Good Luck All for O Levels!

Minna-san, Ganbatte ne!

The holidays are over and what little enjoyment you treasured has yet again dwindled into oblivion. CCAs are ending, thus leaving you with so much available time that your tickled heart tries to deceive your mind into taking a ‘break’ before mugging full force for the upcoming exams! Lessons and tutorials are beginning to end too; there’s nothing new left to learn for the time being and revision seems the only thing you are pre-occupied with now. The exams are… one day away? Are you prepared? Or are you panicking and beginning to contemplate suicide? Don’t you wish that time would be merciful and slow down enough for you to cram all that you’ve learnt for the exams, and yet wishing for it to accelerate quickly altogether so that this whole exam pandemonium would be disappear sooner? It’s so difficult to please the average soul.

I suppose the relaxation during the holidays is the primary impetus for us to keep going, a long-awaited and much anticipated break that is met by all with jubilance and enthusiasm. No matter what your drive is, the time has come again to park yourself down and flip open those detestable 3 inch-thick textbooks that have been accumulating dust for the past month. Resist the itch of playing DotA (Defense of the Ancients) and WoW (World of Warcraft), stop watching anime, re-stock your supplies of coffee, and let the mugging begin!

MUG! MUG! MUG!!!

This simple act as succinctly depicted by the 3 alphabets ‘M’, ‘U’, and ‘G’ has almost become a catholic high school culture, one that has integrated with our mundane lifestyles and has been subconsciously blended into our drilled minds, becoming not only a dependence in our lives but also an act of habit that we cannot do without, for fear of losing out to others. Just taking an unintended stroll around the school grounds will grant one glimpses of secondary school life in Catholic High, allowing one to observe the intensive preparations occurring backstage that give our school its prestige on the world’s stage. Fuelled by the knowledge that one is engaged in all-consuming race against one’s peers and by wisdom of the fact that they are also constantly improving themselves as well as learning more and more as every second passes, one inevitably resorts to the act of mugging.

To paint the definition clearly for everybody, mugging in this context is not referring to the undesirable act of an armed street robbery, but rather to a Singaporean colloquial term to describe intensive studying. In academics, mugging (also known as cramming) is the practice of working intensively to absorb massive volumes of informational material in short amounts of time. This has become an arithmetic trend not just in Catholic High but many other schools in Singapore. Mugging has replaced passion for sports and arts and has not only developed into a unique pastime of its own but has infected the minds of many and become a deleterious habit. A simple Google search on the word ‘mugging’ will lead one to encounter amusing yet very true results such as ‘Will mugging for long hours enable one to score good marks for exams?’, ‘I LOVE MUGGING!’, ‘Can somebody teach me how to mug pls?’ and ‘How to stay awake for mugging?’. ^[1] Delving deeper, one uncovers sacred techniques on the art of mugging and finds that ‘staying awake for mugging’ requires an exhaustive list of secret methods such as using Adderall, doing 20-30 pushups every night and bloating oneself with black coffee among others. I doubt these methods actually work, because if someone had actually tried them out he probably wouldn’t have survived it.

The quintessential question in mugging is the controversial ‘quantity or quality’ While some may argue that quantity should be attributed 100% priority in studying, studying smart is also vital. The key to mugging is not does not lie in the volume of information and resources that one ‘mugs’ but rather in the art and lore of selective absorption of information and mugging smart.

Obviously, just studying and studying and studying isn't going to do you any good if you don't actually know what's going on. To give a fundamental illustration, knowing the formula V = IR isn't going to help whatsoever if you don't know how to identify V(voltage), I(current), or R(resistance). Similarly, knowing that pro-opiomelanocortin neurons stimulate satiety and inhibit feeding isn’t going to help you at all unless you actually understand the regulation and control by leptin in arcuate nucleus neurons. ^[3] Understanding is a vital as knowledge is and probably even more so as knowledge without understanding cannot be applied and hence cannot be knowledge. Such is the knowledge paradox and if you don’t want to be entangled in its sticky webs of bewilderment, you therefore have to have the basic understanding of your knowledge. There is a saying that knowledge is power, but the fact remains that one might not know at all what to do with all that power, let alone comprehend the fact that he wields power in his addled-mind. Understanding the knowledge is where the true power and ability comes in. However, do not place all your emphasis on trying to understand the knowledge you have mastered. This is where studying smart comes in because at the same time, studying and studying and studying eventually makes you remember things. This is obviously very helpful, especially if you’re doing a subject that requires lots of factual information like biology and literature.

That being said, will mugging for long hours even help one to secure flying colours in his examinations? Yes, it has been scientifically proven by statistics that mugging does help to secure a pass rate and that one-night of pre-exam mugging is better than nothing, but by how much? Mugging can make one rush and feel preoccupied which helps by reducing that relaxed state of mind and complacency which tends to lead to lower-efficiency and reduced thinking capabilities, or as one may put it, mugging can help to kill the sin of Sloth. Sloth is a sluggishness of the mind and heart. Sloth paralyses our capacity for doing everything except what is truly useful. It is the reluctance to expend even the smallest amount of energy and effort to do what it takes to change things, to fix the brokenness around you and to do something about one’s decadence and atrophy of the mind. Sloth is a selfish trait of the tainted human character and works for itself, disregarding all matters and promoting low efficiency and degeneration. ^[4]

Mugging not only creates the atmosphere and passion for learning in the short span of time but also creates a net pressurizing force which drives one to work faster, and also think better with more creative chains of thought coupled with a strong sense of urgency.

However, mugging has been deemed by researchers and experts alike as detrimental to both a person’s physical and mental state. ^[5] One does not effectively retain information from mugging, and actually retains information less during cramming. There has been numerous research conducted using animal models that show us that the most effective way to remember things is going over it many times, with breaks in between. One who goes over things many times with no breaks, which defines the art of mugging, actually retains significantly less information than one going over it fewer times with breaks. There is a clear link between the ability of the brain to form memories and the amount of rest it is given between periods. As such, I would like to emphasize the importance of consistent studying rather than trying to ‘mug’ and cram our puny brains with the infinite expanse of knowledge in the limited amount of time. The phrase ‘burning the midnight oil’ should not be applied as it deprives you of sleep, rest and hence focus and concentration. Consistency is the key to studying smart in addition to the filtering of information.

Another variable in studying is the environment that one studies within. You can study anywhere but obviously some places are better than others. For instance, it is rudimentary knowledge to all and sundry that studying in a cacophonous, disorderly and obstreperous venue will lead to deteriorating inner-focus and lack of concentration and chi, hence inevitably directing one the dreary road to failure and depression. On the other hand, studying within a domicile which lacks the above mentioned distractions, providing a placid, congenial and tranquil environment for one to concentrate to maximum potential and work with optimum performance. The varied results are obvious and I highly recommend that you find a perfect place for yourself to lucubrate as soon as possible. A favourite studying hotspot and popular alternative venue for many would be the National or school library located in close proximity to Catholic High and thus being highly convenient.

Mugging in itself is a flawed culture and trend. People who mug actually tax their brains beyond what they can handle in that short span of time, the result being that they would forget everything that they would have learnt and would hence have to ‘mug’ the same things over and over again in a dull monotony, leading us to the common expression of the ‘no-life mugger’ that we brand many who have fallen into this pointless and vehement cycle of mugging. Mugging is a short term process that keeps repeating itself and serves only to expand ones knowledge in the next 24hours or so. If you care about what you are learning, it is the worst thing you could do to yourself because in the long-term it would only serve to deteriorate one’s thinking capacity, memory retaining capabilities and result in a highly dependable force of habit routine. So for all those out there who need to prepare for an upcoming examination, don’t mug last minute but try to remain consistent in your daily work from now until the examination. Effective studying requires utmost discipline from oneself so as to achieve proper time management and optimal thinking skills. Time is one of the most valuable and wasted resources to a student and has to be seen with high regard in this aspect. Effective thinking skills cannot be studied but have to be built up over a period of time. Some highly effective studying techniques are shared with students in Adprima.com and If you have the time, you should check them out. ^[6] However, the saying goes that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Hence, it is up to one’s style, approach and potential that truly determines the effectiveness of his studies. May you find your own path to academic success and I’d like to take this opportunity to wish one and all the very best of luck for their upcoming O levels examinations!

References

1. http://www.google.com.sg/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_en___SG319&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=mugging
2. http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/archive/index.php/t-2193119.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obese
4. Broader Perspectives, seven sins and virtues article
5. http://media.www.hartfordinformer.com/media/storage/paper146/news/2009/03/05/News/Late-Night.Cramming.Hurts.More.Than.Helps-3661925.shtml
6. http://www.adprima.com/studyout.htm

Hahas, random much yeah =]