Ignore tortoises & hares

Source: http://www.threadless.com/product/828/Foxy

Do you remember the tortoise and the hare? It's an old fable - here's the essence (from wikipedia): 

The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise. In response, the tortoise challenges his swift mocker to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise far behind and, confident of winning, he decides to take a nap midway through the course. When he awakes, however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has already won the race.

Slow and steady wins the race hey?

Well, maybe. But there's a better way.

In a student's life, the hares are those people who seem to glide through their studies. They have no apparent structure to their learning, and can do well with little preparation. Often, these will be the ones that have a lot more time and freedom to socialise, and may be a big distraction to you.

But sometimes the student hares forget that exams can be pretty significant. At the last minute they are prone to freaking out, doing all-nighters, and realising that there are gaps in their knowledge. Thus they enter their exams sleepy and less-than-effective.

The tortoise students are those that work hard, consistently, throughout the year. They eschew having a life, preferring to be a slave to grades. Their study methods are outdated, non-ideal and time consuming. Their parents value hard work, and that ethic has rubbed off on them. As such, they win the race... but spend a heck of a lot of time doing so. The tortoise result? A student who has worked hard to get good grades... but who may have missed out on opportunities to build contacts, work experience, and discover their passion in life.

You can see where I am going with this. There's a third way. A way that combines the dedication of the tortoise with the zest of the hare. I'm calling it the foxy way, and I reckon it's the way to go.

You see, it's all a matter of balance. It's not just about good grades (but these help), and it's not just about socialising (though, sometimes, that helps too). Find purpose to what you do - studying is only one part of your career quest. Don't neglect the other things. And don't spend hours working hard at something if there is a cleverer way. 

In this blog I'll be sharing some foxy ways to go about learning and revising for exams. These methods will incorporate some nifty memory tricks I've picked up through my research, as well as some rather unconventional methods. Stay tuned!