How to become the smartest kid in class (I)

Usually, around this time of the year, many schools ask me to give a talk at their speech and prize giving ceremony.  The following student’s manifesto is one of such talks.  This is because, if I were a student in the secondary or primary school, it’s the talk I would want to hear – since […]

Usually, around this time of the year, many schools ask me to give a talk at their speech and prize giving ceremony.  The following student’s manifesto is one of such talks.  This is because, if I were a student in the secondary or primary school, it’s the talk I would want to hear – since it includes some mischievous tactics.  I therefore synthesized outcomes of scientific studies and insights from tried and true practical techniques to guide students to do their best, whatever their grades maybe now.  I start with this story.

 As a teacher in primary school, I had two students who were completely different, but both of them were from upper middle class families.  One started out brilliantly.  If memory serves, I recall telling her mother that she’s in the top 2%of the population after an IQ test.  The other student, wouldn’t even sit still in class, let alone do an IQ test.  It was his mission to refuse to learn and preferred to disrupt the class so that others wouldn’t learn. After a little intervention by his teachers, he improved enough to move from worse to bad.

After some time, his teachers started noticing changes as he continued to shine. They couldn’t tell whether he was a gifted student who had suddenly chosen to apply himself or the result they were seeing was on account of his new efforts.

Long story short.  The first student who started out brilliantly, continued in that fashion until she graduated with first class in architecture from a U.K. university. Husna Umar is now completing a master’s in furniture design in Italy. 

What happened to the second student?  He also continued in his new found attitudeand brilliance.  Graduating with good grades in secondary school, went for A Levels and went to medical school.  Now he’s called Dr. Jabir Ibrahim Jibril.  A very good doctor to boot,because he became a published researcheras an undergraduate.

The essence of this story is to stress the point thatit doesn’t matter how you start – whether poorly or brilliantly.  The most important thing is to apply yourself.  You may be thinking you’re not doing well in class now, however, you can become the best in your class next term, especially if you follow the strategies we’re going to discuss here.  As much as possible, I tried to remove guess work from the strategies I’m going to share so that you can apply them immediately.  I also cited at least 10 books and scientific studies to give you the peace of mind that the ideas have good foundations.

1. Flip the classroom

Go to class to ask questions. With simple technologies available to us now, the classroom is no longer a place to be introduced to new, unfamiliar ideas, but a place to ask questions and discuss concepts you already know with the experts (i.e. your teachers). 

For example, if you have “opportunity cost” as a topic, don’t wait until your teacher tells you what it means.  Go to Wikipedia.org and lock down the basics.  Then go to Youtube.com and watch a few videos to consolidate your knowledge and note down aspects you don’t understand or questions that puzzle you.  These are the questions you would take to class.  

As the teacher teaches the “new” concept to the rest of the class, to you, it would be a review. Then at the right time ask your questions. Some schools already practice this or at least encourage it.  However, if your school has not adopted it, and you’re afraid that asking too many questions may make you look offensive and a show-off don’t be.  

It’s not your responsibility to be like others.  Your responsibility is to learn as much as possible.  One way of doing that is by asking questions.  Many questions.  A great deal of questions. And it’s the responsibility of the teachers to answer them or show you the ways to find the answers.

Sometimes your questions may throw your teachers, confuse them and are unable to answer you.  Good teachers would admit that they don’t have the answers ready, but would design ways for you to find out together.

Better teachers would come to class next time better prepared, because they know you’re going to ask many questions.  This is good for all concerned.  For you, the teacher and other students in the class.  So you’re helping everyone. Good Samaritan, you!

Also, every teacher knows that there are no stupid questions.  But if the teachers or the students laugh or get angry over your questions, it is even better for all concerned. Because, this way,  you would remember more. Daniel L. Schacter,  in his book, the “Seven Sins of Memory” argued that highly emotional events are the ones we remember most.  Many other memory experts like Tony Buzan (in “Use Your Memory”), John Medina (in “Brain Rules”), and Joshua Foer (in “Moon Walking with Einstein”) agree.  

Again flip the classroom. Study the topic online before coming to the class. One good way to do all that other than the sites already listed is to go to KhanAcademy.org to learn the basics through videos and games. Then come to class and fire questions at your teacher without mercy.

Another variation to that method is what I did when I was in school.  I took the topics to be discussed in class to Scholar.google.com and search for the criticism of that concept.  For example, using our economics topic of “opportunity cost,” I would search: “opportunity cost” + critique.

And the search would return the scholarly articles that critique the concepts, especially those which have the word “critique” in the title.

After you’ve read a couple of the results, you can then talk about the topic like an expert, maybe, better than your teacher.  Because now you know the merits and flaws of the topic.  And it usually takes an expert to be able to think that deep.

To be continued