A Culture of Samplex

My study method involves tedious hours of browsing through books, highlighting important points, consulting lecture slides, rewriting notes, and cups of coffee, while simultaneously entertaining distractions such as retweeting funny tweets, and well, buffering “art” videos.

This has always been the case since I started college. If only I don’t sleep in class, I can probably skip re-learning concepts. If only I took notes, I wouldn’t bug classmates with the nicest handwriting. If only I am diligent enough to study lectures at the end of the day, I wouldn’t be cramming. I am an academic train wreck, a lucky one at that, and I am grateful.

I have always sticked to this style even though most peers question the efficiency of it. Can I really retain all these information in one night? Probably not. 

But how can you be efficient in learning? One way to gage learning is through tests.

How do I prepare for tests? By studying everything.

How do others prepare for tests? By studying samplexes.

I am not against samplexes. They are very helpful, and I must admit that there had been times when I browsed through them, but only after studying everything. 

The things I should be learning are in front of me. I cannot sacrifice unimportant topics, read: not included in the exam, just to get high scores. I need to learn everything just because I have to.

Else, I have shortchanged myself from learning something that might be important in future. Else, I have lost the chance to grasp more. Else, I settled for less than what I expect from myself. Else, I took a shortcut to “excellence”.

Perhaps I have become cynical about grades, but I no longer see why I should push myself to excel by others’ standards when in fact, I should be exceeding my own imposed expectations.

I do not aim to get high grades. I do not aim to be a role model. I do not aim to be the best in class. But what I want for myself is to become a person with a complete understanding of the things I must know, which how an engineer should be.

Otherwise, I’d have to specialize on the little things, that got out of the exam.