See what we've been up to

I’d be lying if I said procrastination hasn’t been a long-term enemy for me, especially when it comes to studying but, over the years I’ve found different ways to tackle procrastination. Here’s my top tips for avoiding procrastination whether you’re at school, college, sixth-form or university.

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is defined as, ‘the act of postponing or delaying something’. This, of course, is less than ideal when it comes to studying, especially in the run up to exams. Maintaining motivation and pushing procrastination can be the golden ticket to exam success but it’s easier said than done.

Whether you consider yourself a procrastinator or not, over the course of your studies there will undoubtedly be times where procrastination tries to take over. And, when you inadvertently find yourself at procrastination station, it can seem almost impossible to re-motivate yourself and finish that past-paper or write those revision notes.

Why do we procrastinate?

In order to work out how best to combat procrastination, it is important to understand why we procrastinate in the first place.

Whilst there is much debate over why we procrastinate, there is a general consensus that people often procrastinate because they're afraid of failing at the tasks that they need to complete. A fear of failure can be due to many things including a lack of confidence, the weight of expectation and overthinking the consequences. So, even though your parents may accuse you of laziness, when it comes to procrastination this is almost always not the case!

This fear of failure can promote procrastination in various ways, whether that’s preventing you from finishing a task that you’ve started or stopping you from getting started on a task in the first place.

There are also certain things that can heighten procrastination, the biggest of them all being stress. So it’s unsurprising that exam season really brings out your procrastination abilities, even if most of the time you’re not prone to it.

How can we fight procrastination?

Avoiding procrastination is almost impossible but there are steps we can take to fight it and many of these steps can be taken before procrastination even arrives. Here are my top 10 tips:

1. Break down the task in hand

We often procrastinate because we find our workload overwhelming. Breaking it down and setting smaller targets will help ease this overwhelming feeling. So instead of trying to tackle a whole past paper, take it one double page spread at a time. If you still procrastinate on the task after breaking it down, then break it down even further.

2.Use a checklist

A checklist is such a great and simple way to structure your revision. It can help you to break down your tasks as well as managing your time and the gratification of crossing something off a checklist can sometimes provide the motivation to move onto the next task (it’s the little things!)

3. Tell someone else about your goals

This doesn’t have to be an intense conversation about your life goals, just simply telling a parent, sibling or friend what you hope to accomplish in a morning or afternoon will do the job. Knowing that you’ve told someone else makes you feel more accountable for reaching those goals. Sometimes getting a parent to ask whether you finished what you’d set out to at the end of the day can give you that extra push.

4. Take a break

Little and often is the key here. Our concentration span, especially on difficult tasks, is a lot shorter than you’d expect. Make sure you’re taking regular scheduled breaks, there’s no golden rule for how many breaks and how long they should be for but it will be useful to try out a few methods and see what suits you best. Leaving your place of study on your breaks will help, whether that’s just moving to a different room or walking around for a bit. Remember, your brain will still be processing what you’re revising or working on so don't beat yourself up about taking a break!

5. Eliminate distractions

Far easier said than done but this really is essential, especially for the pro-procrastinators. Your phone is not your friend when it comes to revision so do whatever’s necessary to keep yourself away from it. Turn it off, put it in a different room, lock it away or even give it to a friend or family member to hold hostage. Trust me, it will be for the best and if you’re taking enough breaks you shouldn’t feel it’s absence too much!

6. Use incentives

Treat yourself! The thought of a reward might be just what you need to get a task started or finished. Obviously all rewards should be in moderation, but choose something that will make an impact. Anything from 10 mins on your phone to your favourite snack, whatever works for you!

7. Speak to someone who’s already achieved those goals

It might not come as much comfort to know that you are far from the first to take a trip to procrastination station in the run up to your exams. But, some reassuring words from someone who’s been there and has been able to push through could be just what you need to hear. Knowing that you’re not alone and picking up some tips, speaking to an older sibling or peer is definitely worthwhile.

8. Change up your environment

Associating revision or work with one space can be beneficial but not when you start associating that space with procrastination. Move rooms in your house if you can or venture out and try a public library or cafe. Sometimes a change of environment = a change of mindset!

9. Set yourself deadlines

Deadlines can be scary but if you’ve broken down your task and set yourself a checklist then they should feel more achievable. Giving yourself a healthy dose of time pressure can demand concentration.

10. Positive procrastination?

Whilst you might struggle to convince your parents that this is the case, it has been proven that procrastination can in fact be beneficial. Productive procrastination is the key here. It involves familiarising yourself with a task and then getting distracted for a while. Crazy as it may sound, your brain is processing the information and potential solutions to the task whilst you’re busy occupying yourself with procrastinatory tasks. This is most helpful when you’ve hit a wall as taking some time away and allowing your brain to mull over things will probably lead to a higher quality of work when you do manage to bring yourself back to the task.

We hope you found this ‘avoiding procrastination’ blog helpful. If you have any further questions about procrastination or EasyA’s on-demand tutoring, please do get in touch. We look forward to helping you excel.

Learn how to work smarter with these tips to help you stay organised so you can get those top grades in your exams!

Get a planner

Some schools might provide you with a planner to write all your homework down in, and having a planner is the key to being organised, so don’t just shove this in your blazer pocket, never to be seen again!

If school don’t give you a planner, go out and buy one - it doesn’t have to be fancy (although there are some lovely fancy ones with all sorts of features like mood trackers in them!).

Once you have your planner, make it a habit to use it. Write down meetings, assignments, trips, deadlines, exams, even birthdays! This way you will always remember to write everything down and to check it to stay on top of all your plans and responsibilities.

It seems pretty old school, but I find having a physical planner where you write things down to be so much more helpful than using an app or the digital planner on your phone.

Timetabling

Making sure that you organise your time is just as important as being physically organised. Create a timetable of all your classes, when they are, and where they are, and stick this somewhere you will be able to access during the whole day. It could be on the back of your phone case (if you are allowed phones at school), or inside your planner or folder. This will ensure that you are on time to classes, and that you keep track of your assignments and what you need to bring with you to school the next day!

You could also create a timetable or calendar for when you are at home. Split a piece of paper or a document into sections and add in the times you are at school or doing an extracurricular activity. Make sure your timetable is placed somewhere visible so you never forget anything and can stay on time - maybe on the back of your bedroom door, or on the wall near your desk. Don’t forget to block in time to do your homework, and time to do things you love, or even just time to sit on your bed and scroll through TikTok…

Clear that bag out

We all know what its like when you are rushing to get on the bus, or to catch up with some friends after class. You just throw all your things into the bag, never to be seen again!

Before the next school year begins, sit down and tip your school bag out - I mean give it a really good shake out, and maybe even pop it in the washing machine. Sort out all of the rubbish, and keep things you need - you might even find last year’s maths homework lurking at the bottom somewhere.

Once you’ve done this, you can start to organise your bag and keep it tidy again. Buy yourself a folder for all of your spare papers, they are quite cheap and really handy for keeping your papers uncrumpled and in one place, so you never have to use the ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse again. You could also get little bags to keep random bits and bobs that you might need in, so that nothing is rattling around in the abyss at the bottom of your rucksack…

Put pens back into the pencil case, and try to keep things tidy for the rest of the year! You could do this once every half-term to make sure nothing gets lost and forgotten about until next September!

Organise by class

There is nothing worse than sitting down at your desk for a lesson, only to pull out the exercise book for the wrong subject! Having a way of distinguishing your books, whether it is a sticker in the top corner, or different colours for different subjects is a great way to stay organised.

You could also get some cheap folders from your local stationary shop, and use these to separate your revision or any spare sheets of paper you have - never lose a piece of paper again!

Digital organisation

With more and more people spending their lives on their computers, making sure that you are organised digitally is becoming increasingly vital, especially with schools moving online this past year and more schools using online learning platforms.

Make sure that you name all your documents something sensible, and that will help you to find it when you come back to look for it. For example, calling every document for Macbeth ‘macbeth.doc’ will only confuse you later on!

You could split each subject into its own folder, and then even organise further by splitting these into subtopics. So for English this could be Literature versus Language, or Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, in Science. Once you’ve done this, you will find that everything is easier to access, and easier to revise from later down the line.

I hope that these tips helped, and that you have the best school year you can! Be sure to check out the other posts on the EasyA blog for more tips and tricks on keeping organised, revising, and time-management.

Get in touch with us if you have any more questions - we look forward to hearing from you!

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how long you spend studying, you just don’t seem to be making any progress. Your study habits just simply aren’t cutting it and you’re starting to mildly (or majorly) panic that you won’t be exam ready in time for summer.

It’s fairly normal to struggle with studying and more often than not, it takes a bit of time to ascertain what study methods work best for you so you can study most effectively.

But to get you started, here are a few ways you can study smarter not harder and spend less time being unproductive!

Aim to teach

A great way to see if you’ve retained and understood something is by asking yourself whether you’d be able to teach it to someone else. You practice this on your own by verbally recalling information you've just been revising or practicing. Trying to explain material in your own words will help you to figure out where you are confused and uncertain. Alternatively, you can turn to a friend, parent or sibling and take 5 minutes to see if you can teach them something.

Understand the study cycle

The Study Cycle was developed by Frank Christ and breaks down the different parts of studying: previewing, attending class, reviewing, studying and checking your understanding. Whilst this may seem overly simplistic, many students miss out stages (intentionally or unintentionally) and this can lead to holes in learning which become particularly noticeable when you start revision.

Be an active learner!

Reading is not studying! This is a very common misconception, especially when it comes to revision. Re-reading your notes from class is going to do very little on the ‘retaining information’ front. Re-writing notes is helpful but again limited if you’re copying word for word. Use writing your revision notes as an opportunity to test your memory… how much of a topic can you recall without looking at your notes. Testing is key across all subjects, test yourself at every opportunity, formally, informally, practice papers or text book questions, the more the better.

The calm before the storm

Beware of resting on your laurels. A week that seems ‘easy’ usually means that there’s a harder week coming up. And while it’s tempting to get a bit too comfortable in R&R mode when one such week arrives, see it as an opportunity. You could get started on those revision notes you wanted to write or get your notes organised or even squeeze in a cheeky past paper. Make sure you’re prepared for whatever follows the ‘easy week’ by not taking too much time off.

Get spaced out

One of the most successful learning strategies is ‘distributed practice’ which means spacing out your studying over several short periods of time over several days and weeks (Newport, 2007). The most impactful practice is to work just a short time on each subject every day. This will help you to learn the information on a deeper level and retain it much more successfully for the long term.

Sleep well and exercise

The importance of maintaining a healthy physical and mental state whilst your studying cannot be understated. Pulling all nighters is never a recommended course of action and for good reason, your brain needs time to rest not only so it can function properly but so it can process and digest the information it’s taken in during the day.

Multitasking is a no go

You might think it’s effective to try and absorb multiple kinds of information at once but trying to solve maths questions whilst listening to Shakespeare on an audio book will do you more harm than good. There are many studies to indicate that multitasking does not improve efficiency and actually negatively affects results.

Routine is your friend

Plan your week in advance, not only will this free up valuable brain capacity by removing the ‘where am I meant to be now?’ and ‘what am I meant to be doing?’ questions but it also allows you to get used to studying as part of your everyday life. Not only this, but a routine and a weekly plan will help you to distribute those study blocks evenly and make sure nothing is missed out.

The most important thing to remember is how to use your study time, not how long you study for.

We hope you found this ‘avoiding procrastination’ blog helpful. If you have any further questions about procrastination or EasyA’s on-demand tutoring, please do get in touch! We look forward to helping you excel.

My name is Aimee and I've just graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in the Japanese and Korean languages. I also completed GCSE and A Level German back in my school days. Note taking for the humanities, especially the languages, can be very different compared to other humanities subjects or for STEM exams. Learning a foreign language at GCSE or A Level requires lots of grammar practice and memorizing a lot of new vocab! Today, I'll give you my top five tips for note taking, memorizing new words, and ultimately, acing your GCSE or A Level foreign language papers.

Separate notes by topic area

For GCSE foreign language papers, we can easily split note taking into two broad areas: notes on grammar, as well as vocabulary lists.

For your A Level exams, depending on your exam board, you'll be asked to talk about social issues and trends, as well as produce essays in your target language about films and books that you've read over the duration of your course.

In both GCSE and A Level examinations there are also spoken exams that require you to answer short questions and talk about a random topic. For GCSE level, these topics range from hobbies, school life and cultural questions, but for A Level the topics tend to me more complex, for example social issues in contemporary society.

It's useful to categorise your notes into these different areas so you can refer back to them easily when you need them! This includes having written notes for vocabulary. Though nowadays you can use an online dictionary to instantly find any vocabulary you need, having a key list of useful vocabulary for your exams is still imperative to learn for when you enter the exam hall and no longer have access to a dictionary.

Keeping notes on methods of translation may also be useful if you decide to pursue languages at university, but for GCSE and A Level examinations, there is less focus on learning how to make good translations and more emphasis on learning to communicate effectively in a foreign language.

Keep your notes neat

For languages it's especially important that you pay attention and jot down carefully any new grammar structures that you come across in class. Many of us tend to think that we will remember things we learnt in class, and so we don't jot it down. From my own experience, that method doesn't work out well, especially when it comes to language learning. Learning grammar takes time and focus, so having your notes written out neatly and in detail allows you to refer back to them at any time and with minimum hassle! Though, if you struggle to keep up when taking notes in class, then of course it's okay to jot notes down scruffily or in short-hand, but remember to write them up neatly once you get home or in the following days whilst the topic is still fresh in your memory. You'll be so grateful for having neat and tidy notes when it comes to revising!

Write key things out more than once

Though you don't need to write out every note you have for a subject over and over again, for languages, the more you practice new grammar and make up sentences yourself, the more likely the information will stick in your brain long-term.

Once you have your original notes organised and written out neatly, try practicing making your own sentences using grammar and vocabulary that you've learnt in class. However, these notes don't have to be super neat as they're just for practice and to improve your creativity, ability, and confidence in your target language!

Keep flashcards or use memorization apps

Old school flashcards are very beneficial for language learners, especially to drill in new grammar patterns and vocabulary! Though, these days there are lots of free websites and mobile apps that have pre-loaded vocabulary and grammar lists that you can use as a substitute for traditional flashcards. Most schools already encourage their students to use online study websites, so ask your teacher if they know any good websites for memorizing vocabulary and grammar needed for your exam. You can either go through these lists to check off what you've learnt already and what you still need to focus on, or you can make online flashcards and test your strong and weak points. Online flashcards and memorization apps also save you from having to physically write out long vocab lists onto flashcards which can eat into your revision time!

Write notes that complement the syllabus

Check out the syllabus for your course online to find a full list of skills and grammar points required to pass your course with a top grade! Exam bodies tend to provide you with a list of potential topics, vocabulary, as well as grammar points that may come up on the final exam. Grammar points that are not present in the syllabus won't come up on your exam. Whilst in the real world it might be useful to know how to say the same sentence in five different ways, for your exams just focus on the grammatical structures that you're required to know, and don't overcrowd your notes with too much extra information. There's already enough content you need to revise without adding extra and very niche grammar into the mix! Once you've revised and understood everything on the syllabus then you should feel confident that you have everything you need to score a top grade.

The takeaway

Taking notes for languages may be a little different compared to other subjects you're being examined on but taking the time to write your work out neatly and referring back to your notes regularly can be the difference between an average and outstanding grade!

If you want to find out more helpful study tips then check out some of EasyA's other handy blog posts or check out the EasyA app for maths help whenever and wherever you need it.

Sometimes the science and maths we learn at school can seem unrelated to the real world, but one of the best parts of STEM is that it is constantly shaping the world and solving issues that affect us all. Nuclear fusion is just one example of an area currently being researched which has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry.

We are constantly looking for more sustainable alternatives to burning fossil fuels which would be able to keep up with worldwide energy demands. While there were hopes that greenhouse gas emissions would be greatly reduced as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns, the drop has not been as large as people had hoped and it is far from a sustainable solution. Although wind and solar energy are options, reports from BP and “Resources for the Future” have found that by 2040, these will only make up roughly 30% of global energy. While this is, of course, better than nothing, there is still a long way to go. Nuclear fusion is a promising opportunity, to which the government allocated £220 million in 2019.

Nuclear fusion is different to nuclear fission (the process used in nuclear power plants today) and is considered safer. Essentially, nuclear fission involves splitting atomic nuclei, while fusion (the process powering the sun) combines smaller atomic nuclei to form heavier nuclei. Both processes release huge amounts of energy due to the decrease in mass between the products and the reactants. Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 illustrates how mass and energy are intrinsically linked and in fusion and fission, the products of the reaction weigh less than the reactants. This mass has not been lost; it has been converted to energy.

An advantage of fusion over fission is that there is no risk of a radioactive meltdown, since if it goes wrong, instead of a runaway reaction, fusion simply does not produce any energy. Fear of radioactive meltdown is a major reason for the reluctance to build more nuclear power plants, and that is why fusion could provide a better alternative. Additionally, while both processes produce radioactive waste, fusion produces less waste, and the waste that is produced has a much shorter half-life.

Fusion is also highly fuel efficient: for the same fuel mass, fusion would produce nearly 4 million times the energy produced by burning coal and four times the energy produced by nuclear fission. As for the fuels required for fusion, they are more readily available then those used in fission. Although several combinations of light elements are viable fuels, reacting deuterium (a hydrogen isotope with one proton and one neutron) and tritium (a hydrogen isotope with one proton and two neutrons) is the most effective. Deuterium can be easily extracted from seawater and, although tritium is very rare, it can be generated in the fusion reaction itself by using lithium. In the reaction between deuterium and tritium, a neutron is released:

If this neutron then reacts with Lithium-6 or Lithium-7, it splits the lithium into tritium and helium:

Lithium is therefore another part of the fuel needed for nuclear fusion and there are large stores of it on Earth. It must be admitted, however, that lithium is in high demand and mining it can harm the environment. Still, with massive fuel efficiency, no greenhouse gas emissions and no risk of nuclear meltdowns, achieving nuclear fusion would, on balance, be a game-changer for the environment.

Considering the above, fusion sounds like the perfect solution to our increasing demands for sustainable energy - so why haven’t we started using it yet? There is, it turns out, a slight issue – fusion requires temperatures around 100 million degrees Celsius to take place. This is due to the repulsive forces between the nuclei (since they are positively charged and like charges repel) which need to be overcome in order for the nuclei to come close enough to fuse. For fusion to take place the atoms need to have enough energy to collide and there need to be enough atoms in a given volume, which is why such high temperatures and pressures are required. Additionally, you need some way to confine the very dense hot hydrogen plasma (a gaseous mixture of ions and free electrons). There are currently two main methods being researched for achieving these conditions: magnetic confinement and inertial confinement.

The name “magnetic confinement” gives away the basics of how this method works. In the most common version (the tokamak), the plasma is confined in a doughnut-shaped chamber using magnetic and electric fields. Using a combination of microwaves, an induced electric current and accelerated particles the plasma is heated to the required temperature. Alternatively, the more recent idea of inertial confinement focuses lasers onto a tiny pellet of deuterium-tritium fuel, which is heated and compressed until fusion can take place. The national ignition facility in California is experimenting with this method using 192 laser beams!

Powering the world with nuclear fusion, however, is still quite far off from becoming a reality, since no one has successfully managed to use it to create a gain in energy (when more energy is generated than is used to power it). Fusion has even been jokingly dubbed the technology that is always 30 years away! There are, however, numerous promising companies attempting to tackle the problem and advances continue to be made. It’s a puzzle still to be solved!

What do you think of nuclear fusion? Let us know!

Want to try EasyA? Download the app now!

This is a question that students today find themselves asking more frequently than ever. It’s also one of the first questions students and parents ask us when beginning their journey into the world of university admissions.

We think the question can be distilled down to one simple concept: flexibility.

In general, the U.S. system provides students with more flexibility. Whether this is a positive or negative ultimately depends on the student and their interests. For those interested in a variety of different subjects, the U.S. might be a better option. However, for those who know exactly what they want to study, the U.K. is probably a more practical choice. Of course, there is more to the story as we’ll see below.

1. In-depth vs wide-ranging study

Perhaps the largest different between the Ivy Leagues and Oxbridge is the course of study. In the U.S., students receive a far more generalised education: students can take all sorts of classes ranging from Zulu to The Science of Harry Potter in their first two years, before deciding in what they would like to major. In the U.K., however, students will find no such classes. Students specialise in one subject for the entirety of their undergraduate education, taking classes tied to their degree. In fact, most students must know what they want to study well before even applying to university, when they must choose the right a-levels for their desired course.

2. Length of study

The length of study is also considerably different. All courses in the U.S. are 4 years long, whereas in the U.K. they are mostly 3 years (although for those lucky enough, they can extend to 4 years). Depending on how much fun students anticipate having at university, 3 years might simply not be enough.

3. Method of study

The final and perhaps most important factor to consider when deciding between Oxbridge or Ivy are those related to the method of study. Whereas the Ivy Leagues conduct lessons in lecture halls, with little other contact with Professors, an Oxbridge education is centered around tutorials. These intimate tutorials are conducted either in small groups or 1-on-1, meaning that all aspects of one’s readings and essays are scrutinised in detail. The U.S. system is also much more geared towards teamwork. Most classes emphasise group projects and final grades are calculated based on input from peers. In the U.K., students largely work independently and grading is based on individual work.

Ultimately, whether it is Oxbridge or the Ivy League, students can’t go wrong with either option. Both provide the highest possible academic experience combined with the density of talented individuals not found anywhere else in the world. But as the authors of this post can admit, it is the people that make the experiences that ultimately make the university. With this in mind, we firmly believe that students will have the best 3 or 4 years of their lives no matter which side of the pond they choose to study.

What are your thoughts on Oxbridge vs Ivy League? Do you have a preference for one over the other? Let us know!

Want to try EasyA for yourself? Download the app now!