So I'm in Eighth grade. Yipee. This is when the real thing starts and you have to crack down, sit down, and study. But I need help.
As cubing has become my hobby, it's strived me away from studying hard. No, it doesn't help me with math or whatever BS some say.
My problem is that I don't have a lot of motivation. Sure, one of my motives is to do better to get to a good high school or college, but for some reason, and I know it's stupid, it's not enough.
Does anyone have any tips on motivation?
Yes, I put this in the Off-Topic Discussion.
You'll say the same thing once you get to high school, probably again in your junior year of high school, and then again when you get to uni.
Cubing doesn't help you with math, I agree.
External motivation (wanting to get good grades, get into college X, etc.) will only get you so far. For some people, that gets them through all of their undergrad work. For me, it got me through elementary school. For you, it has run out just now, it would seem.
I don't really know what to tell you in this case, other than you're not alone. I struggled through middle and high school only because I had no motivation. I had A test grades all through school but got plenty of Ds and Cs because I did the minimum amount of homework to pass. I know the feeling, I know that it's extremely difficult for you to force yourself to do the work.
I was extremely lucky and had a fantastic math teacher two years in a row, junior and senior year. That was the first time I ever had any real amount of motivation in school. A big part of why I was motivated then was that he encouraged me to explore more on my own. He would tell me to go look up a problem that was somewhat related to what we were doing in class but not what we were covering. So I started poking around a little more with mathematics and then I started looking things up on my own and coming to him after school with questions. I learned so much more from that process than I did in class.
What can you take from that? Well, your teachers know a lot more than what they teach in any one class. If a class is boring you, ask your teacher for some further topics to investigate. If they're willing, talk about the topics with the teacher after you've researched them. Even if you don't have a teacher that's willing to do this (though I can't imagine any teacher being anything but thrilled if a student did this) you can look up what you're talking about in class online and branch out from there.
It doesn't make the homework less boring. But it makes it a lot easier to do when you feel like you've actually been learning something, even if the homework is unrelated.
