The academic year 2024-25… yet another brand new opportunity to excel. Starting a new academic year is an exciting and pivotal time for both students and educators alike. Striving for academic excellence begins from the first moment the student enters the school or college gate with a clear-cut academic and career goal and a commitment to pay the required price.

Everyone wants to win, but few are willing to the pay the price. All students aspire for success, but only a select few are prepared to endure the hard work, discipline and the sacrifices necessary to realize their ambitions.

Students have to cultivate certain skills and turn them into routines to achieve academic excellence.

What is a Student Skill?

A skill is an ability or proficiency acquired through practice and education. Both hard and soft skills are essential in academic and personal contexts. Hard skills are specific, teachable abilities or knowledge that can be defined and measured. Soft skills are interpersonal or people skills that are harder to quantify. They relate how individuals interact with others and manage their work.

Student skills help in learning maximum with less effort and time. For a fruitful and meaningful life, students have to spend time on many activities apart from just studying. Study skills or academic skills are the subset of student skills.

Essential Student Skills

1. Self-motivation skills
2. Career Goals Fixation skills
3. Time Management skills
4. Reading skills
5. Note-taking skills
6. Concentration and Memory skills
7. Examination skills

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2 days and 10 chapters more to go!
Will I finish studying?
What if I don’t complete the paper?
I should have planned better.
Why did I waste so much time?
I am so exhausted right now.
Will I fail?

How often have you asked yourself these questions?

Students often feel that the syllabus is very limited and that they can finish it in a single reading, until they actually sit with their books and realize that it’s a completely different story. Planning and organization play a key role here. Most students underestimate their time and this leads to them fumbling last minute. It is also said that students generally start studying the subject they like the most. It is suggested that you start with the subject that you find the most difficult.

Learning certain strategies to retain information better is very important. How do we learn the colours of the rainbow? VIBGYOR is the word that helps us recollect all the colours quickly. In the same way, students need to form certain strategies to grasp lessons better.

Academic burnout is very common, it is also on the rise when a student is less prepared. This is because the anxiety of being under-prepared adds to the burnout and fatigue.

Tips to help you deal with academic burnout and conquer demotivation

1. Make time for things that make you happy.
Set aside a time where you only do things you really like. It could be watching a good movie or reading a book. For that full amount of time you don’t do anything but that. Limit it to 30 minutes in case your exams are just around the corner.

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Ishan Kapur, a senior student of Wellington College, U.K., has been selected to Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Program’s 2023 Future Blue Youth Council, a global group of diverse young leaders who will work together to empower fellow peers to advocate for a healthier and safer future for our blue planet.

Bow Seat is a non-profit based in Massachusetts, USA, whose mission is to engage youth in ocean conservation and advocacy. Since its founding in 2011, nearly 30,000 teens from over 130 countries have participated in its programmes that educate students about issues impacting ocean health, uplift youth voices for conservation, and inspire them to participate in positive, creative actions.

Future Blue Youth Council (FBYC) members will mentor grantees of the international fellowship program, a by-youth, for-youth FBYC initiative that provides funding and guidance to young people addressing water-related challenges in their local communities. Council members will also inform, advise and shape Bow Seat’s educational initiatives and international outreach.

Ishan, who was selected from more than 50 applicants worldwide, joins 13 other young leaders on the 2023 Future Blue Youth Council. His experiences in the oceans opened his eyes to the harsh realities of environmental pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss. Driven to develop a solution, he founded The Blue Voice, a campaign that helps conserve marine life, regrow coral reefs, and reduce pollution, while empowering weaker sections of society. Through the campaign, supported by the Bow Seat Fellowship Grant, single-use plastic bags are transformed into sleeping mats for the unhoused population in New Delhi. “I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to see all the incredible things we will accomplish together,” said Ishan.

For more information, visit https://bowseat.org/get-involved/alumni/future-blue-youth-council

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Exam season is approaching, which can make it challenging to prioritise healthy habits due to late-night studying, lack of sleep, piles of highlighted study notes and textbooks. However, maintaining a healthy lifestyle even during challenging times will help you get the best outcome.

You may not know it, but your diet has a direct impact on how your body operates under various circumstances. Certain foods can boost mental clarity, memory recall and overall well-being, and can also boost energy levels. Here are a few guidelines for students to maintain a healthy lifestyle during exam time.

Rule 1: Never skip a meal

Sometimes you might feel tempted to skip a meal in order to finish studying one more chapter, but ignoring your hunger cues and skipping a meal is only going to set you back.

The brain requires adequate glucose for proper functioning. While studying, there is a constant inclination to munch on sweets (biscuits, chocolates) and heavily salted foods (crisps, farsan). Simple sugars from candies and sweets cause a brief spike in energy, which is followed by a collapse in blood sugar levels that causes exhaustion, lethargy and other symptoms.

Include slow-releasing carbohydrates in your meals, such as whole grain roti, bread or porridge made with whole rolled oats. Add a protein-rich food such as milk, yoghurt or eggs, to your meal to help you feel satiated for a longer period.

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You may set a goal for yourself, and it is a good habit. I, however, feel that I see a competitive streak in you. Healthy competition is good. However, what if you are unable to achieve the goal you have set for yourself? It is important to set realistic goals that one can reach to avoid disappointment later. Every person wants to excel in life; however, not everyone is successful. Failure may be very disappointing. So to avoid getting there we need to appreciate all the things that we are good at. Competition with yourself is advisable. Be at your best and that is the success of your life.

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“Jay, you really expect me to believe that your dog ate your homework? You know the new headmistress is taking rounds of the school and you still didn’t do your homework! This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable! Stand outside the class!” Ms Smita scolded.

“Sorry, miss,” Jay apologized.

“Shlok, you’re late! Did you bring your homework or was your homework eaten by dogs, too?”

“The dog did not eat my homework… he only tore it.”

“Enough of these lies, stand outside the class! I didn’t expect this from you, Shlok!”

Ms Smita was right to not expect this kind of behaviour from Shlok. After all, he was one of the best students in the class, hardworking and always ready to help his classmates. But she was wrong to think that Shlok was lying…

Earlier that morning, Shlok was walking to school with his homework sheets in hand that he had remembered to grab at the last moment, when he saw a dog that was chasing after a cat, run straight into a lady carrying many paper sheets in her hand just like him, making all the sheets fall to the ground. She began desperately trying to collect them but they were flying all over with the wind.

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Sharan Karthik, a class IX student of Sri National School, Gobichettipalayam, Tamil Nadu, has invented a circuit that conserves electricity.

Many do not take up the responsibility of reducing the power consumption. Quite often street lights can be seen glowing even during the daytime possibly due to the carelessness or forgetfulness of the staff in charge.

Sharan, a budding scientist from Sri National School, considered this a serious issue that needed to be addressed. He had seen streetlights still glowing while going to school every morning but did not know whom to speak to about this.

Sharan decided to invent a device for automated street light control. He decided not to use imported products opting instead for Indian-made components only.

His automated street light control device consists of a circuit with a light sensor. The streetlights will turn on when the device detects darkness and will automatically turn off when brightness is detected.

He was determined to try out his invention. One evening Sharan and his physics teacher connected the circuit and waited for the sun to set, desperately hoping that the circuit would light up. Around 6 p.m. the sun finally set and as it was getting darker, the bulb in the circuit lit up! The next morning, the bulb automatically went off at sunrise even though it was cloudy that day.

Sharan’s circuit has now been installed all over the school campus. Sri National School has once again shown that its vision is to make good citizens for a better society.

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Dear Harley, instead of facing with courage and determination your responsibility as a member of your family and as a student, you seem to be going through life passively without self-confidence. Every change for the better in life begins from looking into ourselves; finding out what went wrong, training our will for hard work and commitment. Success or failure in life does not depend mainly on high academic achievements but on the capacity to develop a balanced and well-integrated personality. If your parents or teachers complain about your results and behaviour you should take their remarks seriously and correct yourself under their guidance.

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