by Sequoia Thomson, Year 13 Student, Kaipara College
Well, the two-week holidays in all their warm, summery glory have come to an end, and we are all back where we started. It seems like even the weather sympathises with our plight, as misty grey falls across the landscapes, and the crisp cold returns.
Moving on from my slight poetic moment, looking over the first few weeks of this term, we had the MAD awards. A wonderful affair with good snacks; congratulations to all our award winners, who worked so hard to be where they are!
We also held the Auckland Live Showdown Awards Night on Wednesday, 21st October. Also, an incredible event, another congratulations is in order not only to the entire drama and music department for having such a marvellous number of nominations, but also to those who claimed an award.
On another note, over the next few weeks, students will be intensely studying ahead of our oncoming exams. As I have mentioned in previous articles, finding a personalised study technique is a brilliant way to assist in really making your study hours count - less time procrastinating and staring at blank pages, or hours reading the same two chapters over and over again.
Though I have already gone through self-care, time management, and study techniques, one thing of importance I have not yet mentioned when it comes to success is your mindset. Developing a strong mindset is not just about focusing on a singular grade, it’s about building a lasting learning habit. How you view your own intelligence and ability to learn also strongly shapes how you study, handle difficulties, and perform in school.
By believing your intelligence and skills can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and consistency, you see mistakes as learning opportunities, you bounce back quickly and ultimately achieve much higher overall success. The key is to identify when set mindset thoughts and actions occur, and to consciously replace them with more growth-oriented thoughts and behaviours as they happen. Mindset plays the biggest role in your ability to succeed - it always comes back to the brain, after all.
I’ll leave you with these parting words of wisdom by Buddha: “The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
