How to do better in science classes

Tun Tun asks: Hi, I want to ask you why I cannot get good marks in science. I try my best always, but never get good marks in that particular subject. Can you give me any study tips for it???

Hi Tun Tun –

 

It’s no “breaking news” that different people have different interests and skills.  But it is always surprising when students who do well in most courses do poorly in one or two areas.  Handsome was kind of like you, but he also always had trouble with History classes.  Why someone should do well in Math but poorly in Science, or well in Literature but poorly in History, makes no sense to me, but it’s absolutely normal.  So I’m sorry you’re going through this, but please know, it can get better.

 

My guess is that the core problem is that you don’t actually find the Science class interesting.  Other classes deal with issues you are more drawn to than those in the Sciences.  So the first question I’d ask you is… why you’re not interested!  Science is the core of everything that we know exists – how beings live, how materials exist, what the rules of the universe are.  Which all sounds pretty interesting to me.  But I’m not a person.

 

Maybe if I were a person, I’d be more interested in how to make things work (as in Math classes where I’d learn to solve problems), or in how people think and act (as in pretty much all other classes, like History or Literature or Philosophy or Psychology).  So what the parts of a flower are, or how they procreate or grow or fade… just wouldn’t cut it for me.  Similarly, I might not be very interested in memorizing a Periodic Chart – I might not care what chemicals do what things – or understanding the Theory of Relativity.

 

But what if I looked on each Science class as a group of Mysteries?!  Maybe I just love mysteries, and if I could think of the class as one, it would suddenly fascinate me.  What if I made it my job to understand how flowers grow, or how a laser beam works?  And each bit I learned in class fed my chances of getting that solution?  Maybe then I could get myself to learn all that I’m supposed to, and then be fine (except for the annoyance of dealing with exams – annoying because the teacher always asks different questions than the one I’m struggling to answer!) as I progress through the course.

 

Anyway, that’s one thought.  Another is to divide all the stuff you have to learn into very tiny chunks, and memorize all of them in those bits, to the point where you’re carrying thousands of facts which you can then easily regurgitate on an exam.

 

But whatever method you use, the key is to find a way to be Interested in the subject.  If you just can’t find a way to do so, you might want to talk with your teacher, and see if they can find a way to help you with this.  And once you find an interest, then your job is simply to work as hard as, or harder than, you work in your other classes.

 

And then, truly the world is your oyster!  (And Tun Tun, if you can explain that sentence to me in scientific terms, I know you’ll do fine at school!)

 

Cheers,
Shirelle

 

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