Using knowledge resource to succeed at school
Besides having sufficient time and knowledge resource, it’s good to have a healthy social network to help you perform well at school. It’s always advantageous to have many people supporting and backing you. The people around you, from your classmates to your teachers, are valuable human resources in your study system.
I strongly advice you to sharpen up your social and communication skills, which helps you to make new friends easily and persuade people to make you successful. I have talked about it in my capability article. I would like to add that leadership skills is something worth investing in, because it helps you to influence people around you and gain strong support.
Your teachers or lecturers might be the most important people in your school life, especially if they are the people who mark your final exam paper and have the final say in passing you to the next semester. Always try to maintain good relationship with them. They are responsible to pass knowledge down to you so they deserve some respect. You have nothing to lose and plenty to gain if your teachers like you. Just don’t overdo it to the extent of ass kissing. You don’t want to be known as a slime ball.
Teachers are usually the main source of your school knowledge. They teach you directly and you gain information through lectures and hand outs. You can gain extra information from teachers by asking them about the exam system, the concept of the subject, and how to solve problems in exercises. However, I encourage you not to depend on your teacher 100%. Learn how to seek and learn knowledge on your own. Learning solely from your teachers is like putting all your eggs in one basket. Read more here.
Tuition teachers or private tutors are alternatives to school teachers. Usually people hire them to generally improve their study or overcome weak subjects. Not all school teachers are good at teaching, and some are de-motivating, which might kill students’ interest in certain subjects. If this is the case, get a good tuition teacher who can really motivate you and keep your study interest alive. If your interest in certain subjects dies, you lose half the battle. We cannot choose out teachers, but at least we can choose our tuition teachers.
Some tuition teachers are very good at what they are teaching. I used to take tuition for my Chemistry, where I learned under the head of examiner! As a head examiner, he knows how to properly gain maximum points in final exam and which questions are frequently asked. He helped me to perform with excellence in Chemistry exams. I also had a tuition teacher who’s famous for spotting exam questions accurately. He helped me to skip unimportant chapters to save time and focus on important ones. One of his prediction questions came out on my SPM (O-level) History paper and I’m grateful for his expertise.
Some tuition teachers give students excellent hand outs where lessons are well presented. Main points are written in reader friendly bullet point form with clear diagrams. It would be better if they also provide students Content Database Mapping (CDM). In group tuition classes, we can meet friends from other schools and exchange information with them. The more friends and contacts we have, the more advantageous we become.
Learning under tuition teachers consumes time and money. It’s wise to consider whether to take tuition for certain subjects before you do so. If the tuition teacher is good at what they do and can cover your school teacher’s weakness, then go for it.
Your seniors are your course mates from earlier batch who have experienced what you are experiencing now at school. It’s good to approach some of them and form mentorship with them. They “have been there and done that” and know which teachers are good and how to deal with each subject. You might want to get to know this valuable information from them. They can also be a source of inspiration to you since they are real life examples of survivors of the school life that you are experiencing now.
Your classmates are obviously important to your study. They are great people to ask help from and you should always help your classmates in return to forge win-win relationship. They can help you in so many ways, such as explaining things that you don’t understand at class, lend you class notes to photocopy (if they have nice handwriting), lend you homework to copy, share with you exam tips, and so on. (I know some of the things I mentioned here are controversial, but I’m not going to play the moral police and tell you what’s wrong and right. I’ll let you be the judge).
Your classmates can be great members of your study group or project group. Doing things with more brains and hands can be more effective than doing things alone by yourself. You might want to leverage the cooperation from your friends to get things done effectively. Each person has strength and weakness in certain things. Working together in a group can exploit each person’s strength and minimize each person’s weakness.
If you don’t want to form study group for certain subjects, you can still benefit from your class friends by asking questions or sharing information with them. One way to strengthen your relationship with your classmates is by sharing your CDM with them to make their study easier.
Your class friends are important source of motivation. They are walking the same study path as you and meeting you everyday at class. If you have problems, you can talk to them, and when they need help, you can comfort them. They make your school life more “human” and are important aspect of your social experience.
Your parents are important figures in you life. They can help you in study if they have expertise in field similar to yours. If you are a student, most likely they are the important decision maker and financial provider in your school life. They decide and fund your tuition, study material, transportation fees, and many more. It’s good to ask favour from them to benefit your study. You can ask them to provide motivation through rewards or send you to tuition. You can also ask them to fund your study expenses and we will look into this subject later on money resource.
There are many other people we can ask help from internet. Expert websites and study forum are platforms where you can ask questions and gain information. Maybe you can meet up students from other school with the help of internet. If you want to pool more people to help in your study, it’s a good idea to start your own school forum free on here.
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