Just the random thoughts of an avid writer and a doctor to be who constantly lies about his Flappy Bird high score.

Friday, 16 May 2014

Hmm...
Let’s be honest: exams are bulls**t. On its own merits, a three-hour exam is a pointless waste of your time. Exams are not a test of intelligence, or learning, or recall. Exams are a test of how good you are at passing exams. 
The only reason written exams are still there is because there is no sustainable, cheaper alternative to test candidates and advance them to the next level of education on a mass scale.

With that being said. Here is what you came here for:


PANIC. (DON'T!) 

DON'T!
SERIOUSLY, DO NOT PROCARSTINATE
Le Exams are here! Students lock themselves away in airless libraries rather than having dramatic love affairs or plotting to bring down the government.
Exams are a measure of how well you can play the system. Some of the smartest people might get poor grades at crunch-time because as soon as they hear “You may now open your papers and start writing”, they panic. The knowledge is there, but the format in which to transfer the knowledge onto a 30 page booklet is lacking (and that's what exams are, really)

PRACTICE.

As they say: 
"Practice makes perfect" 
It does. Go through notes and past papers. Even if you have finished them all, just go through them again to polish on the areas you are weak in and to correct your mistakes.

PLAN.

STUFF STUDENTS SAY
Most of us start complaining to our colleagues, "Ah me I don't know anything; I'm going to fail; I just started revising yesterday night". It's all because of poor planning! Thinking they still have alot of time and will randomly revise each subject. Plan beforehand what you intend to do and how much time you are going to allocate.

LEARN THE FORMAT OF THE PAPER.
No amount of revision is going to help if you don't know exactly how the paper is going to be structured, and how long you’ll have to answer each separate part of it. You may spend the whole exam writing a Nobel prize-worthy answer to a question about dark matter (Physics stuff), but since it's just 10 marks of of the 100, guess what: YOU FAIL (the exam). 

BE DIFFERENT.

Everyone is different. We all have our own way of understanding and visualizing events and knowledge. Some of us can revise at night only. Some of us walk while revising. Some of us can only revise in a group. Don't copy the revision style of another student (no matter how clever they might be). Revise the way YOU are comfortable. 

And finally; 


CHILL  (DON'T OVERDO IT).

Don't be afraid to take breaks (not too long). Be confident once you have revised sufficiently, don't start reading books outside the examination hall knowing the paper starts in 2 minutes. Having a discussion with your friends on some topics before the exam is perfectly fine. Whatever you revised will be counteracted if you turn up to your test sleepy and confused. Pack your bag early and get a good night’s rest.


Once you have learned how to pass exams, you must learn how not to pass exams. Exams are a pernicious, awful hazing ritual designed to produce compliant drones who can give answers on cue, but not doing your best at them only hurts you, so if you really want to beat the system, you have to remember that your real education takes place outside the exam hall. It’s about reading widely, thinking deeply, asking hard questions rather than simply giving the right answers with a smile. 


Hope this helped.



Best of luck in your exams!

Sunday, 20 April 2014

I should really start studying.
Instead  I am just here writing this blog

23 days to go to the so called 'dreaded' Edexcel exams.











Students have locked themselves down, left WhatsApp groups, deactivated their Facebook profiles and engaged study mode. SERIOUS STUDY MODE.

Well, that is what would happen in an alternate universe. Instead the last few days before exam seem to the most fun-filled and exciting days: big budget movies being released, the game(s) you've been waiting for released, you're (grammar Nazis, attack!) favorite TV shows episodes aired(I'm talking to you Arrow and GoT fans), family planning vacation out of nowhere.

Even the smallest of things becomes distracting. Sleep becomes you're best friend and laziness takes over.

"Ahh I'm too tired today, I'll start revision tomorrow. First, let me take a selfie" - What I guess goes on in the minds of most students.

That makes me wonder, why is it that we can spend the whole day on a gadget and apps (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram etc), but when a the thought of study or doing something productive comes in, all mood goes down and we feel like we need a coffee/Redbull injection.

Let's make sure we don't end up like this
Not that I am perfect, I used to be a "FB addict" a few years ago, but when I look back at that time, I realize how silly it all was and how I could have used that time to do productive work. (spilt milk my friends, don't cry over it) 

Are we so naive that we prefer to do stuff that has no outcome on our lives and sacrifice our studies/passion that will eventually decide our future. 


I just hope other people realize this sooner than later so they are not forced to do the 'run-around-panic- last-minute-revision"

23 days to go... Make them count...

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Welcome to Ramadan.


In case you didn't know, Ramadan is the 9th month in the Islamic calender. It is in this month that we Muslims are required to fast. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam.


The fast is meant to allow Muslims to seek nearness and look for forgiveness from God, to express their gratitude to and dependence on him, atone for their past sins, and to remind them of the needy.


However, some people have a new idea of fasting. Let me introduce to you the fasting of the 21st century. This is the type of fast where instead of eating less than other months, we eat more than we do in the other 11 months combined. This is the type of fast in which instead of doing ibadah people sleep from Suhur to Iftaar missing some or most of the prayers. This is the type of fast in which instead of reading Quraan we read and cram the time of Maghrib prayers (Iftaar). 


Ramadan is there to remind us of the poor but we end up doing Israaf. In almost every home around 20 different food items are on display at Iftaar (starters and desserts excluding). 

At night, instead of praying in the mosque the 21st century fasters [sic] people are joyfully playing carrom outside their homes and a crowd surrounding them waiting for their turn. It is good that in this month the mosques are full; but at the same side it is sad that this is the ONLY month in which this happens.


Ah how could we forget about the last weekend before Ramadan. This is a kind of 'YOLO' weekend where people do everything and anything they can which they can't do in Ramadan. It is as if people are afraid of Ramadan.



"Forgive and forget, it's Ramadan" - Perhaps the most famous Ramadan quote. 
Let us avoid such type of fasts which are meaningless, obsolete and irrelevant. Let's try to make use of this holy month and the rewards we can reap from it.

RAMADAN KAREEM! 

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

We are living in an age of lies, an age of desperation, an age of greed. Little do we realise the toll it is taking on us. Most of us ignoring the symptoms and continuing with their lives ignorant to what is going on around them.

Just this week I was watching a movie, 'Silence Of The Lambs', (Title stolen; guilty as charged). The movie itself wasn't intriguing as was this phrase. As usual, I was lost in thought. 

This phrase has a much deeper meaning ([sic] according to my interpretation). Lets pause the whole phrase thing. How many of us know about the crimes against humanity being committed in Syria, Burma, Palestine, Somalia, Congo e.t.c? We are too ensnared in our daily lives to save others. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to forget your family and go live a hippie-peace-lover-till-I-die, I'm just saying let's be more aware what's happening around the world. And that too doesn't mean watching news headlines.
"The greatest lie is one which is hidden conviniently between two truths" - Fox Mulder.

This is a perfect example of the media, using only specific news to provide propaganda and the rest discarded. How sad it is we gobble up all their lies, ingest it, spread it. We become a part of the so called 'system' without even realising it, hence we are the 'Silent Lambs' waiting to be slaughtered and fit into the 'work-go home-work-die' routine. 

When will we wake up from this mental slumber, I wonder. When will we see the sufferings afflicted on our brothers/sisters across the globe, I wonder. When will the lambs speak out, I wonder...