The Leaving Cert -

photo credit: rocknroll_guitar

• Too many subjects to study for.
• Many subjects not relevant for real life working.
• Irish Honours course far to long.

They’re just some, but think of a few more, think back to those arguments that you’ve had with your teachers about some of the subjects and the set up of the system. Try and think of at least 3, but what you may find is that the more you think of the problems the more you will come up with.

This exercise can be frustrating to do, you’ll find all the problems with the system and probably get a little annoyed.

photo credit: quinn.anya

Now, start to think of everything that you could or want to improve with regard to your own studying and work. Some people say focus or motivation, or others talk about planning and being better organised. Again come up with around 3 thing that you would like to be better at with regard to school work and exams.

Now go back to the list of school problems and ask yourself which ones can I directly impact right now? Which ones can I change immediately, or which ones can I start to influence?

I’m going to imagine that you cannot change the hons Irish Course, or the exam timetable or the amount of subjects. Stinger.

But look now at the list of areas that you could do with improving yourself on. My guess is that you can immediately start to improve those areas and that you have direct control over them, unlike the broad problems.

Here’s the main point;

What you focus on you will get more of.

The more you think about the problems, the more you’ll find, the more you start looking at how you can prepare yourself for your exams the more ways you will find for that.

So what are you better off doing? Focusing on the problems, or focusing on the things you can directly influence in your life? You can’t change the weather but you can buy a coat so that you’re ready for when it rains.

As irrelevant as some of the subjects and exams are you must prepare for them because at the end of the day, they are what you are going to be sitting in a few months time. Good poker players know that they have to play the hand there dealt and not rely on the cards to win it for them 100% of the time.

But you can learn some of the best learning strategies and motivational approaches at www.ios.ie – if you get a big enough group going there is a large discount so have a look and let me know what you think.