POLOKWANE – Tinotenda Muhau made use of various study methods during her final exams to ensure she was ready for each subject.
“For the heavy content subjects such as history and life science I made use of the recall study method. After I studied my notes and covered all the content and I tested myself either by past papers or questions I had formed myself. I also forced myself to recall the information and retell it to myself out loud. For subjects such as mathematics, I prepared by making use of a lot of past papers and questions from various sources to familiarise myself with the various questions and ways to tackle problems. What really helped me to prepare was, however, the help from my teachers who went through a lot of effort to help where possible. I also relied on the support my parents provided me, as well as a lot of prayer and trust in God. All of this collectively helped me prepare for my final examinations.”
Covid-19 affected Tinotenda just as much as the next person, but she did not let that get in her way.
“It was definitely a setback in terms of my studies and for the first few months I really struggled to get used to online schooling. It made school for me a lot harder, especially as I was not accustomed to being at home while attending school. I thought of home as my place of rest and relaxation, which meant it took me a while to adjust to the new role I had to play in my home. There were many changes I had to adapt to that made studying at home harder.”
There are many negative perceptions about history and Tinotenda advises others to change their mindsets.
“Something I realised was that I would only be able to excel if I was willing to engage and appreciate the subject. I would suggest you break the content into sub sections and work on learning each section in isolation with, as I’ve already mentioned, study methods such as the recall method. I would also recommend you work in study groups as well as making use of YouTube videos of summaries and most importantly, pay attention and engage in class because it is easier to retain information which makes it easier to go back and study the content.”
