“I believe we can achieve 100% A+ for Math this year,” Ms. Lam said.
“Best class I’ve ever taught,” she said.
Two months to the official IGCSE exams, only one of twenty students scored an A* in the school’s mock examinations; two scored B’s, three or so students scored ‘U’ (*unrecorded: student does not have sufficient knowledge to sit for the exam).
Students were shocked, terrified.
There were many careless mistakes, apparently. Ms. Lam ate up half the class time lecturing students on their mindless, ‘idiotic’ mistakes.
How did the students respond? Their minds turned ‘blank’. Just white nothingness, as they stared at the exam questions, questions they could have solved in their sleep, questions they had done a thousand times before.
Why was there a sudden dip in the students’ performance?
The students highlighted interesting changes in their energy management just before the exam period. Here are some of the changes they adopted to prepare for their exams:
1. I study till 4am.
2. I study throughout the night the entire week, except for Tuesdays where I sleep in until my 1pm class. I catch up on sleep on Tuesdays.
3. I set my alarm for every 2 hours throughout the night to study for an hour, and to sleep an hour.
4. I stop eating lunch. Saves time.
5. I have a mental breakdown every ten minutes through my study time. I don’t want to make mistakes.
6. As soon as I’m home from school I’ll be studying. I’m studying while eating dinner, and then I stay up late to finish up all the topics. (While holding my phone, texting a friend, I accidentally doze off, unknowingly)
Weeks prior to the exams, these kids had changed their time-space. During the night, a time of rest, they were spinning their gears on physics, economics, etc. Once the sun sets, the world closes its eyes and winds down to sleep—being active physically or mentally is opposing the movement of the world, the natural flow of nature itself.
Time-space is experienced when we engage in an activity; there is a flow of time and one is present in a certain space. It is an informational energy field that we create for ourselves by thoughts, words and deeds which lead to a specific outcome. In the scenario presented by the students above, the altered time-space element created an imbalance with the other four elements of earth, water, air and fire in their bodies, leading to chaos and inability to function at their best.
The A+ student, however, had realized something during the Mocks week. He was trying very hard not to make any mistakes that he became stressed out, and as a result, made more mistakes. Studying used to be fun; questions used to be solved easily but now he was hung up over each and every one, every possible mistake waiting to be made.
So, he took a step back. He extended his sleeping hours, shortened his study time, took his mind off the boiling fear of failure with his favorite TV shows, and began enjoying the learning process again, i.e. re-balanced his five elements.
He told his best friend this secret – “just unwind as everything he needed to know was already stored in his head anyway.”
“Show-off,” the best friend retorted, who had not had much of a good sleep for the last 10 days. The friend could not understand or believe that managing time-space was a key part of his exam success.
“I believe we can achieve 100% A+ for Math this year,” Ms. Lam said.
“Best class I’ve ever taught,” she said.
Two months to the official IGCSE exams, only one of twenty students scored an A* in the school’s mock examinations; two scored B’s, three or so students scored ‘U’ (*unrecorded: student does not have sufficient knowledge to sit for the exam).
Students were shocked, terrified.
There were many careless mistakes, apparently. Ms. Lam ate up half the class time lecturing students on their mindless, ‘idiotic’ mistakes.
How did the students respond? Their minds turned ‘blank’. Just white nothingness, as they stared at the exam questions, questions they could have solved in their sleep, questions they had done a thousand times before.
Why was there a sudden dip in the students’ performance?
The students highlighted interesting changes in their energy management just before the exam period. Here are some of the changes they adopted to prepare for their exams:
1. I study till 4am.
2. I study throughout the night the entire week, except for Tuesdays where I sleep in until my 1pm class. I catch up on sleep on Tuesdays.
3. I set my alarm for every 2 hours throughout the night to study for an hour, and to sleep an hour.
4. I stop eating lunch. Saves time.
5. I have a mental breakdown every ten minutes through my study time. I don’t want to make mistakes.
6. As soon as I’m home from school I’ll be studying. I’m studying while eating dinner, and then I stay up late to finish up all the topics. (While holding my phone, texting a friend, I accidentally doze off, unknowingly)
Weeks prior to the exams, these kids had changed their time-space. During the night, a time of rest, they were spinning their gears on physics, economics, etc. Once the sun sets, the world closes its eyes and winds down to sleep—being active physically or mentally is opposing the movement of the world, the natural flow of nature itself.
Time-space is experienced when we engage in an activity; there is a flow of time and one is present in a certain space. It is an informational energy field that we create for ourselves by thoughts, words and deeds which lead to a specific outcome. In the scenario presented by the students above, the altered time-space element created an imbalance with the other four elements of earth, water, air and fire in their bodies, leading to chaos and inability to function at their best.
The A+ student, however, had realized something during the Mocks week. He was trying very hard not to make any mistakes that he became stressed out, and as a result, made more mistakes. Studying used to be fun; questions used to be solved easily but now he was hung up over each and every one, every possible mistake waiting to be made.
So, he took a step back. He extended his sleeping hours, shortened his study time, took his mind off the boiling fear of failure with his favorite TV shows, and began enjoying the learning process again, i.e. re-balanced his five elements.
He told his best friend this secret – “just unwind as everything he needed to know was already stored in his head anyway.”
“Show-off,” the best friend retorted, who had not had much of a good sleep for the last 10 days. The friend could not understand or believe that managing time-space was a key part of his exam success.