How to pass exams – Part 2 – The learning adventure begins…
Do you remember your first day at primary school, or a moment in your first few years of school?
Can you remember walking to school, your first teacher, or your first school friends?
The best thing about primary school for me was when I walked in on that first day and BOOM! I saw a peg with my name on it!
“DA-DAH!” that peg was MINE! It was all about the peg, everyone’s first taste of fame! You’ve come a long way since then.
A long way since you couldn’t tie your shoelaces and your mum/dad or carer had to take you into the classroom every day and sit you on the ’reading carpet’!
In fact I’d like to reveal to you that since your first day in primary school you have been in school 6 hours a day,
(choose the relevant one for you);
BY THE END OF YEAR 9 – 195 days a year over 10 years, that’s 1,950 days or 11,700 hours!
BY THE END OF YEAR 10 –195 days a year over 11 years, that’s 2,145 days or 12,870 hours!
BY THE END OF YEAR 11 –195 days a year over 12 years, that’s 2340 days or 14,000 hours!
BY THE END OF YEAR 12/COLLEGE –195 days a year over 13 years, that’s 2535 days or 15,210 hours!
BY THE END OF YEAR 13/COLLEGE –195 days a year over 14 years, that’s 2730 days or 16,380 hours!
Give yourself a round of applause (and maybe even a little chocolate bar!) That’s a looooong time.
Although you’ve probably been there slightly less in reality – maybe a couple of hours off when you went to the dentist, or had head lice (like I did aged nine)! But for 98% of the population, those are the hours we’ve put in, amazing isn’t it? So you can declare ‘I’m an expert in learning, I’ve done it for almost 14,000+ hours.’
Imagine doing anything for 14,000 hours?
You are an expert in learning because that’s what your brain has been trained for over all that time. You are well brainy.
Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege
So, the first tool for your tool box is to look back. Not at your failures or the days that didn’t go quite so well, (we’ve all had those days), but when you’re having a challenging day you can look back and say, ‘Do you know what, I’ve done this for 14,000+ hours, I’m going to go to school just get on with it today.’
Or when you’ve got an exam you can say, ‘Do you know what, I’ve done mock exams, test papers and SATS – I will get up this morning and I will do this exam because I’ve done it before!’
Always look back a little bit, because sometimes we’re so focused on the present or the future that we don’t glance back and realise how far we’ve come. When you first started school adding 2+2 was a challenge, now you’re doing complicated equations, writing essays, and creating things with computer aided design. But you’d never think that on your first day, when you first saw that peg with your name on it. I bet you’d never have thought you’d be able to do the things you are doing now. Glance back a bit, it’s like fuel for your fire – it can keep you going, it can keep the learning engine running…
Action Point: What have you learnt so far? Write your action points or thoughts down.
More to come…
This an excerpt from Top UK 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.
