Speech by student of Lyceum Panadura - Senadie De Alwis - All Island first in Arts Stream at G.C.E. A/L Examination 2018 Dear Teachers, Parents and my brothers and sisters of Lyceum, |am writing this today to let you know how achieved ths result because as you know I did not study in a very conventional way. During the frst year I mostly deicatee myself t0 Choir and Senior Prefect duties. In order to complete my studies, | always used a few techniques to remember things and not forget my work. | would ke to share afew points | realized while trying to improve my tues Firs, tithe attude, think allstars with your tude towards yourself, our teachers and our subjects. Our attitude means everything, especialy about ourselves, our teachers and the subjects that we do. Back during exam time at school my classmates used to say, "Senadie, you have the brains, but we don’t” whenever they saw my marks. | used to tell them No! You have the same rans! realized how true thi isthe day I received my results. | did not expect tobe Island first. wanted 3A, but beng [land fst s something! never dreamed of, | used to watch students who became Island fst on TV and those children usualiysad they studied hard, stayed upallnight ete. To be honest, | is not study that hard, so clearly | was surprised with my results, But | id use afew tactics which | beleve isthe reason behind my achievement, This experience made me realize that anything ls possible if you put your mind tito, if you are thinking that doing wel in studless not my thing and Island ranks are for other ehileren, you might wa think again. Any one of you can achieve what have or may be even reach bigher So, our attitude towards oursevesis veryimportant. Another very important point is our attitude towards our teachers as it incirecly affects ouratttudes towardsoursubjectsItaffectshow much we can gain from our teachers nt only in studies, butalsoin thelr blessings. In ‘yacademicjourney have metsome amazingteachers,believel took the best from my teachers 'm very thankful to all of them. They don't work hard for their own achievements. They do their best for us. We must respect them for theirsincereefforts, Something that crectly fects our subject marksis howwe thine aboutthe subjects we do. This was specially aplicable to me in Economies because Economics was anew subject to me and was scared about it Fist. But, themament realized rely ke thatsubjetit became amuchless burden forme and! wasableta do my studies without any aressure. So our atitude towards subjectsisveryimportantto achieve good resus. Another point | would like te talk about Is postive thinking. This something |e to pratse more and more. lused to write down that wll score 100%. Thisdoesa’t mean that will get exactly 100%, butithelpedme to work harder. This statement otomated me toworktowardsmy targets. If felta subject was har, | would write a postive statement. For example, would wete “englsh Ukerature, 9 a8, eye9, cpa Bas” (Englshtiteratureisa simple, attractive and enjoyable subject” and would paste it on my fridge, Not subject formulas or subject matters, | weote hings ike that so saw it all the time, It gave me positive thoughts and helaed meto work wel Another important aspect think sto keep the ming clear and fre of any distractions. You may have heard me saying | di not use smart phones, socal media or Facebook, and its true. Our schoo! discourages us from using socal medi, but I cid this on my own wil Because I know thatthe moment take that smart phore to my hand my ind wil be distracted. (Concentration was really important to me, I concentrated while my teachers taught me and concentrated when I started stucying Concentrationis eallyimportantto study very well Whenever! was taught a subject, thought of ita the fist 11 was earring it. When we go for tuition classes, we: lean the same lessons from school Sometimes iyauleaent {helesson earl from school you may not thinkto pay your attention to the teacher nest time you are learning the lesson, But | used to think | am learning this lesson forthe fst ime no matter how many times it was repeated. With that thought in mind | used to compare what | have been. taught and final he gps have any doubts. Then that lesson sperfct.| made sue that didi that wayso told bbemoredeeply imprinted in my mind Itis also important to practise answering questions. can’ stress the importance of this enough because this is something that really helped me to perfect my answers. When | was Stucyng l useto study withthe questions and answers. Fist would read the question, form an answer in my mind and then reer the marking Scheme to see if] am right or how I should correct myse Once my rend Dinara whe was alii any o study Economies asked me how | studied t Tre fist year of my AJL journey 1 really studied Economics through {questions and answers. | used to take my past paper books, MCAS, the essay type questions and stusled through questions and answers. told her practise the same, She did that and | ar realy proud and happy to #3, se got an A for Economies. Eventhough italy she said Economics was boring, her efotseally paid ‘And another thing tat | think helped me to write beter answers isthe’ knowledge of language. Sometimes, you may not know the real technical words for some answers. Bur, you can make the examiners thnk you krow 1e answer if you use the correct language. | beleve | developed it by reading books. | am an only child and | don't have any other hobbies other fan reading books. Mostly | like to read story books. Anyway, i really helped mewithout me even knowing Finally, | would ike to mention afew things | dé during the exam ise During the exams, what usualy dd was take deep breaths. I wentinto the halla Ite bit earlier, sat down and took deep breaths to calm myself. 1 Git cal myself | couldn't write any answers, | would forget them al ‘Another thing| used to dos smile. now that this sounds weird but no ‘matter how nervous | was, | would force myself to smile right before | got ‘the paper. read about this strategy and founditreally worked. It made me feel good ane reduced the nervousness, So, these ae somethings | cid beforethe exam | wouldlike te conclude by saying! didn goon this journey alone. had my parents, My mother isthe real mastermind behind my success, She helped ‘metabe who! amtodayand! knowshe wil helpme ta develop mylfeven further. My father too helped in 2 very special way. My life was really balanced because my mother wasin charge af my education and my father was in charge of relieving my stress. Whenever he came home the whol neighbourhood could hearme laughing because ofhis jokes. ‘had my parents, my teachers, fiend, all along with me. lamreally grateful tam parents, llmy teachers and allwhohave helpecme throughovteven vithane wore, to encourage meand heipme de optimistic. However, nthe: fend, | wrote the exam alone twill be the same for you. You have your parents to guide you, you have your teachers to give you advice, but you writeyour examswith your own efforts would ike to tell you to take some ime fr yoursel Think afhow you ean Improve. Every person s diferent. Some techniques might work for you Some might not My mother alway said to me you dan'tneed to compere with others. You ust need todo your bes. You challenge yourself and see how much youcan achieve. So,alwaysbelevethatyoucan doanything! Yes Regarding Students who are siting for Cambridge O/t'sare encouragedto do Sinhala / Tarilas the eighth subject afterschool rom lanuary to April whilein grade 10 if they fee! confident to cope up withthe subject matter. A majority of students who offer these subjects achieve considerably higher trades and therefore willhave an opportunity toachieve Cambridge awards. *Sinhala / Tamilcasseswillbeheldafter school for these students. As applicationshavealready closed forthe batch of 2018, the above willbe applicable tothe present rade 9 students when applying for OL exams. 8