By Hu Wo (Cuckoo’s Song)
IN GRADE-9 English, on the old curriculum, we all learned that anyone can be a better scholar if he or she wants to. That is absolutely right. In my experience, many students will never become outstanding inside or outside class, not because they study very slowly but because they have no desire to be really outstanding at all. Even if they have high intelligence, they will have little chance of turning out to be excellent, especially if they do not have systematic study routines. How on earth are those routines? Please see below.
Attendance and study regularity: Almost all outstanding students like to attend school and pay extra tuition without fail. They also take good care of their health so that they will be able to go to classes on time; they have no rationalization of being absent from study. Seldom are they late for their studies. Because they have taken regular classes, they will probably have had enough study on each subject. Of course, regular attendance should automatically have finished half of their studies that must be conducted at home. However, for outstanding students in every sense of the word, their study does not end there only. Having studied, they tend to carry out their studies regularly within 24 hours after they have done them somewhere, whether they are morning persons or night persons.
Unique study styles: In fact, every outstanding student has a unique study style that is quite different from that of average students. Even though they may be auditory, visual, logically-thinking, or bodily-kinesthetic learners, they are given to show their cognitive, effective and psychomotor readiness with great attention to all their studies. And they make use of both classroom timetables and their private schedule. According to the classroom timetable, outstanding students make one day’s study and will then continue another day’s study if they get ample time from the former study. According to their personal schedule, they put the most difficult subjects to study first. After that, they ought to go on studying other subjects in order of their difficulty. They are sure to give most of their study time to the hardest subject for them.
Strong intrinsic motivation: There are two types of motivation that arouse students’ interest in their studies: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Outstanding students mostly have stronger intrinsic motivation than extrinsic motivation. They will not follow or do their studies only if they are aware that other students are taking up studying. Moreover, outstanding students are the most active learners and do not usually imitate others’ learning styles. There is no need for them to get motivated by their parents or elders or even teachers, so they will have to study on a regular basis. No sooner is it time for study than they should willingly go to their study table without any hesitation.
Extensive reading and practice: Not content with studying their textbooks, outstanding students are inclined to do extracurricular reading or external reading, particularly in relation to school lessons. Of course, the students who do such an additional reading are distinctively different from those who do not. After having read a lot, their reading comprehension often doubles in subject matter. Not only that, but mass reading also provides students with essay and letter-writing practice. According to my information, some outstanding students study everyday lessons on weekdays but practise writing essays and letters instead of school studies at weekends.
Good use of leisure time: Some students have too much leisure time while others do not spend their leisure time well. Even worse, some slow learners think it is highly likely that leisure time is just a waste of time and the more time they have for study, the more studies they will have completed. Actually, the brain is never a blank; that is, it is constantly working on full of any thoughts or feelings till dreams turn up there at night occasionally. Outstanding students make good use of their leisure time in such a way that they are staying away from their studies for a moment or having quite a long chat with their friends. In this way, they will be able to overcome with ease that doing the same thing every day looks boring. Intelligently enough, outstanding students do not like to take a break for relaxation in short intervals of their leisure time by drawing, painting, reading, playing video games, or even running and watching TV, just for nothing but eye health.
Dogged life determination: At last, outstanding students have had a kind of life determination while walking on the road to education. Their determination will never be stopped by anyone or anything for any reason. Only that determination blazes a rail in the brightly shining future of their lives. Not only low-achieved students but also high-achieved students sometimes get bored with their studies that are yet to come. There is also some time that they have been fed up with their daily lessons. On this occasion, outstanding students with distinctive life determination almost always regain more physical energy and mind power from it than average. As usual, this drives the students to arrive at the end of an educational route. Whether their life determination is to become a doctor, an engineer, or a writer, this determination must be established in the heart of outstanding students for their whole lives.
