The way a students their smartphone has become an important contributing factor to GCSE exam success.

QUICK FACT

The Education Policy Institute think tank  estimates ‘over a third (37.3%) of UK 15 year olds use their smartphones for 6+ hours per day’. 

That’s almost half of the time they spend awake!😲

Let’s look at this statistic from a more constructive point of view for a minute… 

If you’re spending all this time on your smartphone anyway, you may as well try and make some of it helpful towards your school and exam performance.

It just makes sense!

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Here are three easy things you can do to start using your smartphone a little differently in time for exam season: 

• Use your smartphone as a mobile to-do list

Never forget what you need to do again, your smartphone is always with you! 

In particular, many students mention they find it difficult getting down to work once they get home from school.

Why don’t you write out some notes or a to-do list to follow the moment you get home from school each day? 

If you take the bus or train into school, this can easily be done on the way home. 

• Be deliberate when using social media

All of the time you spend scrolling and tapping can be streamlined. Just ask yourself this simple question whenever you decide to open a social media app.

What is my purpose here? 

Once you’ve defined what exactly you’re going to do during each social media session you’ll find you start spending less time within each app. 

In addition, the time you do spend communicating with friends and consuming content will be of a higher quality. This is because you’ll be more aware of random irrelevant information distracting you from your priority.

Social media isn’t a bad thing. It can help us maintain relationships and learn new information. The skill is defining how exactly relationships are best maintained and what information is worth learning.

• Use your smartphone to revise

Ever given yourself a quick test using an app on your phone? 

Ever listened to a recording of yourself stating some facts aloud? 

How about changing your phone screensaver to that word you can never remember? 

The smartphone can be a powerful revision tool because it is perfectly suited to carry out two of the most effective techniques for learning and memorising information. These are: 

1. Active Recall (testing yourself on information)

2. Spaced Repetition (repeatedly testing yourself on information and then spacing the repetitions further apart as you begin to remember more).

A CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK

Pick one of the bullet points above to work on. Give it a go and you’ll find you have better grades and more time in your day.