exams, spies and metaphors
there are 2 ways you can go about dealing with exams, which is more or less dependent on which category you fall into.
so if you are like FC Barcelona, you can go ahead, focus on your game, focus on what you do best, because nothing can probably stop you.
but sadly, most of us are not Barcelona. the good news is:
1) you don't need to be winning the game for 90 minutes. you just need to win the game when the whistle is blown.
2) scoring a penalty 10 times in training and then scoring a penalty in a real game is no different from scoring a penalty 1 time in training and then again in a real game, or better still, scoring a penalty once and only once, and that's in the game. i recommend, however, that you score at least once in training.
3) exams are like the Euro, or the World Cup- a 400metre race. it doesn't matter what happened in qualification or the group stage, as long as you progress. what is most important is to peak at the right time.
4) having said that, if you are playing brazil in the final, you don't need to think about whether you would have beaten spain. all you need to care about is to beat brazil.
i don't know how you go about preparing for exams, but things like how many questions will there be, how long is the exam, how the content can be broken down into the concepts to be tested are of vital importance to me. it is like studying the opponent, the pitch condition, the nutrition plans, the journey to the stadium. all these are just as important as the game itself.
you may ask, why can't you just get on with it, just go and play the game?
because, i am not barcelona. so i have to be able to adapt myself to the opponent's gameplay.
yesterday, we had a voluntary mock exam for the killer subject. i went in, knowing i am maybe 40% prepared. but i also went in, knowing that i absolutely have nothing to lose. i came out feeling like how derby must have felt when they lost to man u in the league cup. knowing that there is absolutely no pressure, somehow being able to lift your game, take the game to the opponents and come away having left a good account of yourself, regardless of the result.
training sessions is about what you can do.
friendlies are about what you cannot do...yet. it is about identifying the errors in your game plan so that you can correct them.
when you can give a good account of yourself when you are only 40% prepared, you are only going to feel encouraged, especially when the errors you have identified can be rectified, can be ironed out through drills.
on another note,
i feel like i am a spy who has infiltrated the ranks of the engineers and scientists.
to which melvin said it's just two sides of the coin. like how some people, upon seeing snow, write poems, whereas other people look at things like temperature and all. an apt way to put it.
speaking of apt descriptions, i came across this in an old Economist article.
"Sooner or later, everyone writing about intra-Belgian tensions uses the metaphor of a couple trapped in a loveless marriage, only staying together because neither wants to lose custody of their child. [...]
The metaphor suggests two more lessons, that we foreign correspondents should remember. First, just because someone spends their time criticising their family, doesn’t mean they enjoy it when outsiders chime in. And second, no outsider can ever truly understand a couple."
so if you are like FC Barcelona, you can go ahead, focus on your game, focus on what you do best, because nothing can probably stop you.
but sadly, most of us are not Barcelona. the good news is:
1) you don't need to be winning the game for 90 minutes. you just need to win the game when the whistle is blown.
2) scoring a penalty 10 times in training and then scoring a penalty in a real game is no different from scoring a penalty 1 time in training and then again in a real game, or better still, scoring a penalty once and only once, and that's in the game. i recommend, however, that you score at least once in training.
3) exams are like the Euro, or the World Cup- a 400metre race. it doesn't matter what happened in qualification or the group stage, as long as you progress. what is most important is to peak at the right time.
4) having said that, if you are playing brazil in the final, you don't need to think about whether you would have beaten spain. all you need to care about is to beat brazil.
i don't know how you go about preparing for exams, but things like how many questions will there be, how long is the exam, how the content can be broken down into the concepts to be tested are of vital importance to me. it is like studying the opponent, the pitch condition, the nutrition plans, the journey to the stadium. all these are just as important as the game itself.
you may ask, why can't you just get on with it, just go and play the game?
because, i am not barcelona. so i have to be able to adapt myself to the opponent's gameplay.
yesterday, we had a voluntary mock exam for the killer subject. i went in, knowing i am maybe 40% prepared. but i also went in, knowing that i absolutely have nothing to lose. i came out feeling like how derby must have felt when they lost to man u in the league cup. knowing that there is absolutely no pressure, somehow being able to lift your game, take the game to the opponents and come away having left a good account of yourself, regardless of the result.
training sessions is about what you can do.
friendlies are about what you cannot do...yet. it is about identifying the errors in your game plan so that you can correct them.
when you can give a good account of yourself when you are only 40% prepared, you are only going to feel encouraged, especially when the errors you have identified can be rectified, can be ironed out through drills.
on another note,
i feel like i am a spy who has infiltrated the ranks of the engineers and scientists.
to which melvin said it's just two sides of the coin. like how some people, upon seeing snow, write poems, whereas other people look at things like temperature and all. an apt way to put it.
speaking of apt descriptions, i came across this in an old Economist article.
"Sooner or later, everyone writing about intra-Belgian tensions uses the metaphor of a couple trapped in a loveless marriage, only staying together because neither wants to lose custody of their child. [...]
The metaphor suggests two more lessons, that we foreign correspondents should remember. First, just because someone spends their time criticising their family, doesn’t mean they enjoy it when outsiders chime in. And second, no outsider can ever truly understand a couple."
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