Before I start writing this blog post, I would like to quote one of the authors during the panel discussion that said, "Inspiration...is everywhere!". As I was on my way home from the MRT station today, I drifted off into deep thought and suddenly had and idea on what to do for my final blog post for term 2. So what I will be doing on today will really be on our tests and the different aspects of getting an A1for Language Arts, or in some examples, every other subject.
So to excel in any exam, there is no doubt that one has to prepare for it. This is one of those factors that allow one to use hard work as an advantage over other people that might be smarter than him. To me, this is one of the most important stages in every examination. Being not very smart all the way from young, I still remember what spurred me to constantly improve myself. When I was in primary 3 and I saw that my grades were really falling and I was failing a lot of my subjects, I decided to do something about it. I would actually say that was a turning point in my life. I started looking up books, internet and advice from older people on study and preparation tips and it has really helped me even till today!
Firstly, I realised that the reason why some people remember things easier while other students struggle just with a simple mathematical formula, is really due to the way they think. When many people cannot understand certain parts about their studies, they start to memorise. This is really, really bad. You see, our brain does not work like how computers do, with a string of binary numbers computing data as easy as just following it. Our brain is made up of neurons, and neurons work by connecting different ideas together! I guess this is also a reason why mind maps help us a lot. Even if we have to memorise sometimes though, we can connect them to other things which really makes the job efficient. It also helps to know what type of learner you are! If you are an auditory learner, maybe you could record yourself reading a passage instead of just reading it straight from the paper to help yourself understand it better. Or if you are a person whose highest intelligence is visual, you could try drawing pictures of scenes in a composition to help you better relate to where and how the scene might look like.
Next, comes the stage where whatever you pen down on the paper determines your marks. In my opinion, this is the stage where its importance is only superficial. First, we have to ask ourselves this question, why are there examinations? Well the main purpose is to gauge how much you know a certain subject, and not how well you have studied the textbook. There is a difference between these two, but clearly most examinations just require you to memorise the text from certain sources and then you just have to paste everything there during the examination. What I feel that is more important than really just doing the examination for the sake of marks, is whether you have truly understood the subject, if you have truly learnt. The marks are just digits there, but what valuable information that you store in your head for future use, will be the one to help you in your future.
Finally, comes the stage of irony. The stage where people who did not prepare start to get nervous, the stage where those that studied very hard for it get excited and the stage where hopes are crushed and given at the same time. There ill be people who think that they did not do well, but still do in the end. On the other hand, there will be the opposite and vice versa. I find that if you have done well, congratulations and keep up the good work. The important thing is if you have not, what would you do now? I say we pick ourselves up again to do well in the next examination because we cannot turn back time. There is no point in trying to bargain with the teacher for more marks and stating that some questions are marked too strictly. What we should want ourselves to do, is to REALLY improve. This ability to fall down and pick yourself up is so great, that people don't look for candidates with a straight perfect score, but people who have improved after a failure. Frankly speaking, it all boils down to the human mind. The way we look at things, the way we interpret them and the way we deal with them. People say failures are inevitable, but I say that they actually are! If you take single time you fall as a opportunity to improve yourself, then there will never be such a thing called failures, only stepping stones to success!
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