Sam Chow’s Study Tactics Rewritten by John Mok
I am currently a student in my final year of the BBA program at Chu Hai College of Higher Education. I have been asked to share my experience and tactics on how to get reasonably high marks in study. It is my honour to do so.
To begin with, I believe having a positive outlook in life is very important. Sometimes, things may not look as rosy as one expects, or the situation may even be in dire straits; however, the outcome of almost all situations truly depends, I honestly believe, on how one looks at them and how one deals with them. Often times, I have been able to turn a seemingly sour situation into something sweet. So, first thing first: think positive, act positive.
Secondly, believe in yourself. There is something magic in this power of persuasion. By placing trust in your own ability, and daring yourself to live, to love, to shine, you will often find yourself holding the better end of the stick.
Thirdly, be prepared to make demands of yourself and to sweat. Work hard, then face whatever it may come; but no matter what the outcome may be, do not give yourself too many excuses. We work hard because we want to get good results. However, if it turns out the work is still not quite up to par, then learn from your own mistakes, and then aim at trying even harder the next time around. The buck should stop at you yourself, and at nobody else.
Lastly, be results driven. Because we are talking about grades and marks of study here, the bottom line is of course important. This is the part what others see. There are of course areas where others do not see and you may have learned a bunch but it may not have shown in the grades. Fine. But as long as we are about achieving good grades in study, the bottom line is important. Work to show.
Now, all the above are qualities of oneself—things that we can control ourselves. What about things we cannot control, like other people’s perspectives and priorities?
Take doing group projects as an example. We all have experience doing group projects in class. In a random grouping of classmates, where there are different people with varied backgrounds, disparate abilities, strengths and weaknesses, how are we to work together and produce good results?
To me, what count here are leadership qualities and the ability to work in a team.
As a leader, I would sit everyone down together at the start and let everyone know clearly of the group’s common goal. The goal in a group project is to finish it well enough so we will get reasonably high marks at the end of the semester. After everyone is clear about our goal, we will assign duties to each group member according to their preferences and priorities. As a team member, I will always try to respect each member’s work. But from time to time, there are members who cannot finish their assigned parts good enough or on time. In such cases, I would urge them to pay attention to the time and quality demands of our group. I would also tell them not to make excuses. In these situations, the important thing is not to turn advices and counseling into confrontational sessions. To be an effective leader, we need to listen well, try to understand others’ situations, speak slowly and in a low tone. Do not get too excited, or the situation could easily be turned into an ugly showdown.
The fact is, sometimes people do have difficulties accomplishing some tasks. Some may be stuck with something they are not very good at. They may have tried very hard but the results may still be less than desirable. In such cases, someone needs to be able to step up and counsel them with patience. I am always there to take this role as a leader. However, at the end of the day, if the task is still incomplete, someone will have to step up and finish the job off. Again, this someone has always been Me.
I have always believed that it is my obligation to oversee each member’s well-being and to ensure the group project function as smoothly as possible, while at the same time, to provide a relaxing atmosphere for everyone in our team. My main duties have been to make planning for the team as well as to make extra efforts checking and correcting everyone’s work before submission.
On a different note, I have always considered class presentations as a gift. These are opportunities through which I can practice and get better at developing my public speaking skills. The skills for effective communication are one of the keys to leading a successful life. All of us will soon step out into the society and look for our dream jobs. In the job world, the ability to communicate effectively with colleagues and with strangers is a must if we want to advance our careers. Often, we are required to present our ideas and to persuade. Those of us who can do this well will see ourselves being able to get along well with people, doing better at work, getting early promotions, and leading satisfactory lives.
Remember, there is no way to improve our communication skills overnight. There is a phrase, “practice makes perfect.” If we do it often enough, we will get the hang of it and soon we will be able to do it well enough. There are actually not too many opportunities where we can speak in front of a bunch of people, so I have always treasured every presentation opportunity in the last few years at CHC. I believe my efforts have paid off.
For examinations, preparation is the key to success. Different people may have different ideas on what it means to be well prepared. To me, it is a long process, and the overnight study the day before exams does not really count.
My tactics for preparing for exams begin at the first day of the semester, andcontinue throughout with every and all lectures. I take notes of the lectures attentively and carefully. Admittedly, some lecturers are more boring than others, but I would always stay focus and drop down the key points. Every night, I would reread my notes and make a summary of them before going to bed. I call this summary my “golden notes.” This method has helped me save a lot of time preparing for the exams. I have found that the earlier I have prepared, the better life I will have in the examination period.
The graph below is my academic record throughout the years at Chu Hai College of Higher Education:
If you want to achieve good results, all you need to do is to do it with ambition! Many people are actually bright enough; what they lack are perhaps some good habits. Often enough, I have seen too many schoolmates wasting time on little things that would not amount much but would only serve to sidetrack from the goal of getting good grades.
I believe the keys to success are aspiration, perspiration and inspiration. You need to want to be successful first, and then you need to work hard at it; and when you have wanted it bad enough and have worked at it hard enough, there will come moments when you will see your potential developed to the maximum and excellence achieved.
Sam Chow
June 9, 2011
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Sam Chow’s original copy
Sam Chow’s Tactics
I am currently the final year student studying the BBA at Chu Hai College of Higher Education, and I have been asked to share my personal tactics on how to get a reasonable high marks throughout the academic years at Chu Hai College of Higher Education, and it is my honour to do so.
I always believe that having a positive attitude no matter how bad the situation that you are facing and base on this positive attitude to take action in a good time manner, so that the problems that you are facing can be overcame, and it is a must to believe in yourself. Most of the time I have been very demanding and result driven, and I believe everyone who knows me would understand that I am those kinds of people who just wanted to get the things done as quickly as possible so that we can have some spare times to evaluate our work in a good time manner instead of rushing it all into the last minute.
For the group project, different people would have different background with different ability, and we all know that we all had different strengths and weaknesses for sure, but we all should have the same or similar goal, which is to get a reasonable high mark at the end of the each semester that we would be proud of. As a team, we should always look after and respect each other because if without a good team work, then the group project would be meaningless to us all and it would only be a pile of papers without meaning and nothing. Very often that people would come up with some excuses that they are too busy to do the assignments because of the part time job, but to me, there is no excuse for being lazy and selfish, as you are here to study as a full-time student, and the results of the group project will have a huge impact on other teammates. Can you say this to your teachers that because you have been too busy so that you did not have too much time to prepare for the exams? I used to work as a Part-time accounting clerk for few years as well, but as long as you have done well in the time management, there should not be a problem.
There is a phrase that you have two ears and one mouth and I do believe that this is a great phrase, as it means you should listen twice as much as you speak, so in order to become an effective leader, we should Listen more from others, speak slowly and in a low tone. In reality, people do face difficulties when being asked to accomplish some tasks, and when people are stuck with something that they are not good at, and no matter how hard they try, they will still manage not to complete a particular task because of their limited abilities, but not until someone who directs and influences them with patient, and if at the end of the day, the task is still incomplete, then someone will always be there to finish it off at the end, and this someone has always been Me. I always believe that it was my obligation to oversee each individual’s safety and well-being, and to ensure the group project functioning as smoothly as possible, and thus providing a more relaxed environment for everyone in our team. My main duty was to make planning for the team as well as making extra efforts for checking and correcting everyone’s work before submission.
For the presentations, I would say this is a gift for us all as this can help you to develop your oral public speaking skills for effective communication in academic, professional, and business contexts. Having effective communication skills is considered to be one of the keys to leading a successful life. All of you will soon join the community and search for your ideal job, and it is important to improve oral communication skills since being able to effectively communicate with colleagues is necessary to advance your careers and present your own ideas, and most importantly, the people who have a better communication skills normally tend to do better at work, get early promotions, get along well with others and lead satisfactory lives. Remember, there is no way to improve your communication skills over night, there is a phase, “practice makes perfect”, so the more we do, the better performance we will get, and there are not too many chances for you to speak in front of bunch of people, so I have treasured every presentations in the last few years at CHC and I believe our efforts will pay off.
For the examinations, preparation is always one of the keys to success with no doubt and different people would have different meaning of preparation in their minds, but to me, preparation is a long process which needs much more time to be done and the short preparation the day before exams does not really count. My tactics for exams are including making notes every single lecture no matter whether the lecture is boring or not, just stay focus and drop down all the key points and all the additional examples from the mouth of the lecturers, and then make a summary every night before going to bed, and I call this summary as “Golden notes”. By using this method, this can help you save a lot of time for the preparation of your exams, so the earlier you prepare, the better life you will have during the examination period.
The graph below is my academic record throughout the years at Chu Hai College of Higher Education;
If you want to do it, then all you have to do is do it with ambition! All it took was a little inspiration. Many people seem bright enough but just do not get it and do not have the ability to complete small tasks, but “working” attitude is important. People always do not use their time effectively, and wasted a lot of valuable time on worthless things, these people really need to change themselves if they still wants to be better in English or to be an effective team player, and the things they need to change first is to change their bad habit of using time, working attitude, should admit the mistakes, and learn from mistakes correctly instead of ignoring and hiding it, because people can only learn from a mistake after they admit they have made it. As soon as they start blaming other people they distance themselves from any possible lesson. But if they courageously stand up and honestly say “This is my mistake and I am responsible”, then the possibilities for learning will move towards you and conflicts between players will be solved.
“Results are important, but process is also important, I believe that team work, hard-working, preparation and time management are always the key secrets to success” – Sam Chow
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