Extreme Learners

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When Should I Start Preparing for an Examination?

Every student has some goal like becoming an Engineer, Doctor, CA, IAS, Designer, Lawer, etc. The list can be quite big. For any of these, one has to take some competitive examination either for admission in some course or to qualify for job or for both. At some point in school education, one starts planning to take the required examination at later stage to pursue his goal. If someone wants to become an Engineer, he starts thinking about IIT or engineering admission tests. Similar options are available for other goals as well. Lots of effort go into finding answers to questions like where to prepare, when to prepare, how to prepare etc. Also, the focus remains on getting good marks in the school examinations while rest of the things related to learning wait for the time to come. For example, if a student studying in Grade 8 is learning "Ratio", he will learn definitions of related terms, formulas etc., solve many questions depending on the examination pattern and may try t

Study and Magic

The general attitude among students towards learning is an attitude of dread. Lectures are usually boring and so are many of the textbooks. Very few students actively want to learn. Given the choice, most of them will prefer spending all their time playing games or watching TV instead of doing their homeworks. It’s not completely their fault though. Most lectures, textbooks and homeworks are, in fact, just too boring! On the other hand, Hogwarts---the magic school from the Harry Potter novels---seems to excite the kids a lot. If asked to redesign their school so that it becomes more enjoyable, they might just make it more like Hogwarts. This is also quite understandable. Hogwarts is a magic school, for god’s sake! They teach you to do magic in there! If you learn a course properly, you can show off your skills by turning your friend into a rat! The skills you learn at a magic school are immediately applicable to your daily life---the things you really care about. Stuck in traffic

Tips to Stop Procrastination

Procrastination is something all of us do. If we feel that we should do a task now but keep delaying it citing one reason or other, we are actually procrastinating. This habit builds unnecessary pressure and badly affect productivity. Most of the people who have the habit of procrastination want to stop it, but they find this habit difficult to change. Following two steps can be of immense help in stopping procrastination. 1. Don't get into self criticism for procrastination or feel bad about yourself due to this habit. This will put you into negativity and make it more difficult to use your time productively. This adds to procrastination and makes the matter worse. So, take a break and feel good about yourself. 2. Do a pomodoro. It is a technique used for time management. A pomodoro time is of about 25 minutes. Don't think about the complete task that you tend to procrastinate. Just devote 25 minutes of your time for that work. That's all. If you feel 25 minutes in one g

Few Learning Tips from Nature

Watch the video below: Ducks enjoying their work in sync with nature. It shows that nature has given us all that we need. Now, watch the below video. Some abundance created by people throwing food in water, and the peace is lost. Yes, there were few ducks who chose not to lose their peace and remained focused on their work, but rest of them were confused and tried to take all that they could take. We can relate it with many similar situations involving human beings around us. But let us be on learning strategy. Ducks in the first video know their requirements. They chose to be at such place where they get what they need. They are enjoying their work and doing good. As a student, one needs to understand oneself. He should try to understand what is required to get what he needs. He should choose the right place and right strategy to get them. In such situations, learning will be mostly enjoying, stress free and full of excitements. Second video shows the situation in which most of th

About Walking Average

Above image shows some data related to a walk. It says that the person has walked a distance of 7.05 km in 1 hour 8 minutes 49 seconds. Average pace shown here is 9 minutes 45 seconds per Km and the time taken in different kilometers are given just below that. This average pace can be simply computed by dividing the total time (1 hour 8 minutes 49 seconds) by the distance walked (7.05 Km) and doing the required conversions between hour, minutes and seconds. This means, if I walk each of the 7 Kms at the same pace completing them in exactly 9 minutes 45 seconds then the total time taken by me to walk 7.05 Kms would be 1 hour 8 minutes 49 seconds. In the last .05 Km too, the pace has to be same. Time taken in each of the 7 Kms are given in the image. Let us check, whether the walking pace was higher or lower than the given average in the last .05 Km. Before reading further, pause a bit and think about the process you would like to follow to do this. I plan to check whether the given a

Mathematics and Cycle

L et us talk about this Cycle. Those who know how to ride it know how easy and enjoyable it is to go for a long ride in nice weather and location. They can also recall; how difficult it was to even hold it when they were not knowing how to ride them. Most likely, they didn't become comfortable with cycle immediately. They might have fallen few times, might have struggled to balance and might have even lost motivation to learn cycling. But now they might be looking for opportunities to ride a cycle. Learning Mathematics is similar to learning cycling. You make errors, struggle to get the concept, lose interest and it becomes more difficult. But once you overcome these, it becomes a favorite subject. Solving Mathematics problems can even become stress buster. When someone is training you how to cycle, he may make you familiar with a cycle. He will tell you about seat, handle, peddle etc. He will tell you about how to sit on the seat, keep the foot on the peddle, hold the handle,

Few Questions to Make Learning Effective

Here, we are taking an example to demonstrate how students are answering the questions right, getting good marks, letting the concept level problem continue and getting stuck in their studies or career at later stage. We also discuss, what approach can help in making learning right. I hope, readers are aware of linear equations in one variable. Something like 15x+5=90, or 3x+5=2x+9. Let, a student is asked to solve the 2nd equation 3x+5=2x+9. It's easy for most of the students. He solves this equation using right method and gets the answer as 4. Correct and full marks. Does it mean that he knows the concept of linear equations in one variable good enough? Why should he solve such equations? Where can these concepts be used? Can he frame a question based on real life scenario where such equation may be needed? Can he visualize the impact of change in coefficients or constant values on the nature of the equation? If he is not clear about all these, then solving large number of s

C-I-Y (Check it yourself) -- Different Learning Environments

Here, we take a question and create three learning environments. You can check yourself, which environment offers what benefits. We talk about a formal learning environment where student is a part of school/ college/ coaching/ tuition etc. and is helped by the teacher in learning various topics as per the prescribed syllabus. These learnings are immediately helpful in getting marks in the examination but are also highly required in various applications and competitive examinations at later stage. So, learning them right at the time they are being learnt is necessary to avoid various blockages that can restrict the growth later. Let us take 3 scenarios: Scenario A: Student asks a question. Teacher answers that. Student is now able to answer that question. Scenario B: Student asks a question. Teacher also asks few questions to understand why the student had to ask it. He determines the area of difficulty for the student and helps student to answer the question by addressing the proble

Understanding Uncertainty and Probability

Look at the image below: This image is about weather forecast. It says about chance of rain during coming few hours of the day in the city. Look at the number 30% at 7 AM. It means that there is 30% chance of rain at that time. In other words, probability of rain at that time is 0.3. It gives you some idea but can you conclude anything from this? You can expect to have rain on 3 occasions out of 10 with similar conditions and forecast. Mind it, you expect only. You are not sure. In fact, you will get rain on other than 3 occasions out of 10 more frequently than 3. Probabilistic situation is like that. It deals with uncertainty. Let us understand this with some easier situation. Take 10 cards of same size and look, and write 'rain' on 3 cards. Write 'no rain' on remaining cards. Shuffle these cards properly and randomly select a card from this pack. What would you get? You can get any of the two 'rain' or 'no rain'. But you expect more to get 'no rai

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