Jennifer Dang: How I Studied Through COVID-19 In 2020

We know that COVID lockdown is a difficult and challenging time for all of us. In this article, Jennifer shares how she studied through COVID-19 and gives advice for coping with it all.

How did COVID affect your school, last Lockdown?

In 2020, As my school is a government school, we had shut down when the premier announced the closing of schools in the middle of March.

The school provided us with a great amount of support as teachers would always check up on us every class through Zoom calls.

Furthermore, in our allocated assembly time, we would have Zoom year meetings… which were very chaotic but nonetheless helped ease everyone’s minds.

My friends and I also had lunchtime group calls or study sessions via Zoom, as well to share our concerns and feel connected.

How did COVID affect you personally?

Personally, COVID did not affect my mentality as much as I thought it would have as I learned to see the benefits it provided.

Being at home all day meant that I had so much more time to get on top of my studies.

So, I felt quite relaxed and comfortable and spent a lot of time trying to get ahead and learning concepts myself. If I did not understand something, I noted it down and would ask my school or Matrix+ teacher when possible.

To deal with the anxiety of minimal human connection and stress about school, I turned to my hobbies and would bake, exercise or choose a good book to read.

Doing these activities got my mind off the workload. So, when I came back to my study space, I felt more invigorated to study harder.

Home can be a place of many distractions but to stay focused, I utilised my secret weapon: earplugs.

I cannot stay focus listening to music. And, sound-proof headphones hurt my head after about an hour. So, to effectively study I block out the noise with earplugs and I found that in this way I could study for long periods of time without breaks.

My phone is also a great distractor and so to study I place it somewhere far away on do not disturb mode.

How did you cope with remote learning?

1. Took advantage of Matrix+

The best moments of the pandemic were definitely receiving my Matrix theory books for my during-the-term and holiday courses.

Matrix+ was highly supportive during this period, as the teachers went through the content in a very in-depth manner and I felt as if I was in the normal classroom.

If I had any questions, I would enter it in the discussion board or message my teacher, so I did not feel worried about my studies at all during the pandemic.

Matrix+ is also extremely versatile to adapt to the needs of all students.

As everything is online, once I finished the theory videos, if clarification is needed, I can simply replay the video and have access to all the weekly quizzes and workbook solutions which motivated me to keep up with my studies.

Learn on the go with Matrix+

2. Write a schedule

Furthermore, I built my motivation to study by beginning to write a schedule, I think this is a very effective strategy as it shows a picture of all things I need to accomplish.

I began my schedule by filling in all my normal Matrix class times for chemistry, physics and maths, this was when I would watch theory videos and complete quizzes.

I would then allocate some other time to complete homework and mark it as well.

This method of following a similar schedule to pre-pandemic times allowed me to efficiently study and maintain a good work ethic when motivation was hard to find.

What study strategies did you have to adopt to thrive in 2020?

As the pandemic opened greater time slots to do work, I found a profound eagerness to learn more.

Rather than procrastinating, I wanted to get ahead of schoolwork and tried to study future work through textbooks and online videos.

Upon receiving my Matrix Theory Books, I would attempt to understand the content before watching the theory videos. If I did not fully understand a concept, I would fast-forward the video to the particular section.

I would also attempt all the concept checks and lesson reviews to solidify my understanding and go through the theory video’s explanation if necessary. This way, I felt I was more actively engaged in my own learning and not just passively listening.

After a lesson, I would also write relevant notes down in my book or sticky note the theory book pages so I would not have to rewrite notes when exams came up.

However, at times I did feel quite unmotivated but I hate incomplete tasks so I would turn the theory videos to 1.5x the speed, ensuring I completed the work but in under less time.

If you could have planned for the pandemic, what would you have done?

To prepare for 2020 and beyond, beforehand I would have completed more holiday courses at Matrix rather than term courses.

I believe the holidays are a great time to get ahead and as Matrix provides the opportunity, I would have joined more holiday courses.

Moreover, if I knew this pandemic was coming, I would have studied more difficult subjects to understand like Physics or Chemistry more because then I would have figured out my weak areas and would have time to ask the teacher to explain the concepts further when we had face to face classes because Zoom calls always had their limitations.

I would have honestly tried harder to get ahead with all subjects. Especially for English, I would have asked senior friends what they studied last year and began reading the texts to get a more solid understanding of the text and the author’s writing style.

I would also practice creative writing more, searching the web for writing prompts so I could build a portfolio of characters and ideas that I could easily adapt to for school tasks. I believe this would also be extremely useful for year 12 as the Craft of Writing module calls for these skills.

Final thoughts

Although 2020 was been a year of great changes and everyone has had their own struggles, I think it has also been a great opportunity to reflect on ourselves and really redefine our life goals.

I believe the pandemic struggles has prepared me for greater challenges in the future by testing my resilience and my adaptability. The pandemic really challenged my work ethic and so I needed to find better strategies to keep me focused and have the will to learn more. Also, with the transition from school classes to an overwhelming abundance of new online platforms and confusing remote learning schedules, the pandemic has increased my adaptability to new environments, I now have a less anxious attitude to trying out new things.

So, despite 2020 being a rough year, with a positive outlook and trying to distract myself with academic success I have made it so far. Thank you so much for taking your time to read my blog, and I hope you have gained a few helpful tips!