The end of the school year is approaching and students are starting to get tired of classes and homework. The early mornings, the rush to get everywhere, and the excess of homework and extracurricular activities begin to take their toll. They find it harder to do their homework, spend time concentrating on preparing for an exam, or work without complaining. The delivery of assignments and final exams cause worry, pressure and uncertainty in adolescents. A time in which they accumulate fatigue and the majority live with overwhelm, nerves and stress. For all this, it is likely that conflicts with them at home around studies will multiply during these weeks. Discussions that often arise from the parents’ feeling that if they are not on top of their teenager, controlling what they do, they will not obtain good academic results.
In a few weeks, students of ESO, Baccalaureate or Training Cycles will have to face a long battery of tests that they must pass successfully if they want to pass the course or get that desired grade that allows them to access a place at the university to be able to study the career they want. But there are many who feel unmotivated to face this challenge because they believe that the majority of the content they work on at the institute is very far from their interests or concerns, whether it is comprehensive, the authors of romanticism, the French Revolution or chemical formulas. Subjects that make them spend many hours in front of their notes, memorizing and practicing without finding a stimulus that makes them make an effort.
If we add to this lack of motivation to learn the thousand distractions available to us through mobile phones, social networks or video game consoles and the desire to spend time with the group of peers, starting to study becomes a feat. Tiredness, boredom or stress can become a teenager’s worst enemy when it comes to completing the course correctly. An anxiety that can lead you to throw in the towel, stop pursuing your goals and abandon the course.
Families must help the adolescent to maintain motivation about everything he is learning and to deal with all the negative emotions that the end of the course generates. They should also show empathy and avoid being on top of the teenager too much, because this can worsen their stress and create tension at home. Now the adolescent needs to feel that her reference adults trust him and let him make his own decisions.
These are some keys to help a teenager face the final stretch of the course:
- Help the teenager find his inner motivation, to discover what he is excited to learn about. To see studying as the way to gain skills and competencies that allow you to learn a profession that allows you to achieve your dreams. Also encouraging them to look for the causes that cause them to be demotivated and make them not put in the effort they should will be key to finding possible solutions to that situation.
- Promote a pleasant study environment at home, where there is silence and tranquility and the adolescent can concentrate. It will be very useful if we help you organize your study space so that you feel comfortable, ensuring that the room has good lighting and ventilation, your desk is tidy and you have all the material you need to study or do homework.
- Teach the young person to plan and organize the tasks they must perform and the study time they must dedicate to each subject. Making a weekly plan will make it easier for you to maintain a good study routine. Learning to prioritize tasks, establish short-term goals and have acquired study techniques will be key to obtaining good results.
- Maintaining good healthy habits will be essential to improve your concentration and performance. It will be key that you sleep the necessary hours, reserve time for rest, maintain a healthy and balanced diet and do sports activities that help you disconnect from studying and relax. The teenager should also make good use of his mobile phone so that it does not take up too much of his study time or create distractions.
- The adult should be aware of the adolescent’s progress and offer the help he or she needs. This does not mean that he should overwhelm you by transmitting excessive demands or expectations. A young person who feels trusted and receives positive messages will show a better attitude when studying. Using punishments or threats will not improve her attitude toward studying.
More than ever, adolescents need to have adults by their side to help them maintain a positive attitude and encouragement during the last weeks of school. That they motivate him to give the last push and show him empathy and understanding. Let them explain, as the American activist Malcolm X said, “that education is the passport to the future, tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
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