How to pass exams – Part 13 – Capture your ideas, like Bill did!

An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.”
Stephen Fry

Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft probably asked himself many years ago, ‘Why doesn’t every home have a PC?’

At the time there were only a handful of computers in the world so this idea was crazy as most computers were big enough to fill a room and most had less processing power than your mobile phone.

So how did we get computers in our homes?

Very simply, Bill Gates and others had an idea, but more importantly they wrote it down, researched it and got on with the job.

Bingo!

One of the most important things you can do is to have a way of writing things down when you get a good idea for a piece of homework or something you have to remember. Just the act of writing something down makes all the difference. If we don’t write ideas down, we forget them.

That’s how our brain works.

In the past when I’ve had an idea for a talk, I’ve thought, “I’ll write that down later”.

What do you think happened?

I never did write it down or I randomly remembered it six weeks later, not much help when you have a talk the next day.

Carry a notebook in your pocket or write it on your phone. 

This whole book is the result of ideas that I scribbled down, but then most importantly, actioned.

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]  

Getting the best out of school is about understanding how your brain works (a bit!).

In order to deposit information in your brain you have to write stuff down.

When revising, don’t just read but do practical writing down exercises like past papers or online revision that requires typing. But also walk around your room writing things on post-it notes so that the information sticks.

For example read this fact now…

“An adult skeleton has 213 bones.”

You can re-read that fact a few times and it may sink in but if you write it on a post-it note on your mirror in your bedroom, I’ll guarantee that it will go into your brain and you’ll remember it for weeks to come.

Why not give it a go now and test it for yourself?

Here’s how I take it a stage further, after writing things down or cutting things out of newspapers, I put them away in files.

I have a file for every subject I speak on, or every piece of research I am looking at. Have a folder for each of your subjects at school, over the year you will start to develop a big file of resources that you can draw on for revision and homework.

Like your own mini-library, no-one has to see it – it’s for you and your brain.

More to come…

This an excerpt from Top UK motivational School Speaker Lee Jackson’s book “How To Enjoy And Succeed At School And College” Available in paperback and on Kindle (for only £1.99 during pre-exam time) here now.