Pestering the Preliminaries

What does it take to have good grades?

Is it discipline?

Is it motivation?

Is it being well - rounded?

Or it all boils down to the concept of time management?

Upon pondering at the question, I saw a certain formula in Twitter. According to such post, there are three formulas for you to attain good grades; added are a highly - active social life and a 10 hours sleep.

Option 1:

Sleep + no social life = Good grades

Option 2:

Social life + sleep = Bad grades

Option 3:

Good grades + social life = No sleep

So, what formula suits you fine?

Honestly speaking, I go for the third and it really reflects my strategies and learning style. I prioritize my social life, but my studies goes on top of the line. Occasionally, I have my doubts about that.

The recent preliminary examinations really blew my lid. I don't know, but no matter how hard I studied, I always end up to the state of having a "soupish mind." In our most up-to-date vocabulary, that's SABAW for you.

What seemed to be the problem?

Indeed, it's the wrong line up of the courses. Those organizers don't care about what the students could feel. Imagine lining up four examinations for just one day. They definitely don't know each parcel of the subject content. It's still the same sweet statements, "What's with it? We are not the ones who study them, though. We don't care whether the content goes hundreds and hundreds of pages in the book, we just did our job."

And after that, nothing else matters.

After the four grueling exams, it's preceded by these 2 hellish tests.

I've read my notes. Memorized the formulas. Took note of the important concepts.

But when I faced the answer sheets, my mind went blank.

Maybe I'm not cut for the advance reviewing strategy. Maybe, I was really called for the profession of cramming. Maybe, I really do better when my adrenaline is fired.

These are mere assumptions, but most of the time, they were proven to be true.

It has been 3 years since I banished from my vocabulary the "advance reviewing" words. I was in my high school when I started dedicating my whole life in this special field of studying. Such action was triggered when I ranked 12th of the honor students in grade 6, when in fact, I was on the 6th since first grading.

During my first three years in high school, I became the first honor. Whatever happened during my fourth year, I still don't know. I ranked 7th on the final grading period, and that was dubbed as the 5th honorable mention. What's ironic is that, I just happened to bag most of the medals, compared to the others.

And because of that, I promised myself that I will really do better in college. One advantage of being the underdog is doing the most outrageous tactics that your opponents couldn't think of. I'm not being boastful. It's just being proud of your recent scholastic records: studying in a prestigious university and being a consistent dean's lister since freshman year.

Alright, enough of going down the memory lane. Maybe, my mind is currently suffering from mental indigestion. Information overload is the hardest thing that a student could experience. And really, there are no prescribed medicines for those two.

I really did "dilly - dally" on the exams. Take note, I studied but to no avail of getting high scores.

What did I do?

I laughed after the 2 hellish exams. I ridiculed our possible examinations' results with one friend. After all, laughter really is the best medicine especially on these times of agony.

For now, I won't guarantee anything that is positive. I won't make plans, because things don't go according to how they are planned. I will just strive harder, even if that would lead me to the exhaustible "tug of war" of studies, which means in Survivor, the survival of the fittest.

Oh wait, am I that fit? I think, someone here should start shredding off pounds.

Literally speaking, I should start (again) my diet. I noticed that my arms are getting flabbier. Talking from a figurative context, I should start prioritizing the things that I value most. That's first things first and dropping off the unwanted and unnecessary stuff.

And I think, it all bounces back to the concept of time management.