Welcome to Victor Gan.blogspot.com. This blog is not a personal blog, it is an information blog set up by me, a Secondary School Student. As I blog, i will also be learning in the process. This site is set up by a teenager and it is for teenagers to look through and read the articles to guide them past their arduos teenage life. Unlike researchers and adults who write articles based on researches and studies, i write them based on researches, studies, as well as experiences. The Experiences are all within the same time frame of what you, my audience is reading.
This site will be consisting of many articles as the years goes by, podcasts will also be made regularly regarding certain specific issues. In order to better cater to all of you, I hope that I could generate enough revenue to buy myself a domain and some webspace, so feel free to donate generously if you feel that my articles are useful and relevant to your teenage life.
As I have mentioned before hand, this blog will also allow me to learn on the way of teaching others how to live a fulfilling lifestyle, there might be guest bloggers that are more experienced in their teenage life than me, thus this site will be the resource that you could turn to when you require help.
If you have any burning questions or issue that you hope that I could elaborate on, feel free to email me on crazyhamster@gmail.com. If possible I will address them with the help of certain experts around me and blog about them, free of charge
( Although a small sum of money is will be greatly appreciated.)
On the last note, this blog is still very young, thus the number of articles will continue to grow and I hope that you will be able to visit this blog more often, and I could continue this little project of mine. Thank you.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
What You should do if you keep failing your subjects
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail
A teenagers life isn't as carefree and relax as people often make out of. The cliche phrase above must be very familar to all of you here, it is the phrase that many teachers and experts of this field often remind us of. Regrettably, this phrase is really very true. Especially in Singapore, this whole concept of studying is no longer revolving around the 8-10 subjects that a normal student will take. No matter what stream you are in, Special, Express, Normal Academic, Normal Technical, or IP, you will be burdened by a huge massive amount of stress and responsibility.
I am no exception. I am in the top school of Singapore, from a neighborhood school to an independent school, the switch was significant. The amount of work will just clobber at you. I believe that every primary school students moving on to their Secondary school life will take a while to adapt to the environment and the additional workload. In Primary school, holding leadership positions are nothing, it is basically for the fun and the pride of it. However, being in my secondary schools' council for three whole years, gave me a deeper insight time management.
In year 1 and 2s, my council work was not that heavy, basically, I just had to move tables and chairs and settle logistical items during events, with a few meeting here and there. The school works are really simple too, I easily aced all my subjects at the end of the two years. However, when I reach Year 3, the change was rather big. I was promoted to be the Scouts Chairman, I was elected into the Council Executive Committee, and i was chosen to be in the schools major event: 12th Student Leaders Convention. that convention took up more than half of my time, including my sleeping time.
At the start of the year, I felt that the things are really manageable, I thought I was good at time management, but it was not right. I started staying up all the way to 4 am to finish my council work, my homework were slowly but steadily neglected, i started to procrastinate, my results were poorer and poorer each month. Every term, I had an excuse, but during term 3, I had no excuses, SLC is over. I did the worst in term 3. How did it actually happen? Why aren't I performing? I realised something, I had not been able to keep up with my homework regularly, became a regular in copying homework. I felt like shit. Seriously, never in my whole life I have felt like this before.
I failed some subjects in term 2, I thought i could recover fast and thus, I would not feel the remorse and pain. I was terribly wrong. In term 3, there was not any failure but a number of subjects turned into a C grade. I was disgusted, infront of my friends, I have acted to be strong and laughed if off. Now, I am taking a step back and reviewing what went wrong and what should have been done.
I believe that many students subjects and results have taken a downfall since their secondary school life. It is only possible if one wants to help himself, however many of the guides out there are written from the experts, they might not understand what exactly went wrong. From my perspective, I am a defeatist of poor time management recently, my experience speaks all and I could best describe what a teenager should do right now.
#1: Remorse but don't Mourn.
Many self-help books and website I went to explained to me, failure is the mother of all successes. My response? "I will have too many mother to count at the of the day." The statement isn't entirely bull, but it could only be used as a form of self-encouraging statement, please, do not include that into your 10 commandments of life. Since now that you have failed, i would suggest that you stop moving on with your life for a short period of life. At least, an hour. Or you can take 3 hours or more. It will not be a wasting of time. Step back (Not literally) in your mind. Sit down on your chair, take a deep breath and seriously think of what you did in the last term. Do not think of what you did wrong, instead think of what went right. Take a blank sheet of paper, and jot down, what you think went right in the whole term, semester, or even year.
Your list should not be more than 20 more items, ( or else you will not had failed) and list them according to the most 'correct' thing to the last. Leave the list there.
Next, you should think back into the past and list out what went wrong. The list could go on and on, but just list out at most 25 most "wrong" thing that you did. Place the two list side by side.
Those will be the reflections that you had made for the screwing up of various subjects. The things does not stop here, many students just reflect, but they seldom act upon their reflection. Now the only right thing to do is to make yourself a contract, in your mind, a contract that you will bind that you will continue doing the right thing and you will not repeat the mistake that you committed in the previous experience. For example: My bad list may include: procrastination, thus the next term I must stop having procrastination.
It is not easy to achieve such a goal, this goal will be your long term goal. This goal will be a general direction that you should work upon.
#2 Act upon it and keep to it.
After reflecting and setting your long term goal, it is definitely not enough. Short term goals now kick in. For goodness sake, do a daily goal table. There are various programs that you could use to aid you in having a daily goal each day. For apple users(ME!) you could use morri, a wonderful planner.
You could use the various method:
From the comments that I have gotten from, this program is not very useful due to its inflexibility, but maybe people who tend to be too flexible may consider using the program to aid you, however this program is not entirely free.
This is the most primitive method, for many this could also be the most effective method, everything is up to you, everything will be decided upon you, the pen-holder. This is the recommended method for most of the people, however, a point to note, please keep them neat and tidy.
The geeky version of "pen and pencil" great to keep your things neat and tidy.
How should you go about setting your short term goal? From your long term goal, please draw up a study plan. It may not be possible to learn achieve your goals everyday, however, the most important part is to have tried your best. For example: Your long term goal is to improve on your physics, your short term goals should be doing your homework everyday, revise a specific topic each week.
#3 Stop procrastinating START ON THE DAY YOU FAIL!
Last but not least, you should not think, i will start tomorrow. Think about those people who said that " I will start losing weight tomorrow" will they ever get to do it? The answer is a definite no. Thus, in everything, you plan, you should plan to start it on the day itself.
USe your failure as a momentum, a momentum for you to swing yourself to the better side of life. Remember your failure, but do not mourn your failure, forget the mourning but do not forget the pain. All the best for you.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail
A teenagers life isn't as carefree and relax as people often make out of. The cliche phrase above must be very familar to all of you here, it is the phrase that many teachers and experts of this field often remind us of. Regrettably, this phrase is really very true. Especially in Singapore, this whole concept of studying is no longer revolving around the 8-10 subjects that a normal student will take. No matter what stream you are in, Special, Express, Normal Academic, Normal Technical, or IP, you will be burdened by a huge massive amount of stress and responsibility.
I am no exception. I am in the top school of Singapore, from a neighborhood school to an independent school, the switch was significant. The amount of work will just clobber at you. I believe that every primary school students moving on to their Secondary school life will take a while to adapt to the environment and the additional workload. In Primary school, holding leadership positions are nothing, it is basically for the fun and the pride of it. However, being in my secondary schools' council for three whole years, gave me a deeper insight time management.
In year 1 and 2s, my council work was not that heavy, basically, I just had to move tables and chairs and settle logistical items during events, with a few meeting here and there. The school works are really simple too, I easily aced all my subjects at the end of the two years. However, when I reach Year 3, the change was rather big. I was promoted to be the Scouts Chairman, I was elected into the Council Executive Committee, and i was chosen to be in the schools major event: 12th Student Leaders Convention. that convention took up more than half of my time, including my sleeping time.
At the start of the year, I felt that the things are really manageable, I thought I was good at time management, but it was not right. I started staying up all the way to 4 am to finish my council work, my homework were slowly but steadily neglected, i started to procrastinate, my results were poorer and poorer each month. Every term, I had an excuse, but during term 3, I had no excuses, SLC is over. I did the worst in term 3. How did it actually happen? Why aren't I performing? I realised something, I had not been able to keep up with my homework regularly, became a regular in copying homework. I felt like shit. Seriously, never in my whole life I have felt like this before.
I failed some subjects in term 2, I thought i could recover fast and thus, I would not feel the remorse and pain. I was terribly wrong. In term 3, there was not any failure but a number of subjects turned into a C grade. I was disgusted, infront of my friends, I have acted to be strong and laughed if off. Now, I am taking a step back and reviewing what went wrong and what should have been done.
I believe that many students subjects and results have taken a downfall since their secondary school life. It is only possible if one wants to help himself, however many of the guides out there are written from the experts, they might not understand what exactly went wrong. From my perspective, I am a defeatist of poor time management recently, my experience speaks all and I could best describe what a teenager should do right now.
#1: Remorse but don't Mourn.
Many self-help books and website I went to explained to me, failure is the mother of all successes. My response? "I will have too many mother to count at the of the day." The statement isn't entirely bull, but it could only be used as a form of self-encouraging statement, please, do not include that into your 10 commandments of life. Since now that you have failed, i would suggest that you stop moving on with your life for a short period of life. At least, an hour. Or you can take 3 hours or more. It will not be a wasting of time. Step back (Not literally) in your mind. Sit down on your chair, take a deep breath and seriously think of what you did in the last term. Do not think of what you did wrong, instead think of what went right. Take a blank sheet of paper, and jot down, what you think went right in the whole term, semester, or even year.
Your list should not be more than 20 more items, ( or else you will not had failed) and list them according to the most 'correct' thing to the last. Leave the list there.
Next, you should think back into the past and list out what went wrong. The list could go on and on, but just list out at most 25 most "wrong" thing that you did. Place the two list side by side.
Those will be the reflections that you had made for the screwing up of various subjects. The things does not stop here, many students just reflect, but they seldom act upon their reflection. Now the only right thing to do is to make yourself a contract, in your mind, a contract that you will bind that you will continue doing the right thing and you will not repeat the mistake that you committed in the previous experience. For example: My bad list may include: procrastination, thus the next term I must stop having procrastination.
It is not easy to achieve such a goal, this goal will be your long term goal. This goal will be a general direction that you should work upon.
#2 Act upon it and keep to it.
After reflecting and setting your long term goal, it is definitely not enough. Short term goals now kick in. For goodness sake, do a daily goal table. There are various programs that you could use to aid you in having a daily goal each day. For apple users(ME!) you could use morri, a wonderful planner.
You could use the various method:
- Windows outlook
From the comments that I have gotten from, this program is not very useful due to its inflexibility, but maybe people who tend to be too flexible may consider using the program to aid you, however this program is not entirely free.
- Pen and Pencil
This is the most primitive method, for many this could also be the most effective method, everything is up to you, everything will be decided upon you, the pen-holder. This is the recommended method for most of the people, however, a point to note, please keep them neat and tidy.
- Words
The geeky version of "pen and pencil" great to keep your things neat and tidy.
How should you go about setting your short term goal? From your long term goal, please draw up a study plan. It may not be possible to learn achieve your goals everyday, however, the most important part is to have tried your best. For example: Your long term goal is to improve on your physics, your short term goals should be doing your homework everyday, revise a specific topic each week.
#3 Stop procrastinating START ON THE DAY YOU FAIL!
Last but not least, you should not think, i will start tomorrow. Think about those people who said that " I will start losing weight tomorrow" will they ever get to do it? The answer is a definite no. Thus, in everything, you plan, you should plan to start it on the day itself.
USe your failure as a momentum, a momentum for you to swing yourself to the better side of life. Remember your failure, but do not mourn your failure, forget the mourning but do not forget the pain. All the best for you.
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