Part 1 of 2
Hello, the name is Keng Wah Loon.
I am here, writing to all of you, my dear juniors, as requested by Pn. Hong, to provide a guide for choosing the paths of your life.
Be prepared, as this is a very long article.
Although not as long as a common news article on NYTimes.
Sorry to shock you with English texts in this Chinese blog.
However I find it more convenient to write in English.
One I want to stress on is the usage of English.
Juniors, if you are not using it thoroughly or extensively, you better start now.
As you step into this community, you will realize how essential it is.
I admit my English is not of high literacy, yet I try to implement what I told you.
Try to use proper English, in as many aspects of life as possible.
This is an international language, it is potent, it is important.
It is sufficient to start with simple English, and it's easy to understand. Thus bombastic language is unnecessary.
This is the first thing I want to tell: The Importance of English.
Second, keys of studying, as viewed from the perspective of a student.
I guess it would be nice to be persuasive and convincible.
Yes, you can trust me.
I had a record of getting position in form of between no.10-30 in CLHS.
And my best? I got no.3, yeah in whole form.
We've heard enough of 'Study smart, not hard', but exactly how?
To be frank, I wasn't a hardworking, if not lazy, student in school.
I wasn't so occupied with tuition and revisions, that I have plenty of time for scouting, astronomy, games and etc.
In fact, I didn't go for tuition.
I didn’t pick up textbooks and read them repeatedly at home.
I never had group study with friends.
No.3 out of 500 students in whole form? Is this convincible?
Trust me, follow me, as I unveil 3 keys to be like me.
I understand to write this article in a persuasive manner,it is almost impossible to avoid projecting even the least part of arrogance.
Forgive me, if you feel that I’m rude, arrogant and inconsiderate.
The truth is, I’m trying to help as many juniors of mine to be like me.
Now some short introduction.
Since young, I had this unimaginably strong interest and talent for science and mathematics, of course I'm no genius; I'm just the top scorer, most of the time.
Believe me or not, I started to read science contexts; and ditched fictions since Standard 1.
Over the years, the seemingly boring task of reading those materials had gotten easier for me.
I have this innate ability by then, to read effortlessly, and yet absorbing all content and learn them all at one glance.
That is also why I'd never and would not want to read the same stuff more than once.
I learn the science concepts and they just stay; I learn math, the rules are programmed into my brain and amalgamate with it.
I never forget them.
However, if you think that this is extraordinary kind of like a superpower, you are totally wrong.
Let me tell you, there are 3 keys to achieve that, and you are going to learn these potent keys.
1 FOCUS.
Focus in class, whenever the teacher is teaching (the stuffs that you are supposed to learn). Listen to what he has to tell you, concentrate on the content and knowledge that are being delivered to you. Allow no distractions.
When I'm in focus mode, I ignore basically everyone, I don’t even bother about them, and they hate that. But with the superpower of FOCUSING you can absorb whatever you are learning easily, and fully. Thus you learn everything at once and need no relearning.
2 UNDERSTANDING.
The real meaning of study is to UNDERSTAND, not to memorize. Our brain works like a computer, but without sufficient memory space. You will never get far with memorizing. Take two example: Math and Science, they require understanding, real understanding. When you do that, you interpret and reprogram everything into your brain, and they stay in your brain, not as memory, but as plug-in programs. Everything just get fused with your brain like basic math of 1+1=2. For example, you understand the laws of math; you don't memorize every example and the answers.
I'd seen quite a number of my friends who fail to Understand. They study, especially science, by memorizing. After a while, they forget, and then they have to rememorize, again and again, in the end they never understand. They seemed to hardworking when you see them revising so frequently, however their effort is wasted.
I finished my study of Physics when I was in Form 3, and I never(barely) study for the exams during Form 4 & 5. I'd already started my further study while everyone was struggling for SPM. I was reading VTB in lessons while everyone was busy with their SPM physics notes. VTB? Very Thick Books.
3 PRACTICE.THINK.
By PRACTICE I don’t just mean doing revision and exercises over and over again. In fact, you may ask my friends, I am perhaps the laziest student in class. I did the least exercises in Physics and Math yet scored the highest. However I know how it feel to spam yourself with tons of exercises. I did that with Add Math, and it requires just that to achieve perfection. So, practices make you perfect, it's true. I learnt Add Math since Form 3 and I kept doing exercises ever since, until Form 5, I decided I no longer need that.
Practice is not about your physical works, but it also has to do with you mind. I do mental works whenever my brain is free. Literally I never let it rests. I think a lot, all the time, and flip around with all I'd learnt, then I discover new stuffs from there, and I understand them deeper than my friends.
Take an analogue. Knowledge is like a watch. Suppose that we study how it works. To understand fully, we need to go one step further, to dismantle the watch to its most fundamental constituents and pieces, and then piece them together, at the same time understand how each part and the whole watch work. Think more, and think constructively. Get your brain active.
For Add Math, I'd always loved to search for the geometrical representation of the same math. For all equations that I learn, whether necessary or not, I picture the curves, lines, shapes and graphs of them.
With these, I hope you now learn the shortcuts, to study smart, and realize the true meaning of studying. With all the best wishes from me, may you excel in your study!
Part 2 of 2
I am a student, relatively excellent in Physics and Mat.
An artist and designer.
A human rights, laws and journalism enthusiast.
A funny jerk who loves to joke and play around with friends.
A very short brief of who I am, and what I do.
Life is certainly not easy in this ever-changing world.
Moreover, I'm from a single-parent family, which is already a common phenomenon today.
However, this seemingly unfortunate event is the mold, the mold that shape today's me.
Being a young kid without a perfect family, undoubtedly, was hard.
I had to bear with discriminations from the people around me.
And then I came to realize that, YOU WILL BE RESPECTED IF YOU ARE A TOP-NOTCH INDIVIDUAL.
At the age of 8, I gave up totally on fiction, because I understood that they are just mere fantasies.
Instead I turned to scientific texts, to discover the eternal truths of this world.
To me it has a huge meaning.
It's the last place I can possibly seek asylum.
At that age, I fully understood, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
I'd maintained a relatively strong position in my primary school.
I was the top student, the model student, head of club, a good basketball player.
And I had friends and admirers. I was well respected.
I knew how it's like to be discriminated and disrespected, and I don't want to reflect my own pain on the others.
That's why I’d learnt to treat people and stuffs with wisdom, which would in turn gain me more respect.
A group photo of I and my old friends in Kedah.
At the age of 12, the time of change, a new chapter.
I was transferred to Kwang Hwa Primary School in Penang, and got arranged into the second-last class.
Alone in this new land, I had to deal with the tremendous pressure and not to get myself alienated.
I worked hard, and stunned the entire school with my seemingly impossible result and placing.
UPSR? Nothing much to say. Perfect result, and the next check point was Chung Ling High School.
First year, my position in form was around 30.
And it just got better year by year.
Until form 4, haha!
I was the no.3 in the whole school.
Extra academic achievements?
Gold medalist of ICAS Math, no.5 of National Physics Competition.
And many more awards, I even forgotten most of them.
We know that co-curricular activities are quite vital in our school.
Uh huh. Yep.
I was the Troop Leader of the Scouts.
My life in CLHS was quite colorful. I joined the basketball team, chess club, astronomy, LEO, Robotic, and Dragon Boat.
I made friends here. Not a lot, but genuine. I love them.
My best friends are, let me introduce them, Goh Yi Zhang, Aun Yiyang, and Timothy Goh.
The former 2 were my buddies in Scouts, the latter was my 4-years-straight-classmate.
Yi Zhang and Yiyang. Champion team of Powerchef
Yi Zhang, Timothy and I.
5 years in CLHS.
Besides doing my old stuffs relatively well: Science and Math; I started venturing into new frontiers.
Having posts in clubs certainly trained me to be an adequate leader.
I learned to lead, to suppress your followers, to run society and institutions, to run a committee, to deal with diverse types of people, to manage all tasks and to play several roles at once in my clubs.
I was the secretary of the Scouts too, and my file was the thickest in school, I would say, as thick as Bible.
I learned to survive in the jungle, to cook without modern equipment, to expedite and camp for days, to build gadgets and enormous structures with bamboos, to light a fire, to perform CPR and first aid.
Expedition and journey: checkpoint, airport. Yi Zhang and I were posing like mad guys.
Cooking in the camp for the campers.From the left, Kah Beng, Yiyang, I, Yi Zhang.
The dancing competition.
The fire for traditional cooking.
That was me during the modern cooking.
Cooking Competition at the National Scout Competition. Yiyang and I.
This was supposed to be the Model building competition.
The same competition camp.
The largest event and my greatest work of all was the Scouts' Annual Gathering.
In which I was the, take a breath before you read:
Vice chairman, coordinator, secretary, artistic director, programmer, stage decorator.
Trust me, running a huge event like this really teaches you a lot.
It is perhaps the best preparation to get you to the outside world, because of how it mimics the real operations of a real institution or company.
That almost made me go crazy, as you can imagine the pressure, for how many roles I played.
Being the Vice-Chair and Coordinator is already maddening.
I had to know every single details and coordinate all tasks for all the committee members. I basically had to act like a central commanding brain, together with Yi Zhang, which was the Chairman.
That's why we were known as the 'thinkers' within the committee.
However, he left later, and forever.
Being the Secretary, again I had the heaviest job.
All the documents and letters, I had to deal with them.
Firstly a complete set of proposals had to be drafted and approved by the school, and then by the JPN and Scout Headquarter.
Besides, I had to come up with a thick booklet/invitation and letters, and then get them sent.
I will not describe more as I think it will waste time, and there are just too much of them.
Artistic Director and stage decoration?
Oh yeah, this is totally new to me. ART.
I was in-charge of everything related to art and designs.
From the establishment of a central theme, logo, header, booklet, leaflets, nametags, stage, tickets, covers, badges, T-shirts(yep, DR is my creation)…..
This actually opened a new gate in my life, gate of artistry.
I had to learn Photoshop by myself, without proper tutorial but Google and helps from friends.
And Brendon Yeoh was the one who Inspired me, who brought me in to this gate.
During the 1-year preparation, I was pretty busy everyday, almost drowned by the works and heavy tasks and surmounting pressure.
And then THAT MOMENT.
January 17, 2010. A date that I will never forget.
Dragon Boat incident, 6 victims, 2 of them are my very close friends: Yi Zhang & Brendon.
The last picture of Yi Zhang, Yiyang and I (2-4 from the right)
3 of us always loved to stick together in everything we are doing, especially during scouting.
Brendon(first from left). Yi Zhang(first from Right).I was in green.
Picture of us, by Max. From the left: I, Yi Zhang, Yiyang, Brendon.
That was quite a blow, a huge one, larger than any I had before.
I lost a best friend and close buddy.
I had to keep on working on what's left, their legacies: the Gathering, and Art.
I had to go through the greatest pain for weeks, and struggle to keep my life from collapsing and imploding.
On the very day of the Gathering
And I call that a success. On the other event; Your wish, your overall champion, we've won it for you.
Then, a month later, another of my best friend, Timothy, left for Canada.
Farewell party for Timothy 'the victim' .
In the end, my life and everything in CLHS ended well.
The Gathering was a success,
And I am a designer right now, besides being the Creative Art Director of Youth Jam 2011. link: http://www.penangyouths.com/
And then, besides doing the 4 stuffs: physics and math, leading a committee, being an artist,
I picked up another hobby: Reading. I mean, serious reading. Especially news reading.
Some of my books. And also some of the most significant books in human history.
I don't think I can explain enough the importance and significance of news reading here.
However, you will change your mind when you switch to International newspaper agencies.
And also, influenced by Timothy, I became an enthusiast reader.
Today, I ready basically all news and other stuffs, no matter how they seem unrelated to me.
Even my twitter is full of news from the news agencies.
From research news, science articles, international news, cables, psychology, American politics, Justice, philosophy, classics and etc.
You just become unimaginably knowledgeable, and that's very good and important.
Because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
You never run out of topic when you talk, you can handle every question thrown at you, you can impress others because you seem to know everything, you are smart.
Here, I introduce to you, the top international media:
The New York Times
Washington Post
The Time
And also some subordinate ones:
Wikileaks
Nature.com
Scientific American
Sciencedaily
CNN - for breaking news
Some very important books:
The Prince
Karl Marx's
My advice to you:
DO NOT read LOCAL newspapers and media!
They are unprofessional in journalism.
Discover and see for yourself,
Make comparison of same news articles between the local news agencies and those international ones aforementioned.
After leaving high school, I enrolled in INTI.
And then today I transferred to Disted college, to be with the last best friend I have: Yiyang.
(middle, the one I'm carrying) Yiyang, the SPM top scorer of CLHS.
In the end, let me draw a conclusion.
Life is full of unexpected events and hardships, if you can't get over with them, you will never reemerge .
You have to be flexible and adaptable to changes, to stay on the top of this ever changing world.
You must be open-minded and do not cling on to the same old stuff.
Open to changes.
Be a good thinker.
I'd always thought that I can do nothing besides Physics and Math.
Yet I was wrong.
Today, I'm still very good with that.
But I'm also an artist and designer, I can be a leader and organize and coordinate events.
I'm very curious and have strong inquiries, and read like a freak.
I can talk and discuss topics from science to global issues.
I summarize all the four with these 4 words:
READ. THINK. CREATE. INSPIRE.
Find out more of me on:
http://kengz.deviantart.com/
http://kengz.tumblr.com/
From yleng,
An impressive article which has got GENGZISM written all over it.
And a comment in English by me seems a must after receiving his message.
He did mention that no one should run off from dealing with challenge. :)
Had found bravery, courage, frankness, sincerity, confidence and growth in it.
It touches my heart, and brings tears to my eyes while reading it.
It is all about a precious experience how a young fresh boy struggled along his childhood and teens, seeking for success.
He makes it most of the time, and is still in his attempt setting high goals in life, and trying his best to achieve them.
He’s not only giving guidance to his juniors, but also sharing useful tips on how to improve the quality of life, with new learner like me.
READ. THINK. CREATE. INSPIRE.
Wah Loon thank you for everything.Thanks for your hard work, your article is well organized which requires nearly zero editing.
Teacher will always cherish the memory of those happy moments shared with you. All the best to you.
Lastly, forget not to call you 阳光美少年！once again, the nick name I created for you years ago. Be Sunny Forever~ :)
p/s What about sending me writing another Chinese article with other topics? Haha.
