How to be Exam Smart - Part 9

Apologies for keeping the blog idle for a week. Been busy with re-organisation after prelims. Pulled out materials that needs more coverage and starting working on them, at the same time looking through my scholarship application wondering if I should rewrite the essay. I promised to show my mindmaps but I am not done with scanning, so it will come in the next issue.

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Interacted with some friends these few days, quite glad that Aik Meng actually remembered what I told him some time ago... Words that leave such impression on a top student must be useful, so let me share with you these words of wisdom.

Tip

Reach for the stars. For if you fail, you will still hit the sky.

First of all, I have to say that I don't know what does "fail" means. This word has been erased off my dictionary long ago, and it's even more confusing in this context.

Do you know why some people aim for 70 marks and they don't get it? The reason is very simple. It's because they give themselves 30 marks to fail.

Get it? It's not really easy to understand if your aim is always the passing mark, cos we are talking about the sky here. You realise the mindset of top students are always getting 100 marks. The moment you tell yourself that 90 marks is acceptable, you will miss out studying some important info cos you already give yourself 10 marks to lose, so it's ok to miss a little of this and a little of that and you end up not getting the results you wanted initially.

This is really what's going on inside your brain. It's time to retune that wonderful gift of yours.

I gonna burst my cap.

Limits. They are meant to be broken.

Teachings from Buddha

Extracted this part from the audio on my iPod that follows me wherever I go. This is by Anthony Robbins in his Personal Power II program - Day 19 - Overcoming Fears of Failure and Success.

Buddha was well known for his ability to respond to evil with good, and there was a man who knew about this reputation and had travelled for miles to test Buddha. And what he did was when he got into Buddha's presence, he verbally abused him, challenged him, insulted him. He did everything he could to try and offend Buddha.

Buddha was unmoved. He simply turned to the man and said, "May I ask you a question?"

The man responded, "What?"

Buddha said, "If someone offers you a gift and you decline to accept it, to whom then does it belong?"

The man said, "Well then it belongs to the person who offered it."

Buddha smiled. "That is correct. So if I decline to accept your abuse, does it not then still belong to you?"

The man is speechless.

How to be Exam Smart - Part 8

This is not going to make sense to some of you. It works for me and many others.

Tip

Isolate yourself during the learning process.

Those who disagree say that learning alone is stupid because friends are there when you do not know something or miss out on critical information. My question to them is, why rely on them in the first place? Do they really value-add to your learning process?

Learning alone and knowing that you do not have anybody to fall back on will keep you in tip-top learning condition.

Next part of this series, I will share with you the skill of doing mind maps. One of the best learning methods around.

Book Review

From this year onwards, I will be doing reviews of every book that I read. Being an avid reader, I drop by book stores almost once every week to check out new titles and will then proceed to libraries to get it. However, the ratio of non-fiction to fiction books is about 20 to 1. Good books will definitely end up on my shelf, so drop me a comment if you are interested to borrow.

The first completed book for 2009 is Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

I liked his first two books (The Tipping Point and Blink) very much but this is abit of a disappointment as compared.

This book subjects itself on what makes an outlier, the one that lies at the tail end of the bell curve. Intelligence and success may not have correlation. It talks about the success behind successful people like Bill Gates and others, on why asians perform better in mathematics, just to name afew. People with the highest IQ might not even make it without the luck and the people you meet along the way. Just like the chinese saying, "天时、地理、仁和、智慧", one needs a combination of them to be successful.

As usual, this book is packed with facts that will make you realise the reason why things are the way it is. Visit his site to find out more.

Out of his three published books, I still like The Tipping Point best.

The Tipping Point
Blink
Outliers

How to be Exam Smart - Part 7

This is going to be harsh. But it makes the most sense.

Tip

The people you meet in school will determine what kind of student you are. Choose them wisely.

School is not the place to make friends. Trust me.

I call them school mates. And the function of school mates is to help you in your studies. But that doesn't mean you must keep away from those who can't score well. Identify those who work hard. Find students that are cleverer than you. Stay away from people who come to school to play.

Drop me a comment if you are following. Tell me if it helps.

How to be Exam Smart - Part 6

Needs no explanation

Tip

Repetition is the mother of skill.

To be skilful, keep practising. But make sure you are doing the right thing. And do it right everytime.