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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Getting The Best Grades

Pak G found an url (http://www.get-better-grades.com/) on tips how to get good grades with the least effort last April. Pak G gave our class e-mail so that Dr Marc Dussault can e-mail the tips. A number of e-mail came into our in-box. On of them is as follow (I made some editing):
The first strategy on Getting The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort is "How NOT to Focus Your Energies on Important AND Urgent Tasks."
Have you ever found that you actually get the most work done when you have the least time to do it? Do you find yourself NOT completing the work you're supposed to do, when you have ample time to get it done? But then when you're given short sharp bursts of urgent timelines, you excel above and beyond what you ever expected? If you can identify with any of these situations, you'll definitelyVbenefit from managing your tasks using the "Urgent/Important" model.
There are four kinds of tasks: (1) Not Important and Not Urgent; (2) Not Important and Urgent (3) Important and Not Urgent; (4) Urgent and Important. If you spend time on the WRONG type of task at the WRONG time, all you'll do is escalate your stress and reduce your results. On the other hand, if you learn how to deal with each category of task, you'll get better results across the board while also making the urgency "work for you".
Here are a few scenarios so you can see for yourself how to treat different types of tasks to MAXIMIZE your results.
1. "Not Important and Not Urgent"
Example: You have a book report to hand in at the end of the semester. It'll take you 10 to 12 hours to read the book and 4 to 5 hours to write the report. You have 3 months and it's worth 10% of your final grade. You should get started as soon as possible so it doesn't become urgent and create unnecessary stress.
2. "Not Important But Urgent"
Example: You have a quiz tomorrow but you haven't reviewed anything. It's worth 5% but you need every mark you can get. You should have done this in-between other things when you had thetime. Now you will feel stress and anxiety that could have easily been avoided... "Cramming" becomes the only option, and it has been proven that cramming is far more STRESSFUL and far less EFFECTIVE than the strategies I reveal in:http://www.get-better-grades.com
3. "Important But Not Urgent"
Example: You have a project that is worth 35% of your final mark. It's due in a month and you estimate it will take you 20-25 hoursto complete. Once agains, what you want to do is avoid rushing and trying tocomplete the project at the last minute. You want to scale down thetasks into smaller bite-size chunks to make it easier to getstarted as soon as possible.
4. "Important and Urgent"
Example: You have a final exam in two days, it's worth 70% of yourfinal grade. You haven't put in enough time - so much new material to cover you just don't know where to start. Panic starts to set in. This is *not* where you want to be spending your time. You want tospend as much time as possible on the *important but not urgent*issues. Of course, this takes planning and preparation (plus better strategies for getting the best results with the least amount of effort).
Posted by:
Pak G

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