A very dense forest
Being short is unfair when it comes to badminton
Hello there! Hope you have had a good week as the weather turns grim.
It’s only appropriate that I begin with the weather, isn’t it? Quintessentially British. Yes, it has been quite miserable with rain. However, I am happy to say that the sun has had its way as well, sometimes shining at its fullest.
Last time, I mentioned that I was getting braces. In a pretty straightforward process, I had them fitted in on Friday (cue enthusiastic cheer). It wasn’t as bad, to begin with. But once I started to eat something, the pain kicked in. I think the way to describe it was best put by a friend of mine, who also had braces put in a few weeks back: “Your teeth feel tender”.
It seems better now, starting to normalise. Here’s to another 18-24 months of joy! I will, however, aiming to be a beacon of positivity as the dark, cold months approach us…I need to stop the negativity! I will try to stay positive and look at the end goal - I will get perfectly aligned teeth at the end of it.
After not playing sport i.e. hockey for 2 whole weeks, owing to the teeth, I managed to ‘last-minute cram’ some badminton on Friday. I discovered something: badminton makes you sweat more than you think, if you run around, that is. Alas, I was up against a guy who is easily one of the tallest in the year and by just standing there, was able to reach all corners of the court. Whilst I, poor Adi, was running around like a headless chicken in pursuit of the plastic shuttlecock. I hope I’ve done well in painting a picture.
Enough about me; what do I want to share this week?
Well, it’s been a week that has got the Year 11, big-boy feel going. I had an individual careers appointment on Tuesday, had our Y11 Welcome Evening on Thursday and the R word (revision) has found itself back into our mouths, in preparation for the Mock exams. And most important of all, Ofqual finally released what adaptations will be made to the 2022 exams.
In light of this, I thought I’d share the way I’m considering/trying to revisit things this revision season. The best way I’ve heard the following concept put is through the analogy of a forest. Everything we learn is like a tree that grows in our head, to which the brain plots out a (neural) pathway. However, if we don’t go down that route, weeds start to grow, preventing us from getting to the tree effortlessly.
And so, if we want to remember things, we need to keep going down that route and clearing the weeds. Or in more neurological, real-world terms, we need to constantly try to get to that piece of information. We need to actively try to recall that information.
‘Active recall’ is an idea you’ll hear all revision experts talk about. It is just a fancy way of saying ‘testing yourself’. Anything that forces you to put energy and effort into trying to remembering something - that’s the way I’d define it. It can be something as simple as covering up a part of a diagram and trying to say it out loud (saying it aloud being better than just thinking of what it is) to doing a whole past paper. The key is to apply effort into trying to get it out of your head.
If you find that you don’t know it or have forgotten, you need to do 2 things.
Step 1: realise that it’s fine. After all, our brains are designed to forget. We just haven’t done our gardening in a while.
Step 2: revisit it. See what you got wrong and look back at what the correct thing was.
Back to the way I’m approaching going back to topics I did last year, I’m doing it in the following order:
Do some questions - whether it be from the textbook, a website or some past paper questions on a topic - questions I can find the answers to.
Mark the answers and see where I went wrong.
If there was one particular subtopic/area in a chapter, I focus on that. If not, I just have a skim through my notes on this topic (could be a mindmap you’ve made, your exercise book or your textbook. If you haven’t made anything…if you have the time, do make something).
Then try some (preferably, different) questions and see how you do.
There are 2 outcomes to this:
a) You see improvement and if not, where you need to spend some more time
b) The improvement gives you a dopamine hit and a sense of achievement.
I hope that’s been of some use; let me know what you think of that method: got anything else I can add to it? Or do you have a better method?
Book of the week 📖
Nearing the end of “Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World”. I’ve realised that the only way to get some reading in during the week is to not do it right at the end of the day but as a breather between my studies.
Podcast of the week🎙️
Loved listening to this. If you want to start a new habit this month, this one is for you.
Article of the week📰
If you’ve not realised already, I’m into my psychology. And a quite topical one that looks at the ‘why'?’ - Why it’s so hard to stop people from panic buying
Quote of the week💬
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
Have a great week, and enjoy the sun while it’s still there!
Adi
P.S. regarding badminton, a few of my wonder shots were a nice consolation to the sprinting drill I endured.