Matric - Prioritising Pro Tips
Guidelines for success:
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Put in a full day: a minimum of 7 hours each day is recommended to be successful with
school work and class attendance.
Know what’s due: Each Monday morning, look ahead to see what formal assessments are
due that week and spend some time understanding what is required to complete those
assessments.
Start strong: Don’t put off the difficult subjects! Plan to spend more time with subjects that
need improvement and schedule them for when you are fresh and focused.
: Maths is a tricky subject that needs daily practice in order to build
Maths + Maths =
proficiency for timed tests. Set some time aside each day to practice going through exercises
and past papers.
Not today Loadshedding: Don’t let loadshedding ruin your plan. In times of loadshedding,
have a game plan so you can still use the time wisely. See below for a recommended
loadshedding strategy.
Don’t get derailed: Life will happen along the way and things may happen that can throw you
off course. Don’t let the obstacles throw off your whole day. Suddenly need to go pick up your
little sister from school? No problem! Adjust your schedule and carry on with your top priority
for the day when you get home!
Homework: Set aside some time each afternoon/evening for homework. Study, finish
incomplete tasks, watch live session recordings, review concepts. Practise your Maths daily!
🎉
The principles of prioritizing:
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A structured week will help guide your efforts and will help you ensure you tackle and
complete the most important and pressing tasks for that week.
Not all tasks are created equal: Priorities need to be assessed according to due dates and
the time needed to complete that task. Understanding what the week’s work plan looks like will
help to dictate your priorities.
Deadlines are real: First assess what is outstanding, then what is due next, and what test or
exam is coming up. Use due dates to help you prioritize so you don’t miss important deadlines.
Catch up: If you’ve fallen behind schedule, don’t panic, use these prioritization skills to catch
up one step at a time!
○ If you are catching up, start with assessments that are furthest behind and move
forward.
○ When catching up, remember that some things can be done for homework or the
following week, while other things cannot; understanding which tasks can wait and
which cannot can be helpful when there is a lot to do.
STEP 1: Set your daily schedule
Example Schedule:
Your Schedule:
Start Time
08h00
Start Time
Tea Break
10h00-10h15
Tea Break
Lunch Break
12h00-12h45
Lunch Break
End Time
15h30
End Time
Homework
17h00-
Homework
STEP 2: Set your order of priorities
Look at what you need to accomplish for the week and use the principles of prioritizing to set your
order of priorities to help you stay on track. For example, If you are writing a test on Monday and your
formal assessment is due on Wednesday, it makes sense to prioritize the upcoming test first with the
formal assessment as a close second priority.
Sample List of Priorities in Order of
Importance:
Your priorities:
1. Module completion and studying
2. English and Afrikaans orals
3. Catching up on previous modules
4. Taking notes for tests & exams
5. Practising past papers
6. Formal Assessments
Example: Monday, Business Studies. Are you up to date with your assessments? Awesome! Move
on. to the next priority. Are you complete with your modules? Fantastic! Number 3, are you caught up?
Look at you go! Have you taken notes in preparation for your next exam? Such a trooper! Do you
understand your work though? Right, let’s review our concepts.
STEP 3: Set your daily subject focuses
Suggestions for setting your daily subject focuses::
1. Use the workplan on the campus as a guide
2. Focus on two subjects per day (2x sessions: morning session and noon session. Subjects that
are more difficult and challenging can have a full day; pair your subjects wisely)
3. Create a time slot for Maths/Maths Lit every day, even if it is a short slot, to do some practice
or a review of concepts.
Example Subject Plan:
Your Subject Plan:
Monday
Business Studies
Monday
Tuesday
Maths Lit & LO
Tuesday
Wednesday
Afrikaans
Wednesday
Thursday
Life Sciences
Thursday
Friday
CAT & English
Friday
STEP 4: Things don’t always go as planned! Be prepared for the speed bumps!
Loadshedding strategy:
1. Plan and preempt. Check your loadshedding schedule every morning and every evening for
the next day so that you can better prepare yourself.
2. Download your lesson content. If you are not sure how to do so, click here. Subject
summaries for each subject can also be accessed and downloaded from the Additional
Resources folder.
3. Study and review from your notes.
4. Use your phone. Many assessments require reading chapters and lesson content which can
be done from your mobile device.
5. Download question papers for formal assessments so that you can work offline.
6. Read your setwork for English and your First Additional Language.
7. Feeling really stuck and derailed? Reach out to a buddy or your Support Coach for
connection and motivation. You are never alone!
Back up plans!
Some days things just go wrong. You have a perfect plan, wake up focused and ready to conquer the
day, but your computer won’t turn on, your family needs extra help around the house, etc. It can be
really tempting to just give up on the day, but time is precious this year, so how can you shake it off
and shift your plans to not set yourself back a full day? Some helpful tips to get you on track:
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What is one small thing you can accomplish in the time you have?
What is the tip-top priority you had for the day? And is there one piece that you can start on?
Can you shift one of today’s priorities to tomorrow?
Can you move around your break times to accommodate what the day now needs?
Can you keep your plan and just shorten each of your time blocks a little bit to make up for the
time you need or lost?
Can you easily shift one of your priorities of the day to tomorrow?
Feeling really stuck and derailed? Reach out to a buddy or your Support Coach for connection
and motivation. You are never alone!