1. Every study guide published in the last 35 years starts by advising you to settle upon one location to do your Sudying. That's still good advice, whether you choose the kitchen table, your bedroom or the family recreation room. Choose a place with good lighting, preferably with a firm chair and working surface, and where interrupts will be at a minimum.

2. Make out a study schedule for one week, allowing yourself breaks to reward your- self. At the end of the first week make an honest assessment of how well you did. Revise it -- and then try to stick to it for the rest of the school year.

3. Psychologists say we have a good chance of retaining new information if we recall it within 24 hours. If we recall it once again within a week, the memory hangs onto it. That's why it is essential to look back at the notes you took in school that day, and to review them again before the week has ended. Simple as that sounds, it is often the difference between average and excel lent marks, or between passing and failing.

4. Try to do more than the bare minimum that is required. Your interests in a subject will jump dramatically if you read some of the supplementary material recommended by the teacher.

5. Understand what you're supposed to do in your homework before you leave the classroom. It's no good trying to figure out at 9 o'clock that evening what the mathematics teacher meant by something she said just before the second-last period ended. Find out during class.

6. Try to prepare ahead. Both your interest and your retention rate will soar if you have read, in advance, material that your teacher will be presenting. Often, what you thought might be a boring class turns out to be fun.

7. Organize yourself so you complete chores before you start your homework. Some students try to complete phone calls before homework. Others allow themselves the reward of a break to make social phone calls.

8. Take a close look at the way you take notes and ask yourself whether you could improve your methods. The most successful students organize their notes immediately after taking them rather than waiting a few days or a week. If you feel you're still having problems, speak to the teacher of the subject which is giving you trouble.

9. Don't let yourself fall behind. Nothing is more discouraging than the realization that you've missed an assignment dead line while other work is falling behind. Try to provide time in your schedule for assignments. If you're still falling behind, take another close look at your schedule and make adjustments.

10. Finally, learn to type if it is at all possible. Not only is typing a skill that could mean the difference between getting a job or not in later life, but teachers in both high school and university confess that they tend to give higher marks for neatly typed assignments. Neat typing won't disguse a sloppily researched assignment, but it is far better than almost illegible handwriting.

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