Well here we are again, getting back into the school routine. Early nights, early mornings, lots of studying, and a whole different mindset. Some of us like the busy schedules filled with endless studying, but others like myself would rather be doing many other things then studying for hours a day. If you’re into sports, video games, or your favorite TV shows and movies and would much rather be spending your time with them, let me help you study as you play.

I’m a sucker for video games-I’m addicted. Studying was nonexistent in my middle school and early high school years, just video games. I would come home from school, grab some food and sit down for hours mashing through games. It’s what I loved to do, and at that point studying never crossed my mind. However, as the years went on and my marks started to fall, I realized I needed to change. The conventional way of sitting at a desk with my head stuck in a book wasn’t going to work for me.  I couldn’t focus, or remember important dates and names that way. So I gave up and went back to my games, and that’s where it hit me.

I was playing a game called Rock Band (an interactive music game) and found myself saying important history dates to the rhythm of the songs I was playing. Usually I count the notes in my head, but this time I used dates, places and names. This may sound crazy, but it worked. What I started doing was looking over a section of my notes, and replayed it over and over in my head as I played games. I wasn’t able to focus on the work by just sitting there and reading it, but I was able to focus on the material while doing something else.

This doesn’t just work for video games, this works for TV and movies as well. In English we always had to read books and know all about each characters personality traits. Let’s be honest, some of the books we’ve had to read were just terrible. So what I did was connect the book characters to TV show or movie characters. This will help you remember who each character is, what they do, and their personality.

These are just my examples, what helped me through the long and important studying process. The main point of this is to tell you that studying doesn’t have to be dreadful. Try to connect or combine it with things you love to do. If you do that, you’re going to be more positive about studying. Make studying a part of your daily schedule, but do it your own way. Every bit of studying will help you, and I can guarantee you’ll see a difference in your school performance. What you have to study, and how much you have to study will only increase, so start making up a routine now-one that works for you. Let’s take this into our own hands, and study as we play.