On Studying--Advice from Tzu-jung

Last Friday, in the class meeting period, I invited Tzu-jung (劉子榕) to talk to my class for 30 minutes. Tzu-jung is now a senior at our school. He got a 71 ranking score on the SAT and has been admitted to School of Pharmacy at NTU and Department of Photonics at National Chiao Tung University.

The first sentence Tzu-jung said to my class was that studying is the responsibility of a student. He was very clear about this, so, although he, as a senior, still played basketball during the break and played computer games even during the week before the SAT, he paid undivided attention when he sat in class or studied at the desk.

Then he offered some study tips for each subject as follows.

1. Chinese: Study the supplementary material 大亨通.

2. English: Make use of the correspondence between sound and spelling when memorizing vocabulary.

3. Physics and Chemistry: Review what was learned in the first year of high school.

4. Geography: Organize and recall.

Then came the Q & A session. The following notes are based on his answers.

1. Learn from your mistakes on the test.

2. Take notes in class when necessary.

3. It's not necessary to keep all the exam papers because you won't have time to study them all. As for this, a friend of mine, who once taught at TFG told her students to throw away the exam paper after jotting down on their textbook what they've learned from the exam.

Last Friday, what impressed me most was Tzu-jung's punctuality. He showed up in my office and my class on time, a manifestation of self-discipline. I believe it was this good habit that made him succeed.

Thanks, Tzu-jung, and congratulations!

P.S. According to a colleague, Tzu-jung has been admitted to one more school: School of Medicine at National Defense Medical Center. (20100428)