How has Home-Based Learning (HBL) been for you so far? We’re guessing most of you will understandably be happy to say goodbye to HBL in around a week’s time. 

HBL has been a challenging experience for some — from technical issues and the lack of immediate teacher feedback and guidance to the need for more discipline over one’s time and work. 

And while there is an abundance of advice for HBL, we wanted to hear from our students themselves — who have gone through weeks of HBL — what has worked for them. Speaking to some of them, it became clear that there were three important areas for making HBL a productive and positive experience. 

Here are their top tips!

Schedule, schedule, schedule but don’t forget to rest! 

It is important to have a rough timetable of the day, written down where you can see it. This helps you stay on track with what you are supposed to do, even though things have been disrupted because of the coronavirus. — Y5 Rachelle Lauren Chung

Something that I have found to have helped me a lot through my HBL journey is creating a timetable, as this really helps me to have a clear idea of what exactly I have to focus on for the day, and setting aside some time to just take a break before getting back to work :) — Y4 Claire Elisabeth Francis

Some study tips that are helping me cope with HBL include making a schedule as well as trying to sleep on time! This is because I personally feel that coming up with a schedule allows me to be more organised and disciplined during this one month without going to school. Making sure that I get sufficient rest is also important as many people tend to sleep late during the HBL period because there is no need to wake up as early as usual!!! — Y6 Feliz Ang

Create a well-organised study space with minimal distractions. 

Basically have the things you need beside you. For me, I like to separate out tuition stuff to the right and school to the left. And when learning online, you should have water beside you. — Y1 Raiyane Oh 

Another tip is closing all irrelevant tabs and switching off your phone during lessons and while doing work. This is essential to accomplishing anything, and putting these away can really increase productivity. — Y5 Rachelle Lauren Chung 

We should create a conducive study environment. Tidying up our desks, putting up motivational quotes and removing unnecessary distractions can help us focus and stay on task during HBL. — Y5 Ashley Tan

Make time for new hobbies and for family, but remember to revise too. 

In these trying times, it is important that we spend quality time with our family. Before HBL, we were all busy in school and hanging out with our friends. Now it is an excellent opportunity to take time to bond with our family members! We can watch movies or have a meal together. Alternatively, we can pick up a new hobby. Examples may include yoga, baking, gaming, etc. As of now, I have been hard at baking and I’ve learnt so many new recipes. Most importantly, we should utilise this time to catch up and revise on subjects. Although mid-years are cancelled, we should strive to become the best version of ourselves.  — Y4 Ashley Tan

We hope that these tips will help make the rest of your HBL experience a great one too!

At AfterSkool, we are proud that we have been able to support our students in this period of HBL with our real-time, video-conference-based programme AfterSkooLive! To hear what our students have to say about how AfterSkooLive! has helped them during this period, click here. 

While HBL will hopefully be coming to an end soon, some of these tips can also be applied to your revision during the June Holidays too. 

Given the disruptions to learning as a result of the circuit breaker measures, the holidays are a good opportunity to take stock of and address any revision needs arising from Term 2 and earlier. Having a schedule for both work and play, maintaining a study environment with minimal distractions for when you want to revise, and making time for some revision while enjoying time with the family and pursuing new hobbies can help ensure that the mid-year break provides both ample rest and preparation for the new term.

AfterSkool’s June Holiday programme aims to help with the latter. Consisting of lessons twice a week per subject, the programme helps students to start Term 3 off on the right foot. To find out more about this programme, please enquire at admissions.afterskool.com.sg. 

We’ll be sharing more tips on how to revise effectively during the June Holidays. Till then, we hope you have a great week of HBL ahead!