Take 5 – 9 May 2016 by Ms Joyce Teo Jie Yiing

Good morning Mdm Tan, Mr Lee, teachers and all Gessians,

Today we are entering the last week of your examinations. It is the last lap before a hopefully well-deserved break after a semester of hard work. Some of you may be running out of fuel, feeling exhausted or bored and perhaps even procrastinating on your revision.

I have only one simple tip to share with you today and all you will need is a calendar, a pen and a big red marker. I would like to encourage you to make a list of what you need to do every single day on a calendar.
This task list must be specific and realistic. As you can easily guess, after completing the day’s tasks, use the red marker to cross out the date on the calendar. Your simple goal is to get consecutive crosses on this calendar and form a chain. Watch the chain grow longer and longer. Then your daily goal will be to not break this chain.

What I’m urging you to do here is to plan your time and you must have heard this a million times. We know this but how many of us actually write it down and commit to a plan. I once heard a student tell me that there is no point making a schedule because he knows he is not going to keep to it. Well, this student of mine did end up making a schedule but of course he did not keep to it because from the outset, he has already decided the outcome for himself. Such is the mentality for failure.

Are you tired of hearing people tell you the key to doing well is to do more? Adults often tell you that all you need is practice. Put in the hours and the effort, and you will be rewarded. Yes indeed, with practice comes mastery, but this is only half-true, it is not a guarantee. Some of you may have experienced getting unsatisfactory results that you feel are not proportionate to the time and energy you have put in. In such cases, do you give up and keep failing or do you try to approach the subject or topic in a different way? Challenges are a true test of your resilience.

Especially now during your examination crunch time, it is not about doing more but about doing things right. You need to work smart. So, make a realistic task list every day, complete it daily and feel the satisfaction of crossing them out. Start that chain and do not break it.

With that, Gessians, all the best for your remaining papers. Thank you.