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TOPNOTCHERS SECRET FORMULA REVEALED

TOPNOTCHERS SECRET FORMULA REVEALED

When you first start studying or if you are reviewing for the board exam it is difficult simply because it has no shape for you. Until you developed some kind of system for studying – until you can get a general feel for what needs to be done and when – you spend a lot of time dithering about, starting one thing and then another and wondering whether you are getting anywhere.


This is a compilation of experience, strategies, tips and techniques of Topnotchers 

1. The Pomodoro Technique

 

It is a productivity strategy where you work for twenty-five (25) minutes straight undisturbed and then take a five (5) minutes break after. Each 25 minutes work session is called One (1) Pomodoro.

           

25 minutes work session = 1 Pomodoro

 

After four (4) Pomodoros, take a longer break (15-30 minutes) before starting another Pomodoro. This is based on the idea that if you work 25 minutes straight without any distractions then you will always end up getting work done faster and more efficiently even though you’re taking your 5 minutes break.      

 

How to use this technique.

 

a.    Plan out your Pomodoros for the day in advance.

Look at your day on a calendar and see what meetings, appointments, events that are already scheduled and committed to.

b.    Look at your task lists or to-do-list of the day and start breaking into the Pomodoro.

topnotchers sched

The main purpose of a weekly schedule is to help you plan your study time. If you are a procrastinator (Mañana habit – (much later) “Mamaya na” in tagalog), a weekly schedule may provide the extra motivation you need to get your work done. By scheduling your study time and making a commitment to stick to your schedule, you will be giving the same importance that you give to working or attending review classes.

Without a schedule, you may begin to study only when you have nothing else to do, at the last minute before the exam, or late at night when you are tired.

 

c.    Cut out distractions and stay focused during a Pomodoro.

 

 

If you sit down to work for 25 minutes and allow yourself to get distracted you haven’t really done a real Pomodoro and you’re going to see that in your outcome in a day. Make sure you’re in airplane mode or don’t disturb on your phone and close or shutdown any electronic devices that will notify you.

2. The Feynman Technique

topnotchers idol
Photo: Dean Yeong

This technique is effective for learning something new, deepening your understanding of what you already know or helping you study for an exam. One of the greatest student of all time was also one of the greatest teacher of all time, Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize Physicist and a professor at California Institute of Technology (CALTECH). He was a legend in the classroom. Many or even most scientist aren’t great at teaching but Feynman had a way of connecting a student even complete novices. People called him “The Great Explainer”. He (Feynman) introduces complex ideas by connecting them to the familiar. Use this technique to check your understanding or just like a sanity check to make sure you’re not parroting back what you read on the textbook or heard in the lecture. This technique let you double check what you really understand about what you have learn. So here’s the process:

 

a.    Pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Once you know what it is about, take a piece of paper and write about it as if you’re teaching the ideas to someone else.

 

b.    Ideally, write and speak at the same time like a teacher. This makes you realize which part you understand and what still have gaps.


c.    Whenever you get stuck, go back to study and repeat the process until you explain the whole topic from start to end.

 

d.    When you’re done repeat process from the beginning but this time SIMPLIFY your language or use analogy to make your point. If your explanation ends up wordy or confusing, you probably have not understood it well enough so you should start again.

 

Once you can explain an idea or concept in simple language, you have deeply understood it and will remember it for a long time

 

Feynman Technique Summary:

a. Pick a well-defined topic

b. Write a simple explanation

c. Review the trouble spots or the complicated part

d. Simplify again

 

Remember: Avoid any jargon terms

Topnotchers Simplification Technique

 

Example:

 

(HARD TO UNDERSTAND)

PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION It is an inquiry or proceeding to determine whether there is sufficient ground to engender a well-founded belief that a crime has been committed and the respondent is probably guilty thereof, and should be held for trial.

 

(SIMPLIFY)

Preliminary Investigation – It’s like giving the accused to file a counter-affidavit even the case is filed before the court.

topnotchers simplification

3. Spaced Repetition

It is a system works by asking you to review information at increasingly longer interval. So if you learn something today, a spaced repetition might show with you again tomorrow, in three days then next week and so on until it’s large securely in your long term memory. It can also optimize your review interval according to your performance by tracking how well you remember each item, words, etc.          

topnotchers technique

TOPNOTCHER’S WORDS OF WISDOM (Tips, Advice, Strategy etc)

 

 

“Preparation is the KEY. I started my review proper when I was in 3rd year college and develop a consistent study routine.”

(Arfe June V. Mosquera of University of Mindanao Top 1 in the 2015 Criminology Licensure Examination with the grade of 91.1%)

 

 

“I-chill mo lang sarili mo kapag wala ka nang maintidihan sa binabasa mo, tapos bigyan mo rin time ang sarili mo na mag enjoy after magbasa para at least reward mo sa sarili mo,” (Don’t pressure yourself. If you cannot understand anymore what you’re reading, then take some time off.)

(Gander Quillip of UM Digos Top 1 June 2017 CLE, 88.40%)

 

 

“In order to pass the exam, you have to be focused and avoid external distraction like cellphone. Follow the Thomas Alva Edison principle: Board exam is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.”

(Rosanie G Bulacja, Bago City College Top 3 June 2019 CLE, 89.95%)

 

 

“Place you mind and focus on your calling. This is not the time for you to burden yourself in unnecessary issues and stress from other people and other things

(Atty. Justin Ryan D. Morilla of ADDU, 88.40%)

 

 

“Sacrificing for success is definitely the key to achieving our goals! People only see the positives with people’s achievement but they never see how those people struggled, fell, and cried on the floor in order to get to where they are today”

 

The distance or bridge between your dreams and goals in ultimate success is DISCIPLINE. In order to be success at anything in life, it takes HARDWORK, it takes DISCIPLINE, it takes PUSHING YOURSELF, it takes putting in more work and action taking than your average individual”

Whatever it is your bold enough to dream if you are intentional and deliberate about it every single day if you do a little you gonna wake up one day & your dreams are gonna be a reality. ~Eric Thomas~

 

Source:

Carol Kanar, The Confident Student 2008

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