Are you interested in online schooling or are you an online student looking for a good study routine? Either way, you are in the right place! Welcome to my online school study routine!
If you didn’t know: I studied online in my senior year of High School. Interested in why I switched? Comment below and I will write a separate post about it!
Today, I will share my online school study routine with you, which I used for finishing senior year of high school in 6 months (Started end of October and graduated in May 2019- I was done April though) and got me good grades (A’s and one B).
Interested? Let me show you my daily schedule first before explaining how I studied exactly.
Click here for my guide to online classes in college.
Table of Contents
MY DAILY SCHEDULE
7-8 am: Wake up and get dressed (if I felt like it haha)
8-8:30 am: Breakfast and walk the dog
8:30 am: Get out my notebook and pen and start my computer. I had a study schedule planned, so I looked at it then to see what I would study first. (How I calculated the schedule is explained below).
9 am- 1 pm: study
around 1-2 pm: lunch and family time (my baby brother needed playmates haha)
2-4 pm: study
after 4 pm: Film or edit Youtube videos, meet with friends, workout, etc.
11 pm: go to bed. I tried my best to turn off my lights before 11, or midnight latest, so I can wake up early for studying.
Now, that is a vague daily routine, and actually an example of a non-work day. I worked from October till February in a restaurant with different schedules every day, so I pretty much studied before and after work.
How much you study really depends on your grade level and how fast you want to be done. I tried my very best to finish as soon as I could, to have my diploma as soon as possible.
I traveled a lot during that semester, and studied on vacation, even if not every day.
If you are not an early bird, you can get up later and move your study sessions. Tbh, I hated waking up early, but after trying hard for a week or two, because I wanted to get my studying done, I actually couldn’t ever sleep longer! haha.
Let’s get to my actual online school study routine now so you know how I studied efficiently.
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MY STUDY ROUTINE
So what I did at the beginning of each month, was to write down my classes I was currently in. That was around 6 at the beginning and got less towards graduation.
In total, I completed about 9-10 classes in those 6 months, which were the mandatory classes I needed, to receive the diploma.
I am from Switzerland by the way, and studied a year in the US, junior year of High School. And because European standards are different, I had to take those mandatory classes to be able to graduate with an American HS diploma.
Now, getting back to my study routine.
I wrote down all the classes I had, and how many units they had.
After a few weeks, I knew how long which class and its units took me, and I could make a plan for how soon I would graduate if I studied that amount every day.
That looked like this:
US government: 20 units/chapters, each unit takes me 1 study day if I only study that one subject the whole day, = 20 days.
Environmental science: 14 units, each unit takes me about 3 hours, so let’s say I can finish 2 a day, = 7 days for this class.
And so on.
Then, I had quizzes after each unit, which I counted as full days even if I studied something else after a quiz. I just didn’t want to scale it all too tight. Your goals need to be achievable and you need to set some time off too.
The final exams at the end of each class took me about 2 hours each time, but I liked to study before them, so I counted those as full days as well, just like essays I had due.
Counting all my classes together, let’s just say 100 days, I calculated how many weeks that would be, in this case, 14.3 weeks of pure studying.
Since we don’t do that, at least you shouldn’t if you wanna avoid burnout, I added one free day to each week (on normal weeks. If I knew I had a lot of work or a vacation, I added 2.)
So the free days for 14 weeks would be approx. 20 days plus, so we end up with graduating, or finishing the school year, with 120 days.
I hope that makes sense!
Those were not my exact numbers of days since I threw my study planner away after graduation, but the time each unit took me is pretty accurate.
So we now have the plan on how much I need to study daily to reach my graduation goal.
Depending on what online school you’re enrolled in, you may have assignments due on specific days. For me though, since I was 18 and enrolled in the adult track, everything was self-paced, and I could submit essays and assignments whenever I was ready (or wanted to be done).
So on one day, I would write the essay, on another I would study 2 units of environmental science. I did have classes with insanely long units, where one took me about 3 full days to complete. But that is okay, as long as you do your best and get it done!
HOW I STUDIED EXACTLY
First, I copied the information that’s in the KEY TERMS section. That included the most important information for the unit. So in my notes, I would just copy that in.
After that, I read the passage and note everything I find important. When I am done with the reading and taking notes, I review my notes and highlight keywords, dates, important people, etc. in different colors.
For studying for a quiz, I would just read my notes and take the quiz. If I didn’t do good enough, I had the chance of retaking it, but twice was the maximum times’ quizzes could be taken, at least for my online school.
Before taking the second quiz, I would look up everything I didn’t know in the first one and take notes of them. I either did that in the unit itself, or I googled the answer.
Then, I would take the second quiz.
Of course, the second quiz didn’t have the same questions, but many were in it again, so looking it up before taking the second one definitely helps a lot.
For final exams, I would do the same.
And no, you cannot cheat, since you are monitored through a chrome extension. So they can hear everything and see everything. You need a clean desk and can’t leave the room, but you can have a cup of water on your desk of course.
Some quizzes or exams can be open notes, but that depends on your class and online school.
MY STUDY TIPS
- Set goals. It will be hard to achieve them without having them! You need a guideline to follow.
- Be persistent. If you don’t work for your goal, you won’t achieve it! Try to stick to your schedule and get your work done before doing other things.
- Reach out to teachers. They are there to help you! Yes it’s easier to ask a question in real life, but you do have teachers available, so use that to your advantage and don’t struggle with a problem too long.
- Take breaks. It’s okay not to study all day every day. If you are on a good track, take time off for fun stuff, you deserve it.
- Don’t let anyone influence you. Your friends may try to convince you to come back to school, or other people may try to make you change your mind. But don’t let them! Show them how good your choice was in getting good grades, having time for things you love, like a dance career or traveling, and graduate on the side!
I hope this online school study routine helped you in creating your own routine!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me privately as well, I have had so many students talking to me about online school since there really aren’t many people out there sharing these things. So yeah, you’re not the only one.
Check out my YouTube videos about online school as well!
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I hope these videos help!!
Until soon,
Did you only study one class a day or did you do multiple classes a day? I’m currently behind in my online classes and my biggest set back that kills my motivation, is trying to catch up in one class and getting anxiety that I’m just getting super behind in the classes I’m not working on. Also, what kept you motivated?
Hi! So in High School, I did only do one class a day. But now that my college classes have been moved online, I do multiple classes, depending on what is due first. Getting good grades was probably my biggest motivation, also, if you do the work sooner rather than later, you can do something fun without being stressed about getting homework done:)
Online classes can be really demotivating. and depressing. But this articles helps a lot in finding some good rhythm…Thanx a bunch!
Thank you! I’m so glad it helped!