HOW TO TACKLE THE G.C. E. ADVANCED LEVEL EXAMINATION
I have been in the field of learning
Bio Science since 1978. G. C. E. A/L
examination is the most difficult exam that I have done in my career.
These are few things that you should
remember when you’re in the A/L class. Those are;
- G. C. E. A/L examination is the key exam that will decide your future career.
- When considering the student population in Sri Lanka out of students who enter the year 1 class about 1% of them enter the Universities.
- Out of student population in Sri Lanka who does the G. C. E. A/L examination about9.4% enters the Universities and 90.6% of students who pass are left out.
At the same time it should be
remembered that I am not talking about the medical faculty. I would like to state that Sri Lanka with a
population of 21 million only around 1166 MBBS doctors pass – out from all the
Universities per year.
In 1979 when I did my A/L’s number of
students who sat for the exam was 2,50,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand )
out of which only 10,000 students were absorbed to all the Universities
including Medicine, Arts., Commerce, Science etc. This was the situation 34 years ago. Today the student population who does the A/L
is around 233,609 (two hundred thirty three thousand and six hundred nine) out
of which after 34 years, for all the faculties only 22,100 are taken in. This is the present situation. With all these
facts and figures, what I want to make you aware is that there is a way of
tackling this above exam. The most important thing is how you get organized
yourself. Time management is a key
factor that we have to look upon.
By experience you can see the number
of students who go for A/L Tuition classes.
In a tuition class of around three thousand student’s it’s the law of
the nature that around 10 may get three A’s and a good “Z” score who enters to
do medicine. One student for one subject
normally goes for three classes. One is
the theory class, one revision class and an individual class where the master
visit your home. At this rate for
traveling and by not considering the time you spend on the road you have only 4
hours per day to study. It is important
that you manage your time well. If you
are going to school, on a day you should spend minimum 6 hours of study. On a holiday or if you‘re not going out, you
should spent minimum 10 hours of study per day.
What is thought in the class should be
studied on the same day and you collectively prepare a short note including the
subject matter, you did with a particular reference book too. If you wish to study in the morning you
should get up at around 4 ‘o’ clock in the morning. It should be remembered, not to study for
more than one and half hours at a stretch.
After one section, you should get a break for around 30 minutes. For a day you should get a sleep of minimum 8
hours. After coming from school you may
study from around 4.00 p.m. - 5.30 p.m. again another one and hours till dinner
time. Some prefer to study in the night
rather than in the morning. That has to
be decided by you whether to study in the morning or night.
When studying there is a way of doing
it. After preparing the short notes you
may read it in whispers and try to write down that you learn on a rough
paper. Your eyes, ear’s, fingers and the
mind should be formed to focus on your study.
It’s very important that what you whisper should
be heard by your ears. Please do not
wait until the last minute to prepare short notes as well as do references at
the last minute. (Having about 2 months
for the exam)
If you do so at the end of the day you
will have heaps of notes where you do not know what is where. After studying a section and after finishing
those sections you collect pass papers running up to minimum 5 years and keep writing
the answers to remind you of what you have studied. Remember A/L syllabus is a very vast syllabus
and you will forget what you study few weeks ago.
It’s also important that you distract
your mind by engaging in some other work other that what you study. When referring a text book through it
contains lot of subject matter you need jot to through the whole book. Every book has a bibliography so you select
one or two pages when you go through.
With all these I wish you a bright
future when you will build up your career to serve mother Lanka.
Thank You,
Mr. P.S.B. Wanduragala
(B.Sc. (Hons).,M.sc.,M.Phil)
Secretary
Institute of Fundamental Studies
Kandy
