeling of mind-numbing boredom. i'm on a gap year and re-did one of my maths exams for a better grade. i found it hard in my last year to motivate myself too, but now i've worked it out better. Good luck, I hope you get into Leeds :smile:
Reply 8
Preetinder, I am exactly the same as you! A chronic procrastinator! However I am moving forwards an abandoning my habits lol... I did find a great free book about this somewhere which really helped me get a new angle on procrastination... it was all about how stress and procrastination are linked, so even if you dont realise you are stressed, then if you are procrastinating you probably are! will try to find you a link
Reply 9
ahh here it is

www.stressintofocus.com


I also had another thought which is that you should try to get yourself in the mood by going out to a cafe to work, that normally makes it more fun for me... even though its less productive because i am ordering coffee and getting distracted a bit, i at least do something!
Reply 10
Original post by canŵio
i find it's best to spend the majority of your time not revising! so plan to do exercise every day, like just walking to the park or even going shopping! (walking around shops is exercise!) meet up with friends every few days. plan things for friday or saturday nights like going out for a drink or something.

i've found for motivation, it's the non-work things that you do that are more important than the actual work. when you know you've only got a few hours, you will use them properly. when you've got 8 hours to work, it seems like an infinite amount of time. and you are not going to work for 8 hours, so don't even bother giving yourself that much time! 2-5 hours a day is good. and i always left weekends free, so if i wanted to work i would, but if not, there would be no pressure and i could relax.

keep spending time with friends, it will stop the feeling of mind-numbing boredom. i'm on a gap year and re-did one of my maths exams for a better grade. i found it hard in my last year to motivate myself too, but now i've worked it out better. Good luck, I hope you get into Leeds :smile:


That's pretty radical, but I do agree with you totally! It's an awesome tip, thank you! It's true-when I've only got a couple hours left before I'm going out somewhere, then I use them alot more reproductively than if I have the whole day! Thanks for that tip :biggrin:

Original post by seasmith
Preetinder, I am exactly the same as you! A chronic procrastinator! However I am moving forwards an abandoning my habits lol... I did find a great free book about this somewhere which really helped me get a new angle on procrastination... it was all about how stress and procrastination are linked, so even if you dont realise you are stressed, then if you are procrastinating you probably are! will try to find you a link



Original post by seasmith
ahh here it is

www.stressintofocus.com


I also had another thought which is that you should try to get yourself in the mood by going out to a cafe to work, that normally makes it more fun for me... even though its less productive because i am ordering coffee and getting distracted a bit, i at least do something!


Thank you for the help and the link! I'll check the link after I've done some revising :wink: But seriously, thank you guys!
Original post by seasmith
ahh here it is

www.stressintofocus.com


I also had another thought which is that you should try to get yourself in the mood by going out to a cafe to work, that normally makes it more fun for me... even though its less productive because i am ordering coffee and getting distracted a bit, i at least do something!


Nice one Seasmith
:smile:
Dear Nutty Psychologist or Seasmith

Just wondering if either of you had got the whole program from www.stressintofocus.com, I was thinking of buying it but it'd be my last bit of money! Don't mind spending it if its going to help me out though. I was impressed with the free e-book but I think the one I got was a shortened version...

Thanks in advance.
Reply 13
Original post by lauramichaels92
Dear Nutty Psychologist or Seasmith

Just wondering if either of you had got the whole program from www.stressintofocus.com, I was thinking of buying it but it'd be my last bit of money! Don't mind spending it if its going to help me out though. I was impressed with the free e-book but I think the one I got was a shortened version...

Thanks in advance.


If you use the quote button people are a lot more likely to see it. It's in the bottom right of the box where the post appears.
Reply 14
Original post by lauramichaels92
Dear Nutty Psychologist or Seasmith

Just wondering if either of you had got the whole program from www.stressintofocus.com, I was thinking of buying it but it'd be my last bit of money! Don't mind spending it if its going to help me out though. I was impressed with the free e-book but I think the one I got was a shortened version...

Thanks in advance.



Hey Laura,

Yep, I bought the whole thing! Though I should add I got it for £12 as I was on their mailing list very early and got a special offer. I'm pretty sure that's gone now. In fact, just clicked through and notice that even the shorter free book you're talking about isn't on there any more, so it looks like you were lucky to get that!

To answer your question, I would say that the program was definitely worth the money. I would have happily paid the full price or maybe even more. Over the last few months I bought several guides in a desperate bid to get better results! The other ones were mainly just stuff I already knew and/or some kind of "super hypnosis" thing that didn't work at all and I'm a bit embarrassed I even fell for (can't even get my money back on the worst one, grrr).

The Stress Into Focus one was about the only one with advice from someone who had obviously studied. And it's actually working for me. I'm ALMOST finished with my first year exams now and this thing has been a godsend on every level. I'm a crapload more organized than I was, have got much better learning habits and I'm a lot more focused. I do genuinely think it is helping me get better results.

So yeh I would recommend it... if you don't want to spend £18 on it, I could send you the original book. I got it before it was the shorter one and it said "share me" (although I notice that's no longer the case in the full version). So I don't think I would be doing anything wrong by sending it to you. I won't post it up online out of respect for the author, but if you PM me I'll send you my copy. I'd also recommend the audio part (especially if stress and concentration are your issue), but I won't send you that as A. its too big and B. I'd feel bad.

Anyway hope this helps. I don't check on studentroom super often at the mo (middle of exams) so it might take me a couple of days to get back to your PM.
Original post by Norton1
If you use the quote button people are a lot more likely to see it. It's in the bottom right of the box where the post appears.


Thanks Norton, I didn't realise it was so easy!
Original post by seasmith
Hey Laura,

Yep, I bought the whole thing! Though I should add I got it for £12 as I was on their mailing list very early and got a special offer. I'm pretty sure that's gone now. In fact, just clicked through and notice that even the shorter free book you're talking about isn't on there any more, so it looks like you were lucky to get that!

To answer your question, I would say that the program was definitely worth the money. I would have happily paid the full price or maybe even more. Over the last few months I bought several guides in a desperate bid to get better results! The other ones were mainly just stuff I already knew and/or some kind of "super hypnosis" thing that didn't work at all and I'm a bit embarrassed I even fell for (can't even get my money back on the worst one, grrr).

The Stress Into Focus one was about the only one with advice from someone who had obviously studied. And it's actually working for me. I'm ALMOST finished with my first year exams now and this thing has been a godsend on every level. I'm a crapload more organized than I was, have got much better learning habits and I'm a lot more focused. I do genuinely think it is helping me get better results.

So yeh I would recommend it... if you don't want to spend £18 on it, I could send you the original book. I got it before it was the shorter one and it said "share me" (although I notice that's no longer the case in the full version). So I don't think I would be doing anything wrong by sending it to you. I won't post it up online out of respect for the author, but if you PM me I'll send you my copy. I'd also recommend the audio part (especially if stress and concentration are your issue), but I won't send you that as A. its too big and B. I'd feel bad.

Anyway hope this helps. I don't check on studentroom super often at the mo (middle of exams) so it might take me a couple of days to get back to your PM.


Seasmith,

Thank you so much for your detailed response! And also thank you for your kind offer of sending me the book. Actually I'm in kind of a rush and would probably have ended up buying the audio part anyway, so I have just bought and downloaded it myself. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thank you.
Reply 17
Think about the consequences of failing the exam and how bad you'll fell if you do.

Don't let yourself get into a situation where you regret not doing more work earlier.

Don't overwork yourself either - everything in moderation.

Avoid any distractions eg. facebook, youtube, the student room!

Try and mix it up - revise in new ways or in new places or with new people

Also, studying with friends or other groups of people that you can have fun with can make studying a lot more enjoyable

Or just get someone to yell at you any time they see you not working :biggrin:
Reply 18
Hi, do you think i could get a copy! So stressed and frustrated with myself right now. Looking for anything to help.
Reply 19
Original post by seasmith
Hey Laura,

Yep, I bought the whole thing! Though I should add I got it for £12 as I was on their mailing list very early and got a special offer. I'm pretty sure that's gone now. In fact, just clicked through and notice that even the shorter free book you're talking about isn't on there any more, so it looks like you were lucky to get that!

To answer your question, I would say that the program was definitely worth the money. I would have happily paid the full price or maybe even more. Over the last few months I bought several guides in a desperate bid to get better results! The other ones were mainly just stuff I already knew and/or some kind of "super hypnosis" thing that didn't work at all and I'm a bit embarrassed I even fell for (can't even get my money back on the worst one, grrr).

The Stress Into Focus one was about the only one with advice from someone who had obviously studied. And it's actually working for me. I'm ALMOST finished with my first year exams now and this thing has been a godsend on every level. I'm a crapload more organized than I was, have got much better learning habits and I'm a lot more focused. I do genuinely think it is helping me get better results.

So yeh I would recommend it... if you don't want to spend £18 on it, I could send you the original book. I got it before it was the shorter one and it said "share me" (although I notice that's no longer the case in the full version). So I don't think I would be doing anything wrong by sending it to you. I won't post it up online out of respect for the author, but if you PM me I'll send you my copy. I'd also recommend the audio part (especially if stress and concentration are your issue), but I won't send you that as A. its too big and B. I'd feel bad.

Anyway hope this helps. I don't check on studentroom super often at the mo (middle of exams) so it might take me a couple of days to get back to your PM.



Could i get a copy? I'
So stressed right now I'm borderline in tears as I'm so frustrated with myself doing zero work!

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