Reading at home a struggle or a struggle

Late last year, the corona virus was first discovered in Wuhan and soon became a global pandemic early this year, causing a nationwide lock down. Our daily routines and activities would change drastically, our freedom compromised and we had little or no control over what was to come. This affected the activities of industrial, religious and educational institutions to name a few.

Since educational institutions have been locked down amongst other things, there have been multiple efforts to keep educational activities ongoing using platforms like zoom, telegram, Whatsapp and many more. The government nor the school administration expected institutions to be closed for this long, so they’ve resorted to the most logical option being online exam, to ensure students resume the new school session and final year students graduate.

Now don’t be too worked up thinking about exams because if you’re like me you’ve probably spent most of the holiday making tiktoks, learning new hobbies and basically doing everything else except read. To be honest, we’ve always seen our homes as a place of solace and freedom after a stressful semester or school period, so learning to read at home might be a real struggle for some.

Below are some tips to help with this shift;

• Get rid of your phone

I know It’s not easy, due to the long holiday and not being able to see our friends as often as we want, it gets boring and the only solution most times is social media. Social media is literally designed to keep us on it for hours on end, and before you realize it, you’ve literally spent your day doing nothing, its happened to me an embarrassing number of times but here are some things you can try to get less distracted by your phone;
-switch your phone off and keep it somewhere far from you when you want to study.
-give if to someone you trust can prevent you from using it and wont check the messages you send to your crush.
-download the stay focused app, this app blocks you from using your phone and even specific apps on it.

• Make a schedule

It’s hard to tackle school work without having a specific plan, having a plan helps you stay in check and helps you organize what seems like bulky school work. You can create a time table and put different subjects on the different times you want to read them. One of the most common causes of unproductivity is not knowing where to start, but a specific plan and help you battle that and also helps battle exam stress and anxiety

• Tell your family you need your you-time

Communication is key, if you’re anything like me, you may have been called several times to make egusi soup or mop the whole house or some other chore when you’ve barely started reading. If this messes with your reading schedule its most likely going to keep you behind in your reading, politely decline and ensure them that in your free time you’d most likely help out (I know you won’t but just tell them)

• Engage in study groups with your classmates online:

Engage in academic activities with your friends and classmates online, they can include quizzes, tutorials or question and answer sessions this helps you remember things and understand things better, thanks to Ms Rona we can quickly learn study groups don’t always have to be physical.

Now that we have gotten an idea of how we can prepare for online exams here are some tips on how to take it;

1. Stay in a quiet environment with good data connection
2. Make sure apps running in the background are closed
3. Keep track of time
4. Make sure you read and understand the guidelines of the test
5. If you’re having technical problems don’t be scared, take a screenshot and send to your instructor immediately. All the best and keep staying safe!

Adeyemo Sinmiloluwa
300lvl
AMSA Editor