Success Is All In The Mind

In this post, I will share what I have read from articles on how to be successful. There are many methods which people have proposed on this topic, and I realise that most, if not all, actually only revolve around one main method: "It's all in the mind".

Focus on what you want, not what you don't want

For a start, let me introduce one video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXvjsK6gasE
A line which has left a deep impression on me is "Focus on what you want, not what you don't want". Yes that's right. We, as human, fear. This is normal and this is usually what pulls us back. Before we get started, we fear this, we fear that. We fear we will fail. Thus, we won't start. Even if we get past this fear of starting, the next fear sets in. We fear the next step. We ask ourselves, can I do it? Sooner or later, we will give up. All these happen because we focus on our fear and give in to it.

Procrastinate
Procrastinating is something that I believe most of us do. Whenever we want to start doing something, we will think for a while whether we want to start or not, and we will make up some excuses to delay our actions. "Let's start tomorrow!" and "Let's get this started later." are just two examples of excuses we give ourselves. Pushing back doing certain task is fine, but pushing back the task all the time is not. I am guilty of this too. If it is important, do it. Otherwise, don't even bother with it.

Lack of Time Perspective
"I have no time now, I will do it later." How many of us are guilty of this? It is true that we are almost always busy, however, it is also true that many people are busy with the "wrong thing". What is wrong? It depends.

Personal Experience On FYP
I started work on my FYP the moment I received information on the confirmation of my topic, MOS-HEMT [1]. I did not know what is MOS-HEMT, I only knew I wanted to do well. I had fear of these 7 letters. Instead of giving in to my fear, I had to overcome them. So I immediately did some research on the MOS-HEMT, without any delay. My confidence increased after gaining some basic knowledge and met my supervisor with the little knowledge. Imagine me giving in to my fear, my mouth would have been wide opened throughout my first meeting with my supervisor, not knowing what he was talking about and stunned by his words.

One of the many mistakes which I made was that I was busy searching for and reading research papers for the first few months, and even after that. Thinking back, I might have done the wrong thing. I spent too much time reading other people's work, resulting in the no-time perspective. I kept thinking that I did not know enough. When I got to doing the actual simulation, I had a "cultural shock". I tried to replicate the papers' work and I could not. In the end, I almost could not produce any good results. The bulk of my thesis was only written 3 weeks before the deadline and I only got the results less than two weeks before. If I could turn back the time, I would have done some simulations while reading the papers, and not only after reading and trying to understand about 15 papers and some books.


In short, do what you think is necessary to achieve what you want. Do not delay, do not fear. You have nothing much to regret about if you fail after putting in your best, but you have everything to regret about for not even starting.

[1] MOS-HEMT: Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor High Electron Mobility Transistor

Staying Calm To Analyse The Situation

We may have been told that staying calm in the face of adversity is very important, especially so that we can analyse the situation objectively with a clear mind. For students, this is very important, especially for the periods just before and during examination. Without calmness, one, in my opinion, will never perform up to the standard which he is capable of.

Personally, I had my share of anxiety during the crucial periods of a student's life, just before and during examination. The only outcome: mind block. Yes, mind block. I wonder how many students have experienced it, but having experienced it personally, I have only one comment on it. The feeling is unbearable and is a vicious cycle. The more anxious you are, the bigger the "block", the bigger the block, the more anxious you are.

During my Junior College year 1, I was in the examination hall for Physics paper. I read the first question and started doing. Less than 3 minutes later, I crushed my answer sheet as I did not know how to continue. I went on to read the second question and third and soon, I finished reading the whole paper, without knowing how to do a single question. Naturally I got anxious and this was not helped by the fact that I was seated at the back of the hall, overlooking not less than 300-400 students. Everyone was busy writing and no one seemed to face the same problem as me - not knowing how to do any question. This made me more anxious and I actually perspired in the otherwise cool environment (I was seated below the fan). I nearly fainted (not exaggerating here).

I closed the question paper, sat back and drank about half of my 500ml bottle of water. I just spent the next 15 minutes or so closing my eyes, relaxing and not thinking of anything. I then went to the restroom and wash my face (I have forgotten why I had to wait for so long, probably because there was a rule saying that no one can leave the hall within 30 minutes from the start of the paper). After the toilet break, I went back to the hall and start the paper all over again. This time, I felt more calm and managed to finished the whole paper before time was up.

A scary experience of mine brought me two main learning points.
1) Examination is not all about what you have in your brain, it's also about how you handle the situation, the stress.
2) If you cannot stay calm, nothing else matters.

Hence, I urge all students to stay calm, just like how how I have been telling my students.

Before I end this post, here is a nice article on calmness.
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/calmness-is-contagious-even-if-youre-faking-it/

Happy Children's Day

As we approach year-end, students in Singapore are preparing for examination. Some are already in the midst, some had just finished. In any case, let's not forget that we are celebrating Children's Day!

Remember one of my posts where I mentioned about celebrating little achievements? Yes, we should celebrate this occasion. So what have the students/children achieved? You have worked hard over the past one year, in one way or another. So, give yourself a pat on the back and relax.

Have you collected your goodie bags like them from Nee Soon GRC?

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!!!

Take Charge of Your Own Learning

I choose all my subjects own my own, with no outside pressure

Since I was young, my parents have never ever dictate what I should study. I chose the subjects on my own, I chose my schools on my own. They just gave me moral support, just like what they are still giving me now. Because of this, I consider myself very lucky. First, I receive zero stress from them. The most they would say is to study hard so that I can command a better salary in the future, and they say nothing further than that. Second, and most importantly, I was able to choose the subjects and courses I am most interested in.

Yes, being able to decide on your own education path is very valuable. Reading something of your own interest, you will only need half the effort to master the skill. The other half of the effort, in my opinion, is to get yourself up and start reading the topic. And so, if you have interest in the subject, you will have no issue starting on it.

Taking charge of your own learning also means that you should not blame anyone if you don't do well. I realise that many students tend to blame the teachers. Mr. X cannot speak good English, Ms. Y can never explain the concept well in class. Instead of playing the blame game, why not take charge and seek the answer actively? If Mr. X cannot speak good English, listen to the concept behind the lousy English. In fact, I think that using layman's terms to explain a scientific concept is easier to understand than using perfect English (maybe because my English is not good to begin with).

Just remember this, success lies in your own hands. Yes, you may be bounded by circumstances, but ultimately, especially in Singapore, I am sure that there are many helping hands around to pull you up. Make use of them. Just don't forget those hands when you have succeeded.

A Levels Physics Made Easy

My cousin, Li Yida, is writing a blog on A Levels Physics.

http://physics-alevels.blogspot.sg/

There are already posts on the fundamental topics such as energy and power. I find that his explanation of Physics is easy to follow, with layman's terms and simple drawings.

Enjoy! :)

Incubate The Thoughts

When I was in secondary 4 and was just starting to learn differentiation, I got totally lost and hence got stressed up. This got worse after I received my common test result, mainly in calculus, which I failed.

From 90+ to a fail, naturally I got very tensed up. This resulted in me visiting the toilet often whenever I was doing practices on calculus. Something magical then started to happen. Whenever I got stuck at a question, I would go to the toilet. After I came back, I instantly knew how to solve it. I was amazed by my own 'magic' and I remember that my friends who were studying with me too. They even joked that the toilet gave me inspiration. Or was it?

Years later, I came across articles talking about incubating thoughts. It sounds interesting and thinking back, I believe that I have been "using this method" to study. As I was writing this post, I found an interesting article on incubating thoughts. It kind of explains how I usually study.

In secondary four, I would take a nap every afternoon and watch TV in the evening after school everyday. In between, I would study for about 1 to 2 hours. Recalling back, none of my friends actually believed me. They thought I studied all day long and had little leisure time. In any case, I found that I understood what the teachers taught easier with my sleep and TV.

Believing that I have found my unique method, I followed the ritual closely:

Learning a new concept
After learning something new in class, I will not think about it. Ask me what the teacher has just said right after the lecture, my answer will always be the same: "I don't know". It's not that I am selfish and want to keep the knowledge to myself, it's just that I really don't know. Try asking me a few days later, I am sure that I will tell you what you want to know, of course only if I manage to catch the concept.

Handling a difficult problem

I will only spend at most 5 minutes thinking about a question, even in an examination. When the time is up and I still don't know how to start, or I know I will be stuck somewhere, I will forget the question and move on to the next. Forget is the key word here. First, if I don't forget, I can't concentrate on the next question. Second, if I can't think of a solution while fully concentrating, I definitely can't think of a solution when I am supposedly trying to solve another question. Hence my take is to leave the problem aside and the answer will come to me.

To end this post, I will like to say that if I don't recognise you, someone I know, when I walk past you, it is not because I have forgotten you, it is not because I am avoiding you. It is simply because I am thinking and/or some ideas have just surfaced to my mind. Take no offence, for I have even failed to recognise my dad before when he walked past me. :/

Happy Teachers' Day!

The time of the year has come again. It's Teachers' Day!
Here, I wish all educators in Singapore and around the world a very Happy Teachers' Day!

This is an occasion to celebrate,
not because it's a school holiday,
not because the world (or Singapore) sets this day as the occasion,
but simply because this is the day where we pay tributes to the people who help to shape our lives.
Without them, we will not be who we are today.
So let's stand together and salute them!

Methods of Memorising

As much as I (and I am sure many of us) hate memorising, it is inevitable in school that we need to reserve part of our brain for memory work. At a young age, we need to memorise how to spell words. As we grow older, we need to memorise F=ma, p=mv etc etc... Now let's ask ourselves, are these so-called memorising really memorising? Many times, certain things just come to us and I doubt that we will ever forget them cleanly. In this post, I am going to share how I commit knowledge to memory (in addition to using mind maps or time lines), because I hate memorising!

Form words and short sentences of meanings to you.
When it comes to really memorising, there are many methods taught. One of which is to use short forms or abbreviations. In marketing, we learn the 4P. We then recall it stands for product, price, place, promotion. Isn't this easier than to purely memorise each of them? In electrical engineering, we tend to forget the relative phase lead/lag of capacitor or inductor. But we have "CIVIL" to help us! Form your own sentences, use them!

Practice more, use more.

One way of memorising is to practice. You may not remember how to integrate log(x). Try doing it 3 times. I'm sure it just comes to you the next time you are asked. You may not know how to use the product rule to do differentiation. Use the technique on 5 different questions. You will just use it naturally when you reach the sixth question.

Write
This is a trick taught to me by my cousin Linda. I remember I was in secondary 3 when I needed to memorise facts about the Cold War. I had a hard time doing that because I was simply lazy to memorise and my memory was (is now too) very bad. She came to me with this trick. Here, she meant writing using pen and paper. Do not type, do not read and form the image in your mind. Write! I found that it works. As I write, I think. As I write, I see my own paragraphs. When I need the information, I just have to close my eyes and the image of what I have written appears. Sounds magical? Try it.

Memorise only when needed, as a last resort

I only memorise stuff when I don't understand them, because that's the only way I can get past examination without getting zero. Hence, I always seek to understand the topic, seek to understand the equations, understand how each concept is being used. And here I repeat again, understanding the basics is very important. When we understand, there is no need to memorise. If you forget the formula for acceleration, think of what is acceleration. If you understand acceleration as the rate of change of velocity, the formula will come to you naturally. When we understand what is nation building, there is no need to memorise how Singapore grows from practically nothing to what we are today; and hard facts like economy, social, politics. These will naturally come to us.

There are many well known methods to do memory work. However, it is up to us on whether we just want to memorise, which most of the time we will definitely forget right after the examination, or we want to understand the topic proper. The latter does not only allow us to understand what we are studying, it also allows us to store the knowledge in our brain for a longer period of time. My personal opinion is to try our best to know the topic, because knowledge is king.

Free Physics Education Till 21st September 2013

Quoting from the website

"Another great initiative by IOPscience publishing to let their articles go free access for a month or so. Go download, it is free access for another 20+days! Another reason why I send my manuscripts to IOPscience. enjoy!"

Very interesting and it's really kind of them.
Get yours now! :) :) :)

Enjoy The Process of Acquiring Knowledge

Studying is a process of learning new stuff, acquiring new knowledge. The time period for this process varies, from 2 years in Junior College to 6 years in Primary School, or maybe even more for other certifications. In any case, the time taken is not short, so enjoying the process is of utmost importance.

Do with friends

When I was doing the module EE2011 (Engineering Electromagnetics) back in 2008, I quite hated it because of the intensive calculations. Double and triple integrations were inevitable and this was already considered the easiest task. The more difficult task was to form the equation in the first place. Throughout the course, I remember that I got none of my tutorial questions totally correct and this was very turn off for me. I nearly gave up. Luckily for me, I had my best friend WJ to depend on and WC for support. We worked together, we learned together, we made mistakes together. Doing with 1 or 2 friends will be good. As an added note, personally I don't really like bigger group as we will tend to get rowdy (you know what I mean) and get little or no work done in the end.

Do not think about the end

What is the end? Of course examination! I realise something over the years. Many people like going to school, some because it allows us to mingle with friends, some because we get to learn interesting things in class which we would not otherwise come across. But, most of us have one thing in common, we hate examination. Learning new things is fun. Sitting down and memorising them for the sake of the 2 hours in the examination hall is not. Many times, especially when the examination period is around the corner, we tend to get more and more worked up. This is normal because that's what we have been working for. And that's precisely why we are stress. So, let's try to focus on the process, treat everyday like the third week of school (usually the first two weeks are too slack, in NUS at least). Learn happily, learn without 'toxic thoughts'.

Take criticism positively

We improve only when we know our mistakes or weaknesses. Sometimes, we realise ourselves, at other times, we need another person to tell us. I know a few friends who cannot take criticism and I admit that sometimes me too. I feel that we should listen to all criticisms and think about them. Filter out those which are just out to put us down, act on those which are meant to help us. Remember, only true friends criticise constructively, so don't hate them just because they criticise you.

Move forward
The moment you walked out of the exam hall, the paper is over. The moment you got the result, that paper is totally history. Just like in life, always look forward. If you did well in an exam, celebrate a while and move forward. Acquire new knowledge, build up existing ones. Don't get complacent. If you did badly, learn from it and move forward. Don't get depressed. There is no need to harp over a badly done paper. One paper is not going to determine your future, as said by PM Lee in the National Day Rally 2013. Or like what Warren Buffett said, 'Never look back'. Take failures easy, move forward. When the whole world rejects you, upgrade yourself.

Tips For Final Year Project

Now is about time for NUS final year students (or students in university with similar academic year) to start their Final Year Project, or Thesis. In this post, I will share about the things that I did when I was doing my FYP in 2011. Nothing in this post is unique, I find them to be normal stuff that students should do, but more likely than not, we tend to forget and need some reminders, and hence this post. :)

Choose what you like, or like what you do.
As FYP is a one-year commitment, and it is basically our daily activity, especially for engineering students from NUS (I don't know about other fields), we need to be doing what we like or like what we do, otherwise we will be literally miserable for one full year. We don't always get to do the project we put as first choice, so, it's time to think different and like what you do. Instead of focusing on the topic, why not focus on your supervisor who is there to guide you along? Instead of lamenting that you can't get your first choice, why not focus your energy into learning the selected topic? The only reason why you hate the topic is because you are not comfortable with it. Give it a chance, learn it and I am sure that you will grow 'good feeling' for it.

Focus
As written in one of my previous posts, focus is the keyword no matter what you do, and FYP is no different. In fact, you need more focus in FYP more than any other module. In FYP, there is no one to continuously teach you and there is usually no friend to take the same topic as you. Put it in an extreme way, you are all alone (I will contradict myself in the next section). As you would know from my previous post, I used to spend a lot of time on my FYP, basically all my non-lecture time in the FYP lab and work towards the goals my supervisor and I set for myself, away from all distractions. Is FYP really worth the effort? Definitely yes. My opinion is that knowing the topic well is not the main aim of FYP, instead it is more about self discipline and whether you are independent and mature enough to handle a project by yourself. You will soon find out that you are doing things which you did not think you can, and you are pushing yourself past the boundary which you always thought you are limited to.

Enjoy the process. Take things easy.
To survive the one year, you have to enjoy, otherwise you will be living in hell for a year, which is unhealthy. I remember that I spent about 3 weeks trying to simulate a phenomenon which occurs in HEMT [1], the current collapse. I would stay in the lab and do all I can, read, write code, simulate. However, all the results showed only failures. To make things worse, the time for each simulation ranged from a few minutes to a few hours. I was really upset but I tried to motivate myself. No one in the team had done it, so I would be the first to simulate that. That would be the best achievement.

Do lots of research. Read!

Read for knowledge. In FYP, you need lots of knowledge. For me, I was mainly in research and hence reading was of utmost importance to me. I have read not less than 70 published papers throughout the one year, in addition to some textbooks and manuals. Sounds scary? No worries. I did not fully understand everything. I only read in depth a few papers, the few important ones for my research. The others were merely to have a general knowledge of what is going on and to sift out certain useful important information for my research. Like I have always said, in my own words,

You do not need to know a lot about a lot, you need to know a little about a lot and a lot on one or two important topics.

Hands-on, stop reading.

Hands-on is a must for FYP. More likely than not, you will be required to produce something, either a helicopter, a robot or simulated results. Whatever it is, do it! Reading is for knowledge, but trust me, even if you follow closely the published papers and do what they say, you will not get the same result immediately (at least I did not). You will face another set of new issues once you start to get your hands dirty. And that's where the fun comes in. Start early, fail early, try again!

Ask
Your supervisor is there to help you. Don't feel embarrassed to ask. I was lucky to have a good supervisor in A.Prof Tan Leng Seow from the NUS ECE department. I used to have a one-on-one meeting with him every week, sometimes he requested, at other times me. On top of that, we had a weekly group meeting (with PhD candidates, research students and another supervisor, Dr Yeo Yee Chia, from the NUS ECE department). Through these group meetings, I got to know the smarter and more experienced students and they were very willing to help me whenever I needed help. I consider myself very lucky to be in the group. But first, I must help myself first by opening my mouth to ask. I am very sure that there are people around you who can help you, just look around proactively, just ask around.
Remember this: You may not get what you want, but you never know if you never ask.

Since I am on the topic of FYP, I would like to take this chance to thank the people who have helped me in one way or another again. Prof Tan, Dr Yeo, Mr Edwin Low Kim Fong, Dr Liu Zhihong, Mr Pannirselvam and Mr Liu Xinke. Thank you so much! :D

[1] HEMT: High Electron Mobility Transistor

Selamat Hari Raya & Happy National Day

I wish all Selamat Hari Raya and Happy National Day!!! Enjoy the holiday! :)

Having have been busy at work for the past few weeks, I have not written any post. However, do look out for my next post on tips for

Final Year Project!

4 Ways To Motivate Yourself To Study

With passion, we can do wonders. But there are times when we just feel down, feel upset or feel disappointed. This may be due to some setbacks in work or life, or we just simply wake up in the morning feeling lousy. Thus, being able to motivate ourselves is very important.

There are many ways to motivate ourselves and here are some ways I use to motivate myself.

Dream of your future
Since primary 4 (the year when we were exposed to the topic electricity), I have been dreaming to have a job which allows me to play with wires, light bulbs and electricity. I did not know what that job was called but I remember spending my pocket money to buy the components (wires, batteries etc) as my toys, even if it means skipping meals. Since then, I love anything to do with Mathematics and Physics. Whenever I faced problems with these subjects, I will remind myself of this little dream of mine, so as to push myself on. This gives me extra horsepower to push forward!

Treat yourself

Celebrate little achievement. Ask my family, I am a thrifty person. Yet when I buy things to treat myself, I buy big items. I bought an iPod after getting my A Levels results. I bought a CD player after getting my NUS 2nd semester results. These are treats for myself, to recognise myself for my hard work. After every common test or smaller scale examination, I will withdraw $10 and spend it all, on anything I want to eat or just little toys to play with. Remember, you work hard, you deserve the treats!

Scare yourself, set higher target
Boo! It's all about the normal distribution, or more commonly known, the bell curve. No need to study too hard. Just score one points more than your friends and you will pass or even score A! Nothing wrong with these statements. But how would you know your friend's score? And most importantly, how would you know which topic is going to appear in the questions so that you can focus on that topic?
Just study hard and understand the topics. I always make sure I understand at least 85% of the whole course (I never seem to understand the last one or two chapters as they are usually taught late and I am in no mood to absorb new stuff). Why 85%? Because I am giving myself some leeway to make careless mistakes! Let's just assume that at least 75% is needed to score a reasonable grade.

Stay confident
When you are confident (not arrogant), you are motivated to push yourself further.
One way to be confident is to talk to yourself. I will tell myself that I cannot waste time. I must be the best. I am not the best yet but I am near. Just work a little more. This will push me further.
Just be careful here. Everyone is unique and is best at his own way. Do not be arrogant and put down others just to feel confident yourself. Such people are disgusting and do not fall into this category. To each his own, focus on yourself, not others.

My Way of Learning: Understand And Master The Basics

How many of us forget how to do integration the moment we step out of the exam hall? How many of us give back at least 50% of what we have learned to the teacher the moment the chief invigilator announces "Pen Down!"? I realise that this is the case with many of my friends, myself included. Why does this happen to us, including those who can score well in the paper?

Understand The Theory

From what I observe, this problem arises from the way we learn, from the way we go about picking up a new knowledge. I understand from my tutees that in school, they are being taught a new topic via examples. For example, instead of learning what is integration, or just a simple explanation of it, they are just told to memorise the basic formulae of integration and apply them accordingly. This greatly restricts a person's ability to apply the knowledge on the same question phrased differently.
My take is to learn the basics, learn why it happens this way. If the theory behind a particular knowledge is too high level for students of, say, 15 years old, talk simple. You may want to refer to my post on Effective Teaching. For learners, please do not get too involved in solving one question and feel lousy if you can't solve it. Go back, read the theory and understand why things happen this way, then come back to tackle the problem again.

Practise Practise And Practise

Practice Makes Perfect

Yes we know this. We have been following this ritual. This is very important. Lectures teach you, tutorials test you. It is only through practising that we are able to gauge how much do we understand. I remember my cousin Sis HC forced me (she needed to force because I was plain lazy) to finish up all the calculus questions in my secondary school Additional Mathematics textbook. I grumbled but listened. She wanted me to put into use what I have learned. From there, she was able to gauge my weaknesses and went through with me again on the areas I was not sure.

So, do more practices and test yourself before the real test from your school!

1 Tip on Practising

Ask any of my tutees and you will know that I always tell them to do multiple-choice questions (MCQs). My instruction is "finish all MCQs you can find!". My reason is very simple. MCQs, in my opinion, test at least 90%, if not 100%, of the theories. If you are able to score full marks for MCQs, without guessing of course, I dare to say that you have a good grasp of what you need to know.

Finally, I got a phrase from this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uQjGz6jp2E

If I was doing what everyone else was doing, I was probably doing it wrong

So, do something different now! Try this method if you find that yours doesn't work well. No harm giving it a try. You never know if you never try!

You may want to read this to understand why you and I forget: http://bit.ly/14uKJsP

"Growing" Passion In What You Have To Do

Continuing from my last post, I am going to talk about how I "grow" my passion on things that I do not like to do in this post. I must say that after "growing", I love the things that I do. Take for example web development. I used to hate it, instead I like hardware programming and relatively low-level programming such as Assembly and C programming (which I still have interest in today). Now, I must say that I love it! I get a sense of satisfaction whenever I build a web application.

Is it what you are good at?
First of all, we must recognise that we are not always good at what we have interest in. On the other hand, we may not have interest in what we are good at. If this is the case, great! It will be easier to grow passion in it. Since you are good at it, you can easily create something out of it. Instead of complaining I hate this I hate that, do it and feel proud of yourself. You have successfully completed something you hate! Celebrate it. Soon, you will find yourself happily doing and celebrating till you love it!

How it develops myself as a person.

I believe that nothing is a waste of time, including doing nothing. On this note, doing nothing allows me to clear my mind and relax, so it is actually not doing nothing. Anyway, one other way to motivate yourself is to ask yourself how can doing a certain task improve you as a person, develop you as a better person. Most likely, this is intangible, such as improvement of soft skills. It may also be tangible too. For example if you are so lazy to go to the market with your mum because she would ask you to carry stuff, treat it as a way to grow your muscle (of course if you think that spending time with your mum is not important)!

A way to challenge myself.

Take it as a challenge. Not to challenge anyone, but to challenge yourself. If you really hate a certain task but have to do it, set small goals and tackle it slowly. Tell yourself this, why can't you do something which many others can do? Are you in anyway inferior to them? No! Everyone is equal. It all depends on whether you have to do it and whether you have the heart to do it.

How it helps the greater good, which may be something of your interest.

I believe that everyone has a kind heart. Quoting a Chinese phrase, 人之初 性本善. This means that "man at birth is fundamentally good in nature" [1].

So, when all else fail, think of how the task that you do can help the others. It may be just one guy, it may be a few, it may be the public in general. It doesn't matter, just do it to help others. Don't you just feel good that you have made someone else's day? To give one simple example, taking the effort to find out which wire in a breadboard is connected wrongly helps your team to progress, in addition to giving your teammates more rest time. Isn't this great? Won't you feel happy?

As lazy as he is, Nobita likes to help people. And of course my favourite Doraemon too!

There are many ways to "grow" passion and motivate yourself to do things. It's just a matter of whether you want to change your mindset. Two choices:

1) Complete the tasks happily by motivating yourself.

2) Do it just because you have to do it, in the process feel grumpy.

[1] Meaning taken from http://bit.ly/13q9okm

Success Lies In Your Own Hands

I always believe that we control our own fate, although recently I think otherwise, as there are many external factors which will affect us. Nevertheless, we still have the power to dictate our own life. Again, it's all in the mind.

Appreciate What You Have
Many times, I hear people complain how bad a lecturer is. I hear people complain how bad the lecture theatre is. I hear people say they have no mood to study and will definitely do badly because of these factors. I always disagree and say the the lecturer is good. My best friend of many years, WJ, can testify to this. I always tell him I love this lecturer, I love that lecturer. In fact I love all my lecturers.

We should appreciate our lecturers. There is a group of lecturers who can speak well, who can bring across the points well. Everyone loves them. There is another group of lecturers who, due to their nationalities, cannot speak English well. Yes, we need to make some effort to understand them. But why are we complaining because of this? Usually, from my experience, these are the lecturers who are the easiest to approach. Just keep going to them to ask anything you don't know. Many times, their patience level is also the highest. Instead of complaining, do some revision, write a few questions, ask them. I'm sure you will start to love them the moment you are willing to take this first step.

Have Passion In What You Do

Some people look at the modules I took and wonder why the modules I chose are of different fields and I seem to have so much passion in them. Focusing on EE3000 and EE4000 modules, there are 3 main areas, Microelectronics (1 module), Controls and Systems (3 modules), and Power Electronics (2 modules). EE3407 is a general module consisting a bit of many fields. My Final Year Project was in the Microelectronics field. Quite diversified? Yes. I chose them because I have passion in them. I want to know them. Always choose the modules you have passion in, not the modules which your friends are taking. Take charge of your learning.

Change Our Thoughts, Grow The Passion

On the other hand, we might not always have a choice in what we do. For example, I had to take non Electrical Engineering modules which I had no interest in, for example Dynamics of Interpersonal Effectiveness. I found it a waste of time. However, in order to conquer the module, I changed my thoughts. I grew passion for the module. When people ask me what I like to do, my reply will always be I like to do whatever I am doing, I like to do anything as long as it adds value. And I believe doing anything will add value, tangible or intangible or both, so I like to do anything.
Remember this, if we cannot change the circumstances, we can only change our thoughts. So, like what you do!

My Way of Learning: Plan and Set Goals But......

"Failing to plan is planning to fail"

We were repeatedly told this phrase since young. We have seen this phrase many times. So what is planning? How to plan so that we can effectively work our way through? Personally, I keep two sets of plans. I call them the big plan and the small plan. I write them in an organiser which is always in my bag.


The Big Plan

The big plan is something more general. I will plan how much time to spend on one activity per week. The image above shows the big plan I made for myself during my final semester in NUS. The stated time was the amount of time I planned to spend on the corresponding activity per week. This plan may not seem like a plan, but it serves as an important guideline for me. In case I feel lost during the week, I refer back to this plan and see what I can/should do.

The Small Plan

Looking at the second image, it shows how I spend each day. Every night, I will write down what I plan to do the next day. I will try my very best to make sure I follow my small plan. As you can see, the way I plan is very simple. I want to finish EE4001 report by the next day. I want to do EE4502 tutorial 2 the next day. As simple as that, no need to be very specific.

Do Not Follow Your Plan Blindly
Plan never really works well, at least not for me. I am not contradicting myself. There are many times which we are "forced" by circumstances to change plan. My rule of thumb:

Failing to change plan is planning to die

Looking at my big plan above, do I really have the textbooks for the modules? Do I have so many questions for practicing? Actually no. In fact I did not purchase any book. In fact, I spent all 5 weekdays (from 830am to 9pm, minus off meal and lecture time) in the lab working on my Final Year Project, so much so that I did not even bother to write it down in my small plan. And I like to shift the things that I want to do from one day to another. As long as I get all my TODO's done by the deadline, I am free to do anything I want to my plan.

Summary
So the main idea here is to plan well, write down what is needed to be worked on, don't do last minute work, spread out the workload so that you won't feel burdened. And of course, celebrate whenever you cross out a task from the task list. Give yourself a break, buy yourself a curry puff (yes, the curry puff from the snack store in NUS Engineering was my reward for myself).

4 Unorthodox Methods For Tackling Examination

Examination at the end of a course tests what we have learned. Although it may not be a true reflection of what we know (a few questions can never truly test our knowledge), we must recognize that examination still plays an important part in education, especially in Singapore.

Examination can be stress for some of us, it can also be relaxing for the rest of us. To me, it's all in the mind, it's all what you think and feel. Ultimately, we control our own feeling.

Here are some unorthodox methods which I use to make myself feel comfortable during and before examination.

Dress Code

I believe we all have our own favourite shirt/dress/pants. When we wear it, we just feel good, feel confident, feel like we are going on a winning streak that day. During my 4.5 years in NUS, I always try to wear my favourite shirt, the Stitch shirt, to the examination hall, at least for the most important paper/day (judge yourself which is the most important) of the semester if I have papers on consecutive days.

For those required to wear uniform, wear your good-luck watch, put your bracelet in your pocket if you can't wear it. As long as the item is not prohibited by the examination rules, just wear it! It will up your confidence level and you will do better!

What To Bring To The Examination Hall

Bring a lot of what is important. I tend to bring at least two of each type of stationery, including calculator. My rationale for doing so is because I am afraid. What if my only eraser goes missing? What if my only pen suddenly goes out of ink or the ink just won't flow? What if my calculator gives up on me in the midst of the exam? So many what-if's. Let's put these what-if's to rest. Bring as many as you like. Put your mind at ease. Tackle the paper without any worries of this sort.

On a side note, bring what you think will bring you good luck (of course nothing illegal such as the whole textbook). I bring calculator to all papers. I remember my JC classmate, Looi Sing, asked me "why the hell do you bring calculator for GP (General Paper)?" I was embarrassed to admit it was for good luck, so my answer was that I needed it to calculate the number of words I wrote for my essay. Sorry Looi Sing for hiding the truth for so long. :D

Do-Not-Bring Items

There are two sides to everything. You bring good luck items, of course you don't bring bad luck items. I remember the first time when I did well for my Physics paper (and of course I still did quite badly for all  my other papers) in secondary 3, I forgot to bring my wallet. Ever since then, I never ever bring my wallet to school during examination period, including O Levels. Yes you are right. Wallet brought me bad luck. Superstitious? Yes. Worked? 90%. What about the 10%? English, but imagine if I brought wallet for the English paper, I might have failed right?

Actions Before Examination

All the previous pointers provide us with a peace of mind unconsciously. Now, we still have to wait outside the examination hall. We still have to keep looking at our watch while carrying our stationery. Relax, make yourself comfortable while waiting. Do things to calm yourself down. I used to visit the toilet 15 minutes (no more no less) before the paper. This makes me "feel empty" and I won't feel like visiting the toilet again for the next three hours. And this ritual makes me feel lucky too!
There are certain things that you don't feel like doing before a paper. For example, I like to be alone, not talk, not mingle, not shake hands and not wishing/receiving good luck. I need time to be alone, to empty my mind so that I can enter the hall with a fresh mind. Because of this, my classmates laughed at me and joked that I didn't want to share my good luck with them. I followed my simple ritual without fail. Those who are afraid that you will be friend no more with your classmates because of "weird" actions, fear not! I am still on good terms with my JC classmates. Thank you guys! :)

Summary
The things that I did and do may seem superstitious, but who cares if it works well? Let's not care about how people may look at you (most likely no one will even care). As long as you are not doing harm to anyone, by all means make yourself feel good and comfortable! Ultimately, you are the one sitting for the examination, which may (or may not) determine your future. Your future is in both your hands, handle it well!

4 Tips For Effective Teaching And Learning

Since my last post, some of you commented to me that I never really describe what is my approach of teaching and learning at the same time. So here you go, below are some of my approaches.

Teach in layman terms

In other words, talk simple. Due to my limited English, and my "ability" to pronounce many technical terms wrongly although I can spell them perfect (I still inter-change between ellipse and eclipse), I tend to use layman terms. And I find that it helps in getting the other party to understand. A blessing in disguise indeed. For example, instead of "ellipse", I use "oval". Instead of using "cobalamin", I will just use "vitamin B-12". Now ask yourself, how many people, yourself included, will more likely remember ellipse or oval? How many of us know eating vitamin B-12 is good for health VS how many of us will think that eating cobalamin will land us in jail, just because it sounds like some restricted drug?
I also tend to use a mixture of Mandarin, English and even Chinese Dialect to discuss with my friends. The most important thing here is to understand the concept, forming it in the brain, and not get hindered by the language.

Use analogy

How many of us find the above diagram familiar? Those of us who took Physics will know that a direct current circuit is always represented first by a water pipe with water (electricity) flowing. This is needed because we can see and feel water flowing through a pipe while we cannot see (although we can feel once in a lifetime) electricity flowing through a piece of wire. Analogy, thus, will make a concept be explained easily. It aids visualisation. Never mind if the analogy is flawed, as long as it brings across the general idea. Anyway, there is no perfect analogy to begin with.

Talk about it in a fun way

"We represent an AND gate". This was the answer I gave when our common friend, Desmond from the US, asked why my roommate, WJ, and I always appear together and he even joked that WJ is my other half. What is an AND gate? It only gives positive if both of us are, meaning we will go out only if we go out together, else we don't. This definitely sounds very geeky. However it has two main advantage. First, you put into use the things you have learned. Second is, of course, you made some people laugh at your "lame" joke while others will boo in a jokingly way. In any case, it definitely livens up the atmosphere. :D

Relate to daily activities

Related to the previous points, let's relate what we have learned into common daily activities. If you wish to remember the difference between frequency and period, think about the brushing of teeth. Brushing at a high frequency seems to shorten the time period we take to brush (dentist may have different opinion here?). Doesn't this give us the inverse relationship between frequency and period?

Summary

Let's overcome our high coefficient of static friction. Start moving, try these methods now. Once you get started, the coefficient of dynamic friction will be less (although this may not be true with new findings) and you'll move with less force, more fluidly.

p.s. you can contact me anytime if you need flawed analogies... :p