I was invited to give a motivational speech at a secondary school recently. I was glad to accept it as nowadays our youngsters seem to have lost their ways and are in dilemma of confining themselves in the circles of uncertainties. Hopefully, I can help those wandering in the field of study and learning lessen the necessary stresses and pressure.
Because of the stress and the lackadaisical attitude on studies, many students find it as a pressure rather than interest on their studies. To motivate these students to study poses a big challenge as direct, simple and innovative approach is needed to enhance their interests on studies.
I shared with them the meaning of “ Fai”. I explained to them that upon receiving the examination results, if they had done badly, the result would show Fail. However, they tended to focus on the first alphabet of F and ignored the importance of “ ail” that followed. The abbreviation of “ail” means “Am I lazy.” If you got a “f”, you should ask yourself “ Am I lazy?”
Another word I shared with the students was “ success” . I asked the students to look at the spelling of this two word. It was spelt without a and b but with c, and e and with both end of s. It meant that if your results were given the score of c and e, you had to keep on study and study to improve your score and there was the reason why the alphabet of s stood at both end of “ success”.
One of the problems faced by students in their studies and learning is the lack of preparedness for the lessons to be conducted by teachers. Understanding of the subjects taught is the basic requirement for the students to have high scores in their examination or proficiency test. Lack of understanding is caused by low level of absorption of the knowledge transmitted during the lessons given by teachers. The rate of absorption can be enhanced through familiarization that requires student to prepare their lessons which are not taught but going to be taught by teachers the following day. With the lessons prepared in advance by students, when the lessons are being transmitted the very next day, the students are able to absorb them through familiarization fast into their minds.
When the knowledge is rooted in their minds, it becomes memory and will be called out in the examination. The end result is the high score.
Basically, the examination is discharge of memory and put it in writing from what has been learnt on the test-papers. Therefore, good memory is due to good storage of knowledge in the brains; good storage is because of ability of understanding which is gained through series of familiarization processes. Therefore, the preparedness is vital in learning.
