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TIPS TO GET BETTER GRADES IN SCHOOL: Tip 8- Once You Learn it-Don’t Forget it!

Make sure you remember everything you have learnt a few minutes or hours before your exams or test. (Preferably the day before the paper).

Yes, remember everything, it is possible.

Have I done it before? Yep, several times!

Here is the simple trick to remembering everything you learn: set revision periods closely together, don’t study something and wait say 5 days before revising it.

Remember there is a difference between reading something and committing it to memory for an upcoming test. Just because you read it doesn’t mean your brain has stored it in such a way that it can effectively retrieve it during exams. I repeat :

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN READING AND COMMITTING INFORMATION TO MEMORY. DON’T FALL FOR THIS TRAP!

So the big question now is how do I set revision points so that I don’t forget some of the things I have learnt during the test or final exams?

Let’s talk quickly about “The Forgetting Curve” discovered by Herman Ebbinghaus in 1885.

Herman Ebbinghaus conducted a memory experiment on himself to see how long it takes to forget something he had learnt.

At the end of the experiment he came to the conclusion that:

If you learn something and don’t review it, within a month you will forget 90% of everything you had learnt.

Some studies suggest that humans forget approximately 50% of new information within an hour of learning it. That goes up to an average of 70% within 24 hours. (learnupon.com)

Ebbinghaus suggested that rate at which we forget is influenced by a number of factors.

(1) How challenging the learning material is.

(2) How the learning material is represented.

(3) Stress levels and sleepiness of learner.

He suggested that the best methods for increasing the strength of memory are:

(a) Using better memory representation, such using mnemonic techniques (Discussed briefly in in Tip 4 but will be discussed in further detail in another tip)

(b) Spaced Repetition.

Now knowing this, the question is how do you use it?

Have wider spaced revision intervals for material you are more familiar with and less spaced intervals for material you aren’t or find difficult to commit to memory.(This is a technique called Spaced Repetition)

To get a better understanding of this statement let’s use a sample student’s plan I created.

Below is an attached excel file showing my learning and revision schedule for a particular course back in school.

Download the excel file here

Sample-students-study-plan_habit-librarylast-updated-18-nov-19Download

Learnupon.com has also written a brilliant article on how to reduce the rate at which you forget what you learn. It’s written for teachers and instructors to help their students but you can always flip it and use it for yourself as a student.

I talk more about this and other strategies in my upcoming book “Path to Better Grades” you can pre-order your copy HERE

Until next time!

Stay awesome.

Eli. N

(1) Wikipedia link to article: https://bit.ly/2rUPOAz

(2) 5 Ways to Challenge the Forgetting Curve: https://bit.ly/37ex4Mp

(3) Spaced Repetition Technique: https://youtu.be/cVf38y07cfk

TIPS TO GET BETTER GRADES IN SCHOOL: Tip 6- Read Wide

I know you wouldn’t like the sound of this but here we go!

Write down ALL the things you will need to study after the lecture, go and find them and study them.

Some lecturers will only give students a good grade when they see you have put in extra effort, so be one of those students and read wide.

Learning how to research effectively and efficiently is a skill, and like any skill it can be developed.

I will share with you the quick crude method I used back in school then share with you the more “advanced method” of reading wide.

My crude method:

(1) At the end of class lecturers usually list further reading material.

(2) Go to Google and the library, find them and study them. They didn’t give you the list for fun.

Yeah, nothing mind blowing here! But you will be shocked how many students learn only what is in the slides and don’t go out of their way to read those other books the lecturer stated.

If lecturers don’t give a further reading list (then you know that lecturer is very mean) then do this.

(1) Copy and paste a definition from the slides in Google. It will bring up the book or related. Voila! You have the lecturer’s resource now. Use it wisely.

Finally, this is very important

(1) Type the name of the book and author and add “Question and Answers” to the search to bring up any possible “examinable” questions. Some lecturers will simply copy and paste these questions for your tests and final exams. Use it wisely.

Now for the advance method.

If you are not in final year preparing your thesis I will recommend you start getting familiar with the powerful research tools Google has at it’s disposable.

One of these powerful tools is Google scholar.

Also you can use something called “Operators” in your normal Google search to make your search more refined.

You can also use the advance Google feature to refine your search.

Just type “Google Advance Search Features” if you can’t find it.

Below are links of resources that explain these advanced features in detail.

(1) 5 Must-Have Google Search Tips for Students

: https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/5-must-have-google-search-tips-for-students

(2) How to Best Use Google for Research & Term Papers_Google Scholar and Google Tricks:

I talk more about this in my upcoming book “Path to Better Grades”. You can pre-order your copy HERE

Unitl tomorrow,

Stay awesome!

Eli.N

TIPS TO GET BETTER GRADES IN SCHOOL: Tip 3- Master Yourself Not Time.

I personally believe the concept of time management is a myth. You can’t manage time, it’s impossible. You can only manage yourself.

Have you ever seen anyone slow down time or speed it up? However, you can manage how YOU go to sleep, what time YOU wake up, how much time YOU spend studying etc.

One important thing about time management is to be super realistic and give room for contingencies.

Also keep an eye out for procrastination, that thing destroys dreams worldwide every day. Don’t fall victim to procrastination. Personally back in university I hardly procrastinated, I did though but it was very low. I am not saying I am perfect or anything along those lines, I just want to share with you what I did, what works and what doesn’t.

I procrastinated a lot in Junior Secondary School but that dropped drastically as I went to Senior Secondary School and even more in university, why?

To be honest, I have wondered why too a lot. For now this is the answer I keep getting, “Because I wanted good grades so bad.”

There were so many nights, and I mean so many nights that my alarm will go off at 2 AM, I will hit the snooze button then in less than 30 seconds my mind goes through this conversation super fast:

“Wake up, wake up now. If you say you want to sleep for just 5 extra minutes, you know what will happen. You will wake up 4 hours later regretting you missed a study session. Do you really want to spend the whole day feeling awful that you missed your study session for this dawn? You made the study plan, it’s very realistic and accurate, you NEED to stick to it, you know it. If you miss this study session it means you will have to study more later. If you miss it, that means your work load piles up.

This is what you do and during exams week you cram and get average to poor grades and never get the good grades you want. Do you want to get poor grades again? Do you want to let your parents and yourself down again? GET UP!

I am up!”

I know it sounds a bit harsh, I consider it tough love and being real.

Then I visualize myself getting great grades, making my parents and myself proud and I drag myself out of bed.

How bad do you want good grades?

I talk about these tips and more in my upcoming book “20 Tips to Get Better Grades in School”. If you want to be notified first when this free e-book is out you can join the notification list HERE

To learn more about how to create realistic schedules and systems to manage your activities and get things done check “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. Link: https://amzn.to/2lCbVZl

Until tomorrow

Stay Awesome

Eli. N

A Verse for Growing Up Spiritually.

For today I am keeping it short but deep.

During dawn prayers I decided to go through the 10 domains of life I learnt from “Your Best Year Ever : A 5 Step Plan to Achieve Your Most Important goals ” and pray for each domain with scripture.

When I got to “Spiritual” I realized I had no scripture in mind so researched a bit and came across this powerful verse.

I have been meditating on it all day, very deep.

So yeah, that’s one new thing I learnt today.

Stay awesome,

Eli

Early Bird Mode Challenge : Wake up Early & Energized 7 days in a row.

Imagine waking up early every single day for 7 days in a row?

You will get time to work on your goals before the world wakes up!

The quietness helps you focus and some quality work done. (Praying, journaling, studying your Bible etc)

If you struggle to wake up early then you are not alone.

I used to wake up early then my priorities shifted now waking up early and energized has become a struggle😞

Over the next 7 days I am going to slowly shift back to my strategic early morning routine and that starts with waking up early (where early is between 4:50 AM to 5:30 AM for now)

You can follow my challenge on Instagram at “@habit.library”

Alright then.

Until the next one.

This is Eli

Stay exceptional!

THE 1ST HABIT TO IMPROVING YOUR LIFE (Practical Exercise)

I made a super short video, 2 minutes 21 seconds briefly explaining Habit 1 of the best selling book “7 habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey.

This is a short practical exercise I created to help take action on the insight shared.

Here is the PDF document of the practical exercise

the-first-habit-to-improving-your-life-practical-exercise_habitlibrary Download

Here is the link to the video briefly explaining Habit 1: CLICK HERE

Until next time!

This is Eli.

Stay exceptional!

TIPS TO GET BETTER GRADES IN SCHOOL: Tip 7- Take it While it’s Hot!

Quickly brush up after each lecture or complete assignments that very day since the concepts are still fresh in your mind. This will help the concepts stick better too since you are strengthening the recent connections between them.

By connections this is what I mean, your brain is made up of neurons. These are cells that transmit information using electrochemical signals. Neurons connected to each other and form neural networks. The more connections there are to a neuron the less likely it will be removed or fade away.

Using Super Learner Jonathan Levi’s example:

Imagine there two roads…

One road is a highway with 3 lands on each side and it connects 8 medium sized towns. The other road is a simple inner town road connecting one house to another. Which road is more likely to receive regular maintenance and improvement, and which is more likely to be neglected and eroded.

This is why you rarely forget your childhood address or landline number if you haven’t used it for years, this is because there are so many stories, connections and experiences around that piece of information. Your brain determines that it’s critical and will never erode it away.

In the next tip I will talk more about “The Forgetting Curve” discovered in in 1885 by Herman Ebbinghaus and how you can use that reduce the rate at which you forget new information you learn.

So yeah, make sure you revise your notes from a lecture as soon as possible, it will save you a lot of forgetting and frustration down the line!

If you are interested in learning more about how the neurons work you can check out this crash course:

(1) How Neurons Communicate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGDvvUNU-cw

2. Space Repetition in Learning Theory:

Until tomorrow!

Stay awesome

Eli. N

TIPS TO GET BETTER GRADES IN SCHOOL: Tip 5- Design Your “Knowledge Impartation Environment”

I define “Knowledge Impartation Environment” as the place where knowledge is transferred from the source to you.
Write down all the things you need in the lecture hall to be able to pay attention and understand what the lecturer is teaching. For instance, do you have to sit away from your best friend because you guys chat a lot and you don’t pay attention so you miss important points? Do you have to audio record the lecturers because your mind drifts sometimes and when you come back you feel lost?

Such sensitive conversations with close friends might be taken the wrong way if not carefully done so I strongly recommend you write down what you want to say, keep revising it until doesn’t sound like you are saying “They are the thing standing in between you and your better grades in school.”

Example, look for a perfect occasion where it actually just happens. Let us say you just finished a lecture and you ask them to help you fill out an uncompleted section in your notes. When they go blank then you can calmly say, “How come you don’t remember what was taught too? Do you think us chit chatting during lectures is distracting us? “ Then continue with compassion. Close friends are essential to life, what is the use of success if you have no one to share it with?

Once again, observe the things preventing you from paying attention and understanding during lectures then move on to find a way to prevent them from happening.

Until next time,

Stay awesome!

Eli. N

TIPS TO GET BETTER GRADES IN SCHOOL: Tip 4- What Type of learner are you (Visual-Auditory-Kinaesthetic)

There are three types of learners. Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic, find out which you are and maximize it.

Have you ever been somewhere, heard a song and immediately you remember where you were and what you were probably doing when you first heard that song?

That’s the power of using more than one of your senses to store information. If you want to improve your grades, you need to find and maximize your strongest “learning sense” and also use the others for better recollection of information learnt.

(A) Auditory Learners

Do you have those friends who are always using you for verbal revision? They just randomly start telling you what they have learnt usually when something they hear or see triggers it. It’s not that they are a show off. It could probably mean they are Auditory Learners.

Once they hear it, it sticks.

Auditory Learners learn better by talking to themselves or others. If you think you are an Auditory Learner try the following to make your learning more effective:

(i) Record lectures but pay attention in class. Listen to the recording immediately you get back to your room and take more notes. Whenever you are revising, listen and go over your notes.

(ii) Write possible exam questions on small paper cards.

Find somewhere away from people where you can read out these questions then answer them out loud. Your brain begins to create a link between those questions and the answers you voice out. During exams, once a similar question appears your brain reconnects the link and unlocks the right answer.

(B) Visual Learners

There are two types of Visual Learners

(i) Visual-Linguistic: this type of learners have to write out what they are seeing in their textbooks on another piece of paper to remember it better. They usually never even go back to look at that piece of paper they transferred the information to. Once it’s written, it sticks.

(ii) Visual-Spatial: These type of learners have to convert the dry boring words from their textbooks into creative visuals like drawings, charts etc. The effectiveness of the learning process with this type of learners is also exponential when they add videos and pre-existing visual learning materials to their studies.

Once they see it, it sticks.

I fall strongly in this category being an artist and this is the thing that unlocked “everything” for me. I can encode an entire page into a few diagrams. Once I remember those diagrams, everything on that page just unfolds.

After school I have been participating in competitive quizzes to test and improve my study techniques, one opponent who apparently has been observing me told a friend of mine that: “ It’s like he has stored the page in the air, it’s there , but we just can’t see it!

He just turns his head, looks up and gives the correct answer.” That’s me using visual-spatial.

(C) Kinaesthetic Learners

This type of learners have to physically move a body part to effectively store the information they need. This is usually if the information is practical.

Like physically building something, interacting with a software etc. So in the exam hall they might do subtle motions of that movement to recall and write the correct answer or simply close their eyes and go through a mental replay of the movement to remember the correct answer.

Once they move, it sticks.

If you are a Kinaesthetic Learner try this:

(i) Watch videos which carry out something you are simply reading. Example, if you are doing a construction course and trying to understand the sequence of batching concrete watch a video on YouTube showing the actual process.

Then stand up and visualize yourself as the person performing that action while you actually move your body in that motion. Best to do this when no one is watching so they don’t think you are losing it.

I recommend you use all three for best results. Since I am an artist I lean more to the visual.

You will find tons of tiny sketches in my textbooks and notebooks.

To the outsider it might look like some hieroglyphics but to me once I remember the drawing it unlocks a library of information needed to answer the question before me.

I later found out what I was doing has been extensively researched on and written about. Apparently it’s called the “Imaginations and Association Technique” in mnemonics.

To learn more about these techniques you can check out

(1) “Study Skills Handbook” by Tony Buzan: https://amzn.to/2k5rfgG

(2) “Unlimited Memory” by Kevin Horseley: https://amzn.to/2k5rfgG

Until tomorrow

Stay awesome!

Eli. N

TIPS TO GET BETTER GRADES IN SCHOOL: Tip 2-Who Do You Think You Are?

You are not dumb, stupid, or less intelligent.

You just haven’t applied yourself enough in the right way. Believe in this statement, and believe you can get better if you apply yourself- it is that simple.

There are two large groups of people in the world, the “Fixed mindset” people and the “Growth Mindset” People.

Fixed Mindset people don’t think people can change no matter what they do. They believe that everyone is born with a certain level of “talent”, what you start with is all you have got.

Growth Mindset people believe people can get better if they apply themselves over time. You need to have a Growth Mindset to move from being a struggling student to becoming a top performing student. This is usually the determining factor; do you believe you can get better or not?

My mindset shifted when I watched an underdog character in a fictional series outperform others by realizing who he was and working harder to grow and improve. That character resonated so much with me, I decided to think and live like him and I still reap the benefits of such thinking up till now.

I would never have written this book if I had a dominating fixed mindset.

In case you are curious who this fictional character is who has impacted my life in such a grand way, it is the character Rock Lee of Naruto Anime fame.

If you are interested in developing a growth Mindset you can check out “Mindset” by Carol. S. Dweck

Prodigy Game has some great tips for teachers to help students develop a growth mindset but you can always turn them around and use them for yourself as a student. Check it out here.

(1) Mindset by Carol S. Dweck: https://amzn.to/2kjTCbh

Until tomorrow,

Stay awesome!

Eli. N