Imagine this:

It is two days before a test and you are studying with your friends. They are talking about what a “drainer” this test is while flipping through the textbook and complaining that they never learnt half of the content in class. You are trying to do the right thing and summarise your notes, go over your cue cards and review the chapter questions when… one of your friends comes across an Instagram post. The post is of a dog sitting on a baby’s face. They place the phone right in the line of your vision so you can laugh, and of course, it’s funny, so you do. Two of your friends tell you about a movie that is coming out this weekend. You spend the next 20 minutes making plans to go see the screening. Now they are hungry. Everyone gets up to head off to the canteen, and you join because you don’t want to be the only one hanging back to do work. How much study have you done? A two-paragraph summary and 4 cue cards, and it is already the end of lunch.

Now Imagine this:

It is two days before a test and you are studying with your friends. They are talking about how interesting this topic is while breaking down the textbook into that information useful information based on what they’ve learnt in class. You are building summaries together, quizzing each other on cue cards and taking turns sharing answers for your chapter review questions when… one of your friends come across a blog post. The post is about a hack to remember the first 20 elements in the periodic table. They share it with you, and you find it helpful, so you write it down and use it in the test. Two of your friends tell you about a 30-minute free study group at the local library this weekend. You spend the next 5 minutes getting the details and decide you will go together. Now they are hungry. Two separate small groups go to the canteen in turns so someone can stay back and come up with the next set of answers to the practice test. How much study have you done? More than you need to excel in this test and there are 30 minutes left of lunch.

The people that you surround yourself with in VCE will have an effect on the ATAR you achieve at the end of Year 12. How? As Jim Rohn says, “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

If your circle of friends are the chit chatty, “why do we need to learn this?”, “all I need is 50% to pass” kind of students, then you are going to be the average of a group of students just trying to achieve 50%. You know what that gets you? 50%.

If you choose to surround yourself with people that want to learn, want to achieve good grades, know things you don’t know and have good learning habits and techniques, guess what? You will become the average of these awesome super students just by hanging around them. You will learn study hacks and tips from each other, motivate one another and collectively achieve better results.

This post isn’t intended to tell you to drop your friends and never talk to them again. Hopefully after reading this you can make a more conscious decision about the people that you choose to study with and spend time with around school.

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