To excel in exams, create a balanced study plan

I remember this student who underwent a miraculous metamorphosis. He was from a well-to-do family, loved to have fun and was considered a bit of a rebel in our first two years of high school — always inventing ways to break the rules.

School and education had no place in his game plan. His performance earned him a permanent position in the bottom quarter of the class. But when he got to Form Three, his father deserted his home and married another wife, completely severing ties with his family.

Being a wealthy man, his abrupt exit resulted in a major shift in the family’s fortunes.

My classmate and his two siblings now had to survive on what their mother earned as a secretary in a law firm.

As the first child and only son, my classmate was forced to become the man of the house.

In school his metamorphosis was spectacular. From a happy-go-lucky, carefree lad, he reinvented himself by re-channelling his energies to excel.

Thirty years later, he is a very successful entrepreneur and a millionaire many times over. His mother and siblings are healthy and very well looked after.

What did he do? He looked into himself and found the winner within. His mindset changed due to a change in circumstances.

Examinations ceased to be an insurmountable hurdle but a necessary rite of passage to get where he wanted to go.

Do we have to have a momentous change in circumstance to get there? No. We can just stop and decide.

A lot of children are transitioning into candidates and will sit examinations at the end of the year.

Our system is such that at a very young age, children sit for exams and the results have an all-important influence on the rest of their lives.

When I was in school, I viewed examinations with fear. I felt like a trapped creature awaiting the arrival of the trapper.

There were certain subjects I just could not get round to understanding or mastering.

Fortunately, I had older siblings who kindly took it upon themselves to demystify these areas of study.

Three hundred days is a long time. What goal cannot be accomplished in that duration? Yet some of us look ahead and only see the big monster at the end. Time and again, I emphasise the importance of having the right mindset.

This does not only refer to a positive mindset but rather the correct mindset.

How can you prepare your child to face examinations?

Posters advertising tuition adorn walls in every estate or shopping centre?

I do not dispute the fact that children need extra drilling to understand their subjects, but I believe a little more needs to be done in rewiring the brain in the approach to examinations and the art of learning.

Take time to look around and find out alternative initiatives that are geared towards rewiring your child’s mind set and empowering him or her, not only to face examinations confidently, but to also boldly face any hurdles that life presents.

But beside everything else, time management is crucial.

Time is a finite entity and can only be managed with no chance of expansion or transfer.

 Whatever passes you by today will not be retrievable later. If you perform tomorrow what you should have done today, you relegate what you were supposed to do tomorrow to some other day when you will have the time.

By creating a balanced study plan and schedule, performance can be boosted.

As you start the year, think of ways you can get your children to look to their future with a maturity way beyond their years.

Let us get to a point where we do not have to push them, let them push us to offer all the support we can offer.