Aim Higher’s 12 Tips to Top Marks

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera,

Regardless of your preferred learning style, there’s an idea in this list that’s guaranteed to work for you!

1. Make a Personal Revision Aid

If you only use one tip, make it this one! Take an ordinary sheet of A4 paper. Fold it in half lengthways. Now look at the notes you are trying to learn and turn them into questions. Write these questions on the left hand side of the paper. “When was the French Revolution?”; “What happens when magnesium is added to sulphuric acid”; and so on. Then, on the right hand side, jot down the answers to these questions. By turning facts into questions, you’re getting your brain to work immediately.

2. Maintain Your Motivation

Face up to it – exams are stressful, and it’s easy to feel depressed in advance. But success in your exams will give you the future you have chosen for yourself. Can you imagine an athlete preparing for an important event by saying, “Well, it’s not really that important how I do”?

3. Make a Mind Map

Use the creative and visual part of your brain to help you remember relationships in the material you are studying. Get a big piece of paper and some coloured pens. Write the topic that you are mind-mapping in capital letters in the centre of the paper. Draw a ring around it. Select a colour for one of the areas that the topic breaks down into. Draw a large branch in that colour out from the central idea and label it in capitals. Think up a cartoon or symbol that represents that idea to you. Now break down the major branch into smaller ones, sticking with the same main colour, but coming up with new cartoons wherever possible.

4. Go For a Walk

When your brain is working, your body needs to be working too. It’s partly the old chemical link between our minds and our bodies. When we’re stressed, our body assumes that it is in danger – it either needs to fight a threat or to run away from it. So once in a while, get your body moving but have some work with you. You can think through problems and jot down ideas. And if there’s something that you’re having real trouble learning, then doing it in an unusual setting can make it easier.

5. Involve Other People!

We are sociable animals and work best as part of a team. Involve other people and your revision will become much easier. Get parents or brothers and sisters to ask you questions about your work, perhaps using the personal revision aids you’ve made earlier. Work with your friends to think up the sort of questions you might be asked in the exam. Sit together and write essays in the time you’ll have in the exam, then mark each others essays and compare notes.

6. Analyse Your Material

When you’ve had enough straightforward revision, add a bit of variety. Make an analysis of what you have to study. Try organising it under three headings: Facts, Concepts and Applications.

Facts: What do I need to know?

Concepts: What do I need to understand?

Applications: What must I be able to do with these facts and principles to show that I understand them?

Looking at your revision in this way can give you a clearer idea of the way ahead.

 

Happy Holiday

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera,

 

Taking the Anxiety out of EXAMS

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What is revision?

Many students think of revision as sitting down with notes or a book and reading them for long periods of time. However, the point of revision is not only to be familiar with the material you are studying, but also to be able to retrieve facts from your memory quickly and then use them to answer the the exam questions. Revision is not one single task, but a wide range of activities. In fact, that variety actually makes for a good revision strategy.  There are just three secrets to successful revision: Start early; focus your revision on practising what you are preparing for – which is answering questions; and, where possible, make use of other people so that revision is sociable and more productive. Let’s start this with a bit of fun. Psychologists believe we each have a preferred way of studying, which could be completely different from our friends.

Complete this mini-quiz to identify what is your best learning style:

Q: When you are trying to spell a word, do you:
a) Try to visualise the word in your mind?
b) Say the word out loud and try and write it as it sounds?
c) Write the word down to find out if it looks right?

Q: When having a conversation with someone, do you:
a) Get bored easily unless you try to imagine what they are talking about?
b) Enjoy listening but are impatient to talk yourself?
c) Use lots of expressive hand gestures when you talk?

Q: When you are trying to revise, are you:
a) Easily distracted by untidiness and movement?
b) Easily distracted by sounds or noises?
c) Easily distracted by people around you?

Q: What do you find most easy to remember:
a) Something you have seen?
b) Something someone has told you?
c) Something you have done?

Q: When learning something new, do you
a) Like to see demonstrations, diagrams or pictures?
b) Prefer having someone tell you what to do?
c) Like to jump right in and try it for yourself?

What it all means:

If you answered mostly As, you are probably a VISUAL learner. When revising, you will find it easier to visually organise notes into columns and categories, or create colourful timelines, charts or grids of information. Use highlighters or different coloured pens to write facts, formulas and notes on posters or index cards to put up on your bedroom wall or keep with you to review at any time. You will feel most comfortable using visual mnemonics, for example a picture of Maggie from the Simpson’s might help you remember the four alkynes in Chemistry – trust us! Think Maggie Enjoys Potties and Bottles (MEPB) with stands for Methane, Ethane, Propane and Butane.

If you answered mostly Bs, you are probably an AUDITORY learner. You will find it most effective to revise by discussing facts and concepts with friends or family. You will benefit from taping your notes and then listening to them over and over. You will feel most comfortable using aural mnemonics. How about remembering the order of the solar system, by saying aloud: My Very East Method, Just Set Up Nine Planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto)?

If you answered mostly Cs, you are probably a KINAESTHETIC learner.  Your revising style is to alternate between sitting still and moving about when revising. You remember things best by re-enacting situations while studying or copying notes. Seeing principles or concepts in action will help you remember, like visits to museums for history. You will probably remember words and facts best by tracing your finger or pen over the text book or notes you have made, and you will prefer learning things by doing them repeatedly.

 

Upgrade BONUS!!

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera,

 

Schedule for November

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Waktu dan masa seminar adalah berbeza. Sila hubungi saya untuk butir lanjut. Terima kasih.

 

DNA & SCORE A BOOM

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OFFER!! Semperna Cuti Sekolah

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Musim Peperiksaan Datang Lagi

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera,

Sudah bersediakah anda dari segi ilmiah dan rohani? Berikut adalah untuk mengungkap amalan – amalan ringkas semasa menghadapi cabaran peperiksaan yang akan datang. 

1. Amalan sebelum datang ke dewan peperiksaan
   Ketika keluar dari rumah – bacalah ayat Al-Kursi, dan melangkah keluar dari kediaman anda dengan kaki kanan dahulu dan dimulakan dengan bacaan ‘Bismillah’
2. Amalan ketika di dalam dewan peperiksaan
   Ketika mengambil kad soalan – tarik nafas sedalam yang boleh dan bacalah ‘Bismillah’ sebanyak 3 kali agar mendapat kesenangan ketika menjawab
3. Ketika menjawab soalan
   Berselawat dan bacalah ayat Al-Fatihah dan disusuli dengan ayat Kursi agar Allah memelihara kita dari terlupa ketika menjawab dan juga menghilangkan kegementaran dihati.
4. Amalan selepas keluar dari dewan
   Sebaik baik amalan adalah dengan memohon doa kepada Allah agar diberi keberkatan dan memperoleh kejayaan yang cemerlang, dan juga amalkanlah membaca Al-Quran dan surah Yassin sehari sekali. InsyaAllah kita akan diberi kejayaan yang sebenar.

Jika kita memperoleh markah yang cemerlang, ucapkanlah ‘Allhamdulillah’ atas kejayaan yang dikecapi dan jika kita gagal mendapatkan keputusan yang kita kehendaki, anggaplah ianya sebagai satu dugaan daripada Allah kepada hamba-Nya.

 

Salam Aidilfitri

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera,

Mohon maaf jika ada salah dan silap. Semoga lebaran kali ini lebih ceria dan penuh keberkatan untuk semuanya.

 

Schedule for October

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera,