Tackling the Modules

I read one of my jnr's blog about his disappointment after taking a quiz. I guess this is not uncommon to most students, esp having to study and mugg so hard for a quiz /exam, but ended screwing it up. I did ever discuss this issue with my friends: Is hard work equivalent to scoring good results?

I recall a very effective method adopted by TJC which helps us improve in our results (I duno if its still greatly emphasized during bean and littlecow's time). Esp from the chemistry department, we were continuously and strongly urged to review our own exam scripts seriously, to find out why we didnt manage to score well. It may not sound great or new to most ppl, but I dun think many ppl practise it eventually when coming to uni. At least I din for the first few yrs in NUS.

Probably in NUS we couldnt get back our own exam scripts, thats why we could only rely on our experiences in quizes. After some reflections, I realise that one of the main factor that stop me scoring well was laziness. It's not that I din study well or attempt the past yr papers, but I was often too lazy to solve them on my own, but heavily relied on answers, either given by lecturer or done by friends.

Due to this habit, I lost confidence in myself during examinations. I became so used to having the answers alongside with the qns, that I found great resistance to start off from scratch with my own answers during exams. In other words, I have lost the 'swiftness, speed and fluency' when attempting the questions during exams. Finally, I realised what Sukandar did in the past was very useful (he has one stack of dean list certs). He would always reserve some past yr exam papers and used them as his mock exams. He would also time himself, and tell us before hand not to disturb him during that 2 hrs. This method may be conventional, but it really gave me the added confidence during exam conditions, even if the exam questions do not appear similar to those you have attempted from the past yr papers.

Another factor which I found out on why i didnt do well for my exams, was becos there were many things in the modules that I didnt know I duno. Studying by myself, I was always trapped in my own loop, with very limited occasional break through. I may be able to go find out what i duno, but wat abt those concepts that i dun even know i duno? Studying with friends definitely help a lot. Over the yrs, I found out that a lot of my marks have been robbed or wasted due to this factor.

In reply to my earlier query on: Is hard work = good results? The answer on a strict note, is NO. Gone are the times that we could rely on diligently reading up of course materials and hardcore practising of past yr qns. Its all abt how much we can think, develop ideas and interpret from the limited course materials.