Study Grandmaster - The Blog

How to know that you are dealing with teens instead of little kids

// June 20th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Parenting Guidance

 As little kids blossom into teens, their behavior start to change.

As little kids blossom into teens, their behaviour starts to change. And the way you handle your children should change too. Here are 10 signs you can look out for:

1. Their phone bills at home start to skyrocket.

2. You start to see curfews being broken.

3. They complain that their stereos just don’t have enough amps. You take your earplugs out to hear what they’re saying.

4. If you have boys, you find yourself washing the same clothes many times a week. If you have girls, you will not see the same outfit twice in over a month.

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Building your Self-Esteem

// June 12th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Grandmaster Habits

Self esteem is your own personal view of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Everyone has a different view of themselves, but keeping a positive outlook will benefit you more than a negative one.  Many individuals suffer from low self esteem for a variety of reasons and need to build their self esteem in order to succeed in life.  Remember, the only one who can make you excel is you and no one else.  The same goes for self esteem.  The only person who can build up—or consequentially tear down—your self esteem is you.  Although other individuals may aide the process, the end decision is yours.

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Killing Procrastination: The Number 1 Killer of Success

// June 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Grandmaster Habits, Study Techniques

You sit in one corner, observing the pretty girl you admired for ages, but having no guts to approach her. You are waiting for the perfect opportunity but before you know it, she is attached with your “best friend”.

You slam the alarm clock to the floor to cease the excruciating racket, go back to sleep and find yourself waking up 3 hours behind time.

You come out of the shower, feeling refreshed and awake. You sit down on your study desk, feeling ready to chiong through your homework. Before you know it, your friends drag you out to dinner.

You have a test next morning, but you’re still on MSN or skype or gtalk exchanging funny jokes or gossiping with your friend.

You check the clock, it’s 1230am. You can’t find the determination in you to quit the DOTA game you’re halfway through. And you’re staring at the lecture notes waiting for you, piled up next to your computer.

Blame it on the overloaded education system. Blame it on lousy time management. Blame it on laziness. Blame it on your buddies and the friend who kept linking you to funny videos on Youtube.

Sounds familiar? Well, you’re not the only one.

We’ve all been victims at one point or another, whilst some of us are afflicted with it chronically. By going “Geez, I really have to manage my time better the next time” isn’t really going to help. The bad news is you know you’ll fall prey to it yet again. Who will you blame when you need to retake A level again next year? Who will you blame when you can’t get the scholarship you deserve?

Procrastination is the number 1 killer of success. Resisting procrastination is hard to do, especially with so many distractions around us. But to be a grandmaster like me, learning not to procrastinate is a MUST. Stay tuned on how to kill procrastination!

Animalistic instincts

// May 29th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Grandmaster Habits

In the animal kingdom, only the fittest survive. The rest will all wither and die. Some places are just not for the weak. In fact the world is a very dangerous place for the weak.  And those that survive are the strongest. When people say that the progress of society is decided by the weakest members, they are probably right. The weak affect the progress of society is general.

Just look at studies, it is a very individualistic thing. The pressure cooker environment makes a student’s life no different from an individual in the animal kingdom. You have to ensure that you are the fittest in order to survive. Yes, and I am talking only about surviving. If you want to not only survive but be at the top of the food chain, you have your work cut out for you.

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Also-ran

// May 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Grandmaster Habits

Everything you do in life has an element of competition about it. Life is just like a competition. People do not want to lose. They always want to win. A lot of things that concern people are about image and achievement. Some people want success to brag, some need success to feed their big ego, some need success to prove a point to some unreasonable people, some just want self-satisfaction and some just need success to make them feel there is some meaning in life. Continue Reading

Home tuition?

// May 15th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Study Techniques, Study Tips

The following article might be more for my Singapore readers but it is also helpful for people all around the world.

Do you ever believe in home tution? Well, many people believe in it, especially undergrads. In a way, it has been used to pay for the school fees of many undergrads, but for some maybe its not the school fees ( maybe fees for partying or for their newly bought cheap Japanese car). Whatever it is, being a home tutor is one of the most common jobs for undergrads. The pay is relatively good for starters compared to other jobs.

But are all home tutors who are undergrads equally good? This is a nonsensical question. Maybe you can look at the pay they get, it ranges from 20 to even 100 per hour depending on the experience and the level that they teach. I admit some of these tutors are actually white elephants. Come on, not all undergrads are equally passionate. The white elephants are usually the ones who teach for the sake of the money only and not because they want to educate the people.

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Inspiring Song

// May 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Success Stories, The Study Grandmaster's favourites, You can be Happy

I remember during my school days, I not only excel in academic, but also in sports as well. This song “One Moment in Time” by Whitney Houston really inspired me to succeed in life and to become a Study Grandmaster. Though it is an Olympic Theme, it inspires me in all aspects of life.

Go after your dreams, nothing can stop you.

Enjoy the song!

watch?v=1cCq46Dfgkk&feature=related

Each day I live
I want to be a day to give the best of me
I’m only one, but not alone
My finest day is yet unknown
I broke my heart for every gain
To taste the sweet, I faced the pain
I rise and fall,
Yet through it all this much remains

I want one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams
Are a heart beat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel, I will feel eternity

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All the best for the A level students this year!

// March 6th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // News and Updates

To all my ex-students from last year, I hope that you are on your way to being a grandmaster!

THE results of the GCE ‘A’ Level examinations were released on Friday, with this year’s cohort doing slightly better than last year’s.

Of the 14,212 students who sat the examination last year, 12,488, or 87.9 per cent scored at least three H2 passes, with a pass in General Paper (GP) or Knowledge and Inquiry (KI). This is a 0.2 per cent improvement over last year.

Students received their results at 2.30pm from their respective schools.

At Raffles Institution, 598 students, or 47 per cent of those who sat for the A-level examinations, scored four H2 distinctions. This cohort of students was the first in both schools to go through the Integrated Programme (IP) from Secondary 1. Previous IP batches had started the programme in Secondary 3.

RI’s top scorer is Pan Zixiang, who obtained distinctions in 13 academic units for nine subjects, including German and Higher Chinese.

Another top RI boy is Chen Sihan, a Chinese scholar, who scored 12 distinctions for nine subjects.

Over at Hwa Chong Institution, 216 out of its 1,000 A-level students scored seven distinctions or more, with Lee Jia Li, 18, topping with nine distinctions

Procrastinations and rebuttals

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Study Techniques

* I’m not in a good mood and I don’t write well when I’m not in a good mood - I’ll do it later when I feel better.
** Rebuttal:  Nothing will make you feel as good as getting something done.  The main reason for your bad mood is that you don’t really want to do this task, so getting it out of the way will feel great.

* Life is so hard - I can’t believe I have to do this unpleasant task.  I’ll even it out by doing something more fun first.

** Rebuttal:  Yes, life is hard, and it’s terrible that you have to do this task.  That’s why you will reward yourself after you do the task.  Otherwise you’re applying backwards conditioning, which doesn’t work.  And don’t forget to plan enough fun and relaxation time into your schedule.

* I’ll definitely do it, in a minute or so
* Rebuttal:  Set a timer, or that minute could last 2 hours. When the timer goes off, do the task.  Even better, do it now!

* After this bad thing is over in my life (tests, assignments, homework etc.) my life will seem easier and I’ll be able to do my task on a daily basis.  So I’ll wait until then.

** Rebuttal:  Life is always like this.  You can afford to do 15 minutes of work today, can’t you?  This is the one small act you can do to make your life a little better.

* I just don’t feel like it
** Rebuttal:  So what?  Do it anyway!  If you wait until you feel like it, the task will get done in 10 years if you’re lucky.  They only way to make yourself feel like it is to get started and get into the flow of the work.

* Why do just a little today - I’ll do double tomorrow - I work better when I feel pressure anyway.
** Rebuttal:  It’s a fallacy that you work better under pressure. It’s not true, because anxiety reduces creativity and clear thinking.  And doing double the next day will backfire.  You will feel less like doing it tomorrow because you’ve decided you must do double the work, and it will seem more overwhelming and less appealing, so you’re even more likely to put it off until the next day.

* I can only work in one place (the library, a café, my classroom) and that place isn’t available or I can’t get there - so there’s no point in working at all.

** Rebuttal:  You’d be surprised how much work you can get done no matter where you are.  Even if you don’t have your laptop with you, you can pull out a scrap of paper and write down a few notes on what you’d like to accomplish in the section you’ve been working on.  Try it!

* I’m not sure how to do this - I don’t know how sitting down and writing will enable me to do it — it’s just hopeless so why even start?

** Rebuttal:  If you’re not clear enough on what to do, writing may be the only way to get you out of this state.  If you truly need help from someone else on this problem, you need to write down the questions clearly.  The process of writing them down may clarify the issue for you.

* I didn’t write well yesterday, so today will be terrible.
** Rebuttal:  Often bad writing days are followed by better ones.  The reason to write daily is that your brain is still plugging away on it while you’re doing other things or sleeping.  So you may surprise yourself today!

The ‘Before’ and ‘After’

// February 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Grandmaster Habits

The Study Grandmaster sees all the advertisements on TV and the papers that show slimming centres showing the before picture of a really fat woman and then the after picture of the same slim confident woman. It seems that magic can be done in such a very short time. In some things, you can change things in the blink of an eye.

However, do you think you can change from a failure to an A scoring student just like that too? Using magic right, dream on.

The time between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of success is where people suffer the most. You see Phelps and Bolt getting golds in the Olympics like its a stroll in the park. Do you really think success drops down from the sky for them. The suffering part is what these people will never tell you about.

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