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7 ways to do well in exam

There are several ways to score well in exam. Some of them are potentially immoral. But I’m not going to be the moral police to tell you what’s right or wrong. I’ll let you be the judge. From my experience, the things mentioned below are quite effective to help you do well in exam.

1.     The super nerd

There are people who study more than 9 hours a day. I call it the super inefficient way of studying. They pour in huge amount of time and energy resource to achieve success at school. Most likely they have to sacrifice their social life.

2.    The real substance

There are people who do well in exam purely based on merit – they are really good at what they study. They are resourceful, knowledgeable, and smart. With solid foundation and proper substance, they don’t need to cut corners and cheat around. This is the hard way, but the best way to achieve success at school, in my opinion.

3.    The strategist

Some smart people perceive exam as a game of strategy. They think of optimum ways of using their resources to do well in exam. Some of their strategies include finding out which chapters have better chance of appearing in exam, the passing rate of a subject, and the exam pattern of various subjects. They study smart, not hard.

4.    The predictor

Some people do well by finding out past exam pattern. They’ll ask their seniors or dig out past semester exam questions to predict how future exam questions will behave. This way is effective on subjects with cyclic behaviour, where past questions are repeated in future exam. However, we know that not all subjects behave in this way. So it’s a matter of luck.

5.    The brain investor

Many people put time and effort in doing homework and reading text book. But only a few students are willing to invest in their intelligence. They do mental exercises to develop their memory, thinking skills, and creativity. Having developed mind is like working with powerful computer. You learn faster and remember more facts. This is a good move because it benefits us for a life time.

6.    The cunning player

Some people are really good at cutting corners. Instead of building up their substance, they play the easy way out by persuading teachers/lecturers to be lenient, asking for leak questions or sure win tips, and bribing others. The end justifies their mean.

7.    The consistent student

The students who study consistently usually don’t need to rush at last minute or cheat their way out. They are balance learners who allocate a fixed amount of time every day to study. Studying becomes a way of their daily life. Their substance will gradually build up until they can easily handle exam.

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Moral standard is a tool to control human behavior

Since young, we are taught to tell the truth, behave well, and show kindness. Most people think moral standard is the right path to follow and seldom question it. Truly speaking, there’s no such thing as objective moral standard. Moral code is man made. A moral value in a culture might be frown upon in another culture and vice versa. Some moral nihilists and moral sceptics openly question the existence of objective morality.

In my opinion, moral standard is created to keep society functioning in an optimum way. It’s like a microchip implant in people’s head to make them behave in certain way that’s productive and not harmful to the social economical system of a society. Societies need moral code to prevent people from robbing the bank, killing people around, and wracking all kinds of havoc (ironically, sometimes it tolerates racism. Ha ha harr….).

I think certain moral values should be embraced because it makes us better human beings. But I’ll always remain sceptical with the whole holy moral high ground thing. Sometimes moral standard is a tool used by certain parties to achieve their agenda. Do you notice that some nations used the man made “human rights” to bash countries they don’t like and they themselves don’t walk the talk?

Question everything. Assume nothing.

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How to become clever

You can become smarter if you put time and effort to improve your intelligence. The scope of intelligence is broad, covering areas such as interpersonal, spatial, and logical intelligence. We can’t cover everything in one page, but at least this article provides the guideline for you to become significantly cleverer.

The brain is the center of intelligence and should be the main focus of our interest. It should be well developed since infancy. That’s why children should receive proper nutrients by eating proper three square meals. Adults can grow their brains too. Research has shown that smart people who work a lot with their brain power have better developed brains than most people. Through mental training, our brain cell network can become more inter-connected and complex, making us cleverer.

One aspect of mental training is to develop memory. Memory is important because it’s where the knowledge substance lies. The better the memory you have, the more knowledge resource you can hold. There are many memory training books out there and I recommend you to get them and start developing your memory. I have written an article about developing memory power here, which is pretty useful.

The ability to recreate reality vividly in your mind enables you to think much better. With sharp imagination, you can simulate reality and think of various what-if scenarios. Engineers and artists need such imagination to work creatively. Fortunately, imagination can be improved. You need to search the internet for imagination development techniques for various senses (visual, auditory, touch, smell etc.). You’ll notice significant improvement after a few days of training.

Decision making and problem solving are important skills required to become clever. In real life, we have to use limited resources in our hands to yield the best result in specific situations. We have to identify the problem, think of several solutions, and pick the best alternative to achieve the best outcome. Sometimes the problem is so complex until we need to build a flow chart to analyze it. By learning such skills, we can make intelligent decisions and solve many problems in life.

Clever people can interact well with others. That’s why it’s essential to build up our interpersonal (social) skill. This is not so easy because we can’t learn it directly from text books alone. We need to consciously observe how people interact and analyze why some people are successful at dealing with people. We might have to improve this skill via trial and error until we can click well with others. Another related aspect is leadership. Some people are influential, where people around them pay them respect and obey their instruction. We don’t gain such authority automatically through position and power. It’s a quality that has to be earned.

Becoming cleverer puts you in an advantageous position in life. For that reason, it’s worth investing in your intelligence by mastering the skills mentioned above.

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Running for beginners

You might want to pick up running, since it’s cool and healthy. But you don’t know much about running and aren’t sure where to begin. I can advice you on how to begin your running exercise.

What’s your purpose of running? Different kinds of running will yield very different result. Long distance runners are skinny while sprinters are muscular. Some people run to lose weight while others do so to increase stamina. It’s alright if you’re not sure of your goal yet. At the beginning, the main goal is to condition your body to cope with running. After building up your stamina and strength, you can move on to other forms of running.

First, you need to find a suitable running path – somewhere relatively level and safe. It’s best if your running path is a close loop, so that you can run in laps to gauge your performance. If possible, find out the distance of your running path. This can be done using Google Earth, which has a distance measuring feature.

You should plan your running schedule. Running 3 times a week at evening is a good plan. Try to rest a day or two between each running session to give your body some time to heal and grow. Don’t run less than once a week. Your body needs more than that to improve.

Before you run, drink some water. Ideally you should drink isotonic electrolyte solution for running (it’s optional). You also need to replenish your body fluid by drinking a lot of water after you run. Don’t skip this step (after all, it’s really common sense).
Now it’s time to run, but for how long? Run slowly for a short distance for the first time. You should at least sweat and pant a little. Running slowly for 1 kilometer is a good way to start. For the next few sessions, try to increase your speed or distance (either one, not both). If you’re not sure which one to pick, just run longer distance or more laps.

When you can run slowly for 5 km, increase your speed but run in shorter distance (2km for example). From there you increase the distance in subsequent sessions. Repeat this process as you improve.

As you improve, you’ll feel your leg muscle increases and your body get less tired. You should run like that for 3 to 6 months until your body is strong enough to do other physical activities.

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4 essential qualities of a successful blog

There are a lot of blogs out there. It’s not easy to simply categorize them as good / bad, which is subjective and best left to the readers to judge. However, successful blogs share some of these similarities:

1.    Core theme

Readers come to your blog for a reason – to learn new things, read jokes, or look at your photos. Focusing on your core theme will keep your readers following you. If you mix everything like politics, jokes, and traveling all in one blog, your blog will lose focus and your readers will get confused. They might not want to subscribe to your blog (unless you write very well). Therefore, pick a niche and stick to it.

2.    Quality content

If you put effort to generate good content and give value to your readers, most likely people will follow you. Good quality content is scarce and is highly sought after. However, there’s always exception. Some junky looking blogs are also successful. Even copy and paste blogs like FAIL blog are unexpectedly popular. Read below to find out why.

3.    Emotional factor

If you can make your readers’ go WOW after they read your blog, you’re on the right track. FAIL blog might look simple, but it’s very funny – so funny until its readers tell all their friends about it and make it even more popular. You don’t have to write something funny, but at least your blog shouldn’t sound like a dead fish that bores your readers to death. Try your best to make them feel something.

4.    Optimum update frequency

Good blogs are constantly updated. I think there should be an optimum update frequency, ranging from once a day to twice a week. Updating your blog too often (20 times a day) might risk losing your blog subscribers (unless you’re blogging for Engadget and Lifehacker). Not updating your blog for months is just as good as closing down your blog.

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These are just some of the traits of successful blogging. If you think there are more formulas to good blogging, please share them with us. Thanks!

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Readers’ contribution:

foongpc says:

Good tips! But it all depends what you want to achieve with your blog. Are you blogging for the sake of blogging and sharing your thoughts? Or are you blogging for money?

If you are blogging for money, it’s not necessary to update your blog often. In fact, you can leave your blog not updated for months, yet you can still earn a good passive income from it.

Davina says:

These are all great tips. I also think what happens in the comment section is important. Especially when commenters address each other or make comments about one another’s comments.

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Is success the sum of correct decisions?

I remember Deutsche Bank has a marketing slogan – success is the sum of correct decisions. Is it really true that our decisions determine the outcome in life like a game of chess?

I do agree that life is about making choices and a lot of outcome in life depends heavily on our decisions and actions. However, I don’t think it’s the 100% factor that contributes to success. There are uncontrollable factors that play their own roles in bringing us success – social connection, national policy, financial condition, and so on. We can only steer our life that much and the rest is left to external forces.

Nevertheless, fate still lies in our hands. If the external forces favour us and we don’t choose to make use of it to gain success, then we are just as good as sleeping and watching TV for the rest of our life.

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Readers’ contribution:

Anne Partain says:

I do think success comes as a result of our decisions. Otherwise, how can we say we create our own lives. People who are aware and awake are making decisions based on what they desire. People who are less than awake are making decisions based on a great many things. But they are still decisions, even if they are unconsciously made. We have our lives in our hands. To believe it any other way takes away our power.

There is another factor here, that I see as worth mentioning. About the so called concept of fate. I think we begin making decisions about what we want in this life before we are born. And many of the things that happen in this life are a result of these pre-human desires. But, what we focus on and what we get here are congruent, vibrationally speaking.
That’s how I see it and experience it.
Thank you Relax, for a stimulating topic.

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100 simple things to do to enrich your life

These are really simple things that you can do:

1. Share good stuff with friends.
2. Talk good about others.
3. Smile always.
4. Greet people around you.
5. Let your love ones know that you care for them.
6. Hug your love ones.
7. Play with your pet.
8. Try new games.
9. Spend quality time with family.
10. Have a weekly gathering with old friends.
11. Sing happy songs.
12. Enjoy soothing music.
13. Learn to play new music instrument.
14. Watch live stage performance.
15. Visit new countries and experience different cultures.
16. Try backpacking.
17. Appreciate happy moments in life.
18. Feel grateful for every thing you have.
19. Walk every evening for an hour.
20. Jog or run weekly.
21. Practice tai chi, qigong, or yoga.
22. Try daily meditation.
23. Expose yourself to the morning sun.
24. Work out at fitness center.
25. Try to befriend the stranger sitting next to you.
26. Drink less coffee, more green tea (without sugar and milk).
27. Cycle around to explore new places.
28. Try new food.
29. Visit new restaurants and cafés.
30. Enjoy the ambient of the café.
31. Watch movie with good friends.
32. Swim at water theme park.
33. Work hard and love your job.
34. Organize social activities for your colleagues and friends.
35. Plan your finance well.
36. Live frugally.
37. Invest regularly and carefully to build long lasting wealth.
38. Produce less waste and recycle more.
39. Save energy.
40. Drink moderately.
41. Say no to smoking and dangerous drugs.
42. Blog daily.
43. Read quality books.
44. Subscribe to quality blogs.
45. Learn new things from internet.
46. Make your own video documentary.
47. Get a nice huggy pillow.
48. Laugh at funny jokes
49. Laugh with your friends.
50. Make others laugh.
51. Play games with your friends.
52. Play more chess.
53. Never quit learning.
54. Improve learning skills.
55. Fill your life with activities.
56. Avoid sleeping whole day.
57. Get a sense of life purpose by having a role or responsibility in life.
58. Volunteer to take responsibilities.
59. Take reasonable risk in every opportunity.
60. Face hardship to make yourself stronger.
61. Give a helping help to those in trouble.
62. Set realistic and concrete goals in life and commit to them.
63. Write down things that you have learnt every day.
64. Contribute to charity wisely.
65. Eat healthy food – more greens and less chemical.
66. Drink more water.
67. Plant trees and vegetables.
68. Watch documentary and science programs.
69. Learn a new language.
70. Learn new software.
71. Learn to recall your night dreams.
72. Take pictures of beautiful sceneries and share it with friends.
73. Learn skills of arts such as paper cutting.
74. Walk at the garden.
75. Enjoy the evening sun at the beach.
76. Write letters of appreciation.
77. Participate on online forums.
78. Meet smart people on internet.
79. Have healthy, inspiring role models.
80. Wake up early in the morning.
81. Take afternoon nap.
82. Keep your promises.
83. Do what you preach and walk the talk.
84. Detoxify your body with exercise, water, fruits, and herbs.
85. Breathe properly with abdominal breathing.
86. Decorate your house.
87. Cook tasty and healthy food.
88. Live an environment friendly life.
89. Learn the secrets of longevity.
90. Be a good listener.
91. Embrace peace and harmony.
92. Avoid judging others. Accept people as they are.
93. Learn to be compassionate, even toward “bad” people.
94. Control your desire.
95. See things from different point of view.
96. Embrace diversity in culture.
97. Enjoy the process of growing up and each stage of life.
98. Saviour every moment in life and keep sweet memories.
99. Practice loving kindness.
100. Forgive others and let go of the past.

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How can we actually achieve peace

Human beings yearn for peace, yet they often kill or hurt each other. The very same people who chant the peace and harmony slogan don’t always walk the talk. Sometimes people hurt others for silly reason. Sometimes peace fades just because there’s lack of tolerance toward differences and diversity. Could it be our own ego that wrack havoc in this world?

I think being a moral police is definitely not the path to peace, although it seems to be the silver bullet solution to maintain peace. Everyone has his own moral standards, and his ego will uphold it grandly. When other people have moral values that contradict our own, we’ll play hero by shooting them down, thinking that we are doing the right thing. However, we forget to see the other side of the coin. Our actions and values might be wrong in the eyes of others too. If we keep on playing moral police by shoving our values down others’ throat, peace will run away.

I don’t think peace can be achieved externally – expecting people around us to be peaceful. Other people have their own mind and choices, which is out of our control. There are people out there who want to cause trouble and we can’t do much about it. Some people even cut off contact with others and live in deep mountains as hermits to seek peace, since they think peace lies not in society.

Real peace comes from within. I believe we should start from ourselves by being a good human being and a good example for others to follow. Judge less and accept others as they are. We don’t have to contribute grandly to world peace. Small things like showing love and forgiving others count a lot.

Give a small flower to the person in front of you.

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What does it take to become a backpacker

Backpack travelling to other countries is an adventurous way to experience different cultures and meet various people. It’s not very hard to be a backpacker, but you need to possess some qualities before you start your journey.

A backpacker needs to be independent. Typically, backpacking is done either in solo or duo. You have to be willing to take risks and responsibilities by yourself. That includes booking a bed, seeking information, and sorting out your meals and transportation. It’s hard to succeed if you always depend on others to do the job.

Being prepared is essential for backpacking. You need to seek information (from internet or travel guide) and plan your journey. Without planning, you might end up in northern Finland without knowing the way back. Plan your travel route and destinations wisely so that you can save time and money. You also need to prepare your equipments such as backpack and insulating mat. Don’t forget to be smart in packing your stuff. You might want to save space and reduce the weight of your backpack.

Most importantly, you must be willing to sacrifice. Backpackers face hardship and challenges. They have to travel for long hours, endure bad weather, and cope with nasty local people. It’s not all honeymoon experience and you should prepare to pay the price for your golden experience.

Backpacking is not just about experiencing the vast outer world, but also an inner journey of self discovery and character development. I wish you a pleasant backpacking experience.

Tips: use this website to find a roof over your head.

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How long does it take for us to reach there

We go on a long voyage toward our dream in life. It could take years or decades for us to reach our graduation, career dream, or financial freedom.

While we are sailing steadily toward our destiny, we should celebrate every moment on the ship – laugh with other sailors, eat and drink happily, and play games with shipmates. It’s a long journey that keeps us wondering how many days to go before the ship arrives there.

We should focus on the long term goals ahead – and shouldn’t forget to take a deep breath and savoir the tiny moments in life. When the ship finally reaches the dream island, all the memories on the ship will be immortalized as sweet memento.

Around the world in eighty days we sail the seven seas.