Hey everyone. I have been “um”ing and “ah”ing about what I could talk about with this last word. I thought I might talk about something inspirational… maybe finish with a quote of some sort? I’m only joking.  But there will be a quote!

Anyway, I have decided to give you guys my ten tips for taking on NCEA, and I mean grabbing it by the horns.

This is the most simple and handy one I can give you.

1. Have two different coloured pens for the year. Don’t laugh.

I say this because I have learnt the importance of colour coding your notes, I don’t like reading my messy notes when it comes round to exam time and having neat notes is extremely important.

2. Have neat notes. This ties in with the first tip, having neat notes is essential if you want to do well, take the time and care to make sure you will understand what you mean 7,8 months down the track. 

3. Have a homework plan. To the Year 11s this is the second greatest tip I can give you.  Developing a study plan early in your NCEA career will pay massively next year and the year after.  It took me a year to get my one sorted but it worked wonders last year, in comparison to my Year 11. Once you’ve made it, make sure you stick to it religiously. 

4. Be competitive. This may seem silly, but you should constantly compare yourself to someone better than you. It won’t be easy, and a lot of the time you will not be better than who you choose, but you’ll be surprised how much it helps. It will feel terrible when you compare results with him and he will have a much higher grade but you need to use this to motivate you.

5. Don’t be happy with anything less than your best. This one is similar to tip number four but slightly different. You need to have a drive to succeed and there is nothing worse than the feeling of selling yourself short on an internal that you could have sent to pound town. 

6. Read the question. I cannot tell you how many times I have misread a question or skimmed over it, it has cost me so many merits and excellences. It's a simple enough thing to do. Take your time and make sure you fully understand what you need to write. 

7. Get headphones. These will be for studying, at home there are a lot of distractions, and the best thing to drone them out is a good LMFAO party rock anthem. Or whatever music you prefer, but I do recommend any banger from 2012. 

8. Use class time wisely and set deadlines. There is no sweeter feeling than doing an internal entirely in school, and if you set your deadlines and stay on top of it, this will be a reality. This also means asking teachers for help when you need it, and if all they do is confuse you, ask the other lads in the classroom. Chances are that they will be able to dumb it down a bit or explain it in student language.

9. Don’t procrastinate. Just don't be that guy. If you are procrastinating, it is probably because you don’t fully know what to do, if that is the case - ask for help. I am guilty of procrastinating, and the most helpful thing that helped me shake it loose is to hop on Messenger and ask a mate for help. 

10. This is my final and most important tip. Read books. If you want to ignore this whole list you can but you have to, you must, take this away with you. I’m not going to blather on about living a thousand lifetimes in books, nor will I recommend any specific books for you to read.

Reading books will help you so much with essay writing, it will help you understand difficult concepts in English, it will give you the ability to write eloquently when talking about the delicacies of the Nucleus. Reading books will help you so much, it’s like training for writing without having to actually write.

As Sir Richard Steele once said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”.

There you have it, Rob’s ten tips to NCEA. Good luck fellas, use this priceless information well.

Thanks.