Never Fail Another Exam - Part 1! No magic nor "hocus pocus" involved.

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For those presently attending classes the next exam is always at least a little worrisome. Will "I pass it?" or "will I fail it?" becomes a recurring thought, becoming all the more frequent the closer the exam. You are probably thinking that yourself right now. These are reasonable questions, and of course the answer is, unfortunately, going to show up very clearly after the exam. Now, herein lies the problem. You would much prefer to get the answer before the exam, but even more important is the answer you want - whether before or after the exam - you want to know you pass.

If you are doing CXC's some interesting information can be found here: http://www.caribexams.org/m_pass_rates

Now lets get something very clear, right now. I am all about learning and using methods and techniques that bring about positive results without harming the user in any way. Built into all of us is the capacity to achieve results such that passing academic exams are no big deal. In fact, you probably know persons who have proven that passing all your exams consistently is very possible, since they do it, apparently, without any great effort.

A quick google search on "free study tips" returns 131 million results in English! With all that out there you would wonder how anyone could still be failing exams.
http://www.google.com.jm/search?gbv=2&hl=en&q=free+study+tips&btnG=Search&meta=lr%3Dlang_en
It appears that there is more to this than meets the eye.

While we are on the subject, subscribe to our free training programs http://2gnec.homeip.net/2gn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=12 and get access to our free, online homework center where we not only provide links to resources, submit questions for offline help, but you get to talk online with educators and students in our moderated homework chat room. Conditions apply.

In this section we will be discussing:

• What confidence is and what feeling has to do with it
• How to analyse your level of confidence
• How to deal with a subject area that you are having difficulty with

If you have been following this blog you will have seen this point in action, where we show you real, practical things that have been proven to work and which just about any person can do. Bear in mind however, you cannot expect to experience the benefits of any process if you are not prepared, and actually do, what is required. The extent to which you do the correct thing will determine the degree to which you get the results. This installment is no exception although the caption may have you wondering. So come with us on this adventure.

Now, lets say you got the answer before the exam that you will pass. Would you still pass the exam? Stop and think about that for a minute, seriously. I can hear you thinking, but that depends on ...., and you have a long list of conditions. Well, you can go through all the objections you can come up with to qualify the validity of the answer, or you can drop that whole line of thinking right now, so we can get to something more engaging. Ready?

Ok, now lets check on something. Your feelings. How did you feel going into the last exam that you passed. Were you certain that you were going to fail? Or did you feel certain that you had a chance to pass? Did you feel certain that you were going to pass? Lets explore that for a bit and see what comes up.

You have to admit that your feelings are a pretty complex part of your makeup. You will also have experienced times when your feelings were right about something even when everything else was pointing in the other direction. You ever wondered about that? It appears to be part of our natural makeup as humans to want this ability to kind of sense things to work reliably all the time. Imagine how life would be if you were able to rely on these feelings that, more often, are sometimes right and somethimes not? And what does this have to do with "never failing another exam"? Well, as it turns out, it has everything to do with success in anything you undertake, including your exams.


A simple technique I discovered as a kid

I recall sitting in an important exam many years ago using one technique I discovered by chance. Even as a youngster at the time I realized the value of this technique and have used it everytime since. My technique was simply to go through the entire exam paper reading the instructions and marking the questions I felt comfortable with. I would then add up the scores of those questions as indicated on the exam paper. If my total was less than a comfortable pass I would then review the remaining questions and select from those my next best set of questions until I had a comfortable pass total. Notice I said comfortable pass and not 100%. Not that I have any difficulty with the idea of getting 100%, in fact I love those scores and have had many. This technique actually helps you to get those scores. I think you can figure out by yourself how that is possible, but if not, we'll discuss that later.

This exam was CXC. I recall that by the time I had gone through the paper and applied my technique some of my fellow exam sitters had written several sheets of answers already! In fact, when I checked the time remaining I was a little concerned because by the time I began writing my answers down a few persons had already completed the paper!

I went through the paper according to my technique and finished just in time. Not surprisingly, a large number of persons failed the paper but I passed it. What was important in this case was that I was not really ready for this exam. This is a simple and practical techniques that helps you while sitting the paper, but what about preparing for the paper? This is what we are going to focus on next.


Confidence to pass ?
Another name for feeling certain about your ability to do something is your confidence in your ability to do these things. Your degree of certainty about your ability to do anything is determined by the number of times you have successfully done that thing before. And, if you have done something similar and are good at it, you will start with a certain level of confidence in your ability to do a new thing. This is natural part of our human makeup and an indcation of intelligence! Conversely, if you have done a thing a number of times and found you got different results than you should, your confidence goes the other way.

You will notice that your confidence is really a feeling. Before an exam, your questioning yourself is really to get a feel of your level of confidence. How you feel deep down is a very reliable indiator of your level of confidence. The next thing is to compare your level of confidence with your level of skill and bring both to a positive level. This is where most people fail themelves and, not surprisingly, their exams. This requires some effort and honesty with yourself.

The first step

Here is something you can do right now. Make yourself comfortable and take any subject matter that you are having difficulty with apart, breaking it up into its main subsections. Make a list. Review the list and for any sub-section that you have mixed feelings about and break that subsection down further. If you find items that you cannot break down further but still have mixed feelings about make a note of those. The issue may have to do with something outside of those subject areas.

Always the beautiful answer to him who asks the more perfect question.

Beside each item in your list make a note of how you feel - good, bad, uncertain. Next, item by item, note what you need to do about each item in order to feel good about it. Specifically, what skill, knowledge, or both do you need to get to feeling good about the subject matter. Avoid asking "why" questions when doing this. You'll get better results if you ask questions that focus on the outcome that you want. So questions like, "what do I need to do to get this? "or "How do I do this?" are better questions to ask yourself.

In fact, the questions you ask are critical to the results you get. We pointed this out before and will reiterate it often.

OK, so now you have a list that indicates the areas where you are having trouble and what you need to do to correct that. While you have an outline you need two other things: something to drive you to take action and something to keep you focussed and certain about your progress.

There is a large body of information out there on the first one - the something to drive you to take action and somewhat less on the second, how to focus and gauge your progress. Experience will have already taught you that you need both. We'll look at these in the next article.

So we have looked at:

• Feelings and confidence
• Simple exam sitting technique
• The business of asking questions
• Part of a success strategy for exams

If you want more drop us a line at info.2gnec@gmail.com or leave a comment on this blog. Follow this blog or share it on facebook (see the links on the right side of your screen.) We want o help as many person as we can and start a movement that helps people enjoy more success in their lives. Welcome to 2GNEC, that's our belief.

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2GNEC: Secrets to faster, more effective ways to learn?

2GNEC: Secrets to faster, more effective ways to learn? Oh yes, definitely! And some of them are so simple and effective you'll wish someone had told you this stuff years ago! That was exactly my feeling as I learned and that's why I am sharing then with you - for free !

Have you ever wondered whether there is an easier way to learn things, whether to improve your skills or academic performance? If you are like most of us, the answer is a resounding yes! At some point in our learning experience, every one of us has wondered this very thing - isn't there an easier way? Well, take heart for there is! But the traditional education system won't tell you about it. We are not traditional, we go after the best, the cutting edge, the most effective and efficient - whether they are brand new or as old as the hills. So we have some really interesting things to share with you that you won't hear at your kids' PTA, nor probably anywhere else but here!

The normal systems of education provide plenty of opportunity for transfer of knowledge. The trouble is whether the person receiving the information can put it back together in the same way the person providing the information intended. Now this is where all hell breaks loose, for the results of normal training show quite clearly that, for a large number of persons, the information transferred is not quite the information received.

Instead of attempting to list the many methods attempting to correct this problem, nor the even more attempts at explaining it, we will focus on what can be done right now to help you learn more, faster, easier and accurately. Its this last part, the matter of accuracy, that sets 2GN and 2GN Education Centers apart from other education and training institutions.

We understand that, just as every person is unique, so the way each person learns is unique. So we provide each student in a flexible learning environment, zoom in on their area of difficulty, locate and manage the cause, thereby creating a unique experience. In order to do this we avail ourselves of all the best techniques, methods and technologies to make learning as fast, efficient and effective as possible. We have had some remarkable results - and we keep improving!

Later we will explain what that means. Right now, we will give you some information that you can use right now to improve your results.

Dealing with tests and examinations

Most students find tests and, in particular, final exams to be particularly stressing. This is where their knowledge, or lack of knowledge, shows up most clearly. Or so it was thought. What is now becoming clear is that students' scores are as much a reflection of their knowledge of the subject as it is their ability to decode the questions and recall or create the correct answer under stress. It stands to reason also, that each student will experience different levels of stress depending on their level of preparedness, their level of comfort with the subject and their general mental condition at the time of the test. Of course, high performing students have these issues too, but what do they do different than failing students?

First, they take more time to prepare. Most failing students believe that they have not taken enough time to prepare and become stressed and even frightened when faced with a test. Now they feel certain that they will fail - and this belief becomes their experience. Passing students will already have spent some time understanding the subject to the point where they feel comfortable with their level of understanding and feel they can pass a test on that subject. This belief, again, becomes their experience, but it is not drawn out of thin air. It is their level of understanding of the subject that gives rise to this confidence. Any failing student, if they take this approach to their studies will develop greater and greater confidence in their ability to pass a test.

At the examination however, the matter of stress arises. Confidence alone might not be enough to deal effectively with the stress and there are large numbers of students who do very well in assignments where they are not under exam pressure. There are a number of ways to deal with this and, as with any kind of treatment of this kind, your mileage will vary. We will look at one method.

Rewire your mental association of the examination situation. This is a simple yet powerful technique that can be applied to a wide range of situations. Although we will not go in depth into how and why it works, the following example will make it clear that it does work. Once you try it, you might wonder why you never thought of it yourself.

The writer shares this experience: My daughter, 16 years old at the time, was having trouble with her exams and her grades were, in a word, bad. But she studied hard and did well during the school term. The question was, why was she failing so often at the end of term exams. This was a good occasion to put this technique I had learned to work.

I had her sit in a comfortable chair take a few deep breaths and relax. This was over the phone, by the way. Then I asked her to describe what came to her mind the moment I said the word "exam". After a brief pause she described a very dark and dismal scene, not unlike what you would see in a disaster scene. So clear and strong was it in her mind that her mood changed immediately. Bear in mind that she was at home, sitting in a comfortable chair and not doing an examination at all! So you see where the problem comes from.

I had her stop at that point and relax again. Then I asked her to describe a scene that made her feel happy and confident. So she described a bright sunny day where she was lying down and looking at the sky. She even said that the song "Its gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day" came to mind. So I had her really get into it so it would be easy for her to recall later when we needed it.

That's the first part of the technique to correct the problem. The next part was to help her to pull up the second scene - the bright sunshiny day when I next used the word "exam". Although simple, it is important to get the next step right, and, being on the phone I was concerned about that. Nevertheless, we continued. Her sense of imagination was quite powerful and I thought it would work well even over the phone. Now, I said, when I say exam and the first scene - the gloom and doom one - comes to mind, switch immediately to the bright sunshiny scene. Do it as fast as you can and hold the sunshiny screen, seeing it as clearly as you can.

So I said "exam" and there was quiet on the line. A few seconds later she said with a chuckle, "yeah, I see it now!". We repeated the exercise about three more times to make the transition more smooth. The result: her next set of examination grades were remarkably better. In fact, they were among her best.

A simple technique, correctly applied, massive results. Like I said, your mileage will vary, but, done right, you will get similar results if this is the problem you (or your child or friend) is having. Of course, If you are near us, we can help. Better still, if you become a 2GN student you have access to all this and much more.

So call us at (876) 488-2771 or email us at info.2gnec@gmail.com

2GN Education Centers