Students Book

6 Read
a Read the text and underline the
piece of advice you like best.
Well, it’s that time of year again: the sun’s finally decided to show its face and
you’re stuck inside revising for exams. But don’t worry. You’re not alone. We’re
thinking of you and have drawn up an action plan that will help you get all
that work done in time and still have a little time left to relax. We like to call
it GRM (that’s Good Relaxation Management in case you were wondering).
Problem
A Procrastination
B Getting started
C Motivation
D Time wasting
E Ínterruptions
Solution
A recent report claims that more than 40% of students wait until the last minute before
getting down to work. Why? Because procrastination helps us keep a safe distance from
all that stressful stuff. Maybe you have six exams to study for, so we recommend starting
with one. That way you’ll reduce the stress as you’ll have just one clear task to work on.
When you’ve done that one thing on the list, make another ‘list’ with one thing on it. We
promise that this will get things moving.
OK, so now you’ve decided not to leave it all for the last minute and have brought your
books home to study this evening. But you’re still finding it difficult to start that one ‘to
do’ task. That’s because you’re afraid it’s going to take you too long. What you have to do
is convince yourself that you just need to start and do ten minutes’ work. Once those ten
minutes have passed, you’ll be surprised to find that you’re now really into the task and
don’t even want to stop.
‘Í can’t be bothered to do any work this evening.’ How often do you find yourself saying this?
Maybe we can persuade you to look at motivation in a different light. Motivation doesn’t get
people working: motivation comes once you’ve started working. Try it! The more you get into
your work, the more you’ll ‘get into’ your work, if you get what we mean. Got it?
How much time do you waste waiting about for something? The bus, the teacher, your
brother or sister to get out of the shower? We suggest always carrying some revision notes
in your back pocket – a list of dates from history, some chemical formulas, whatever.
Something you can get out when you find you’ve got a bit of time to kill. Using your time
well means you’ll have more time to spend later on things you’d rather be doing.
So you’ve finally got down to some serious revision and your parents tell you dinner’s ready.
You’d like to refuse to eat but you can’t. Of course, there are going to be times when your
study plan gets interrupted, but we advise you not to lose your cool – it never helps. Look
on the positive side. The fact that you’re annoyed shows you’re getting into your work and
that’s a good thing. Ít should encourage you to do more!
b Read the article again. Match each of these statements
with the sections (A–E).
1 ‘There’s just so much to do. I won’t have enough time
to get it all done.’
2 ‘Every time I start working, my little sister keeps
coming in and talking to me.’
3 ‘I can’t believe it. My exam’s in two days’ time and I
haven’t even started revising.’
4 ‘I just don’t feel like doing anything. It’s all so boring.’
5 ‘I’m just too busy doing other things to start my revision.’
Discussion box
1 What other problems do you
have when revision time comes
round?
2 What advice can you think
of to help others to be more
successful with their revision?
28
UNIT 3