Term 3 Week 1.2010 - WHICH QUALITY, IN YOUR OPINION, ENABLES A STUDENT TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN SCHOOL - DILIGENCE, INTELLIGENCE OR TALENT? DISCUSS.

PARAGRAPH ONE POINTER

                     Paragraph One pointer- Students cannot count on any one particular quality - diligence, intelligence or talent to do well at school.  + paragraph Two pointer - Nowadays, to achieve success at school, a student is expected to do well both in his academic pursuits and his co-curricular activities, either in uniformed groups, clubs or sports.  In order to excel in both, he cannot afford to rely only on one single quality.  A combination of qualities is needed.

PARAGRAPH TWO POINTER

Continuation of Paragraph 2 SUB-POINTERS

SPECIAL NOTE:  IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU NEED TO USE EVERY SINGLE THING YOU HAVE MAPPED OUT IN YOUR MIND-MAP.  THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH 2 SUB-POINTERS MAY NOT BE GOOD ENOUGH, SO I HAVE DECIDED TO DISCARD THEM OR PERHAPS USE THEM LATER ON IN THE ESSAY. 

Paragraph 3  pointers

Paragraph 3 pointers -  Diligence is the quality of being consistently hardworking.  A student who is hardworking will be self-motivated to spend time on his studies without being told to do so.  He is also likely to put in a lot of efforts to try to do well in his co-curricular activity.  However, hard work does not always guarantee success.  Some students work very hard when preparing for their examinations but if they adopt the wrong study methods, they may not excel at the examinations.  I worked extremely hard when preparing for the Primary School Leaving Examinations some years ago.  However, I did not do well because I had not been effective in my revsion of some of the tougher topics. 

                                                             Paragraph 4  pointers

paragraph 4 pointers -  Intelligence deals with a student's ability to learn, understand and think about things.  The benefits of being an intelligent students are quite obvious.  When a student is able to learn and understand ideas and concepts quickly and accurately, he will be able to accumulate knowledge and master skills effectively.  However, intelligence alone does not promise success in school.  Intelligence chiefly improves through one's diligence but normally, people who are smart tend to be lazy and complacent.  They look down on the need to work hard to enhance their intelligence. 

                                                            Paragraph 5  pointers

paragraph 5 pointers - Talent refers to the inborn or natural ability to do something well.  A person's talent is a flimsy quality.  Anybody who relies on talent will not become a all-round learner because he will not be motivated to develop other skills or master other concepts which require him to use his brain or to spend many hours to learn them. 

 Paragraph 6 pointers...conclusion

                   

Paragraph 6 pointers - Because diligence, intelligence and talent have both benefits and limitations, they cannot be independent qualities to enable a student to achieve success in school.  Therefore, there is no one single quality which a student may count on but a combination of each of the three said qualities.  A student who is hardworking may become better in whatever he does in school, whether in the classroom or beyond.  Once his confidence improves, he is likely to become more effective in his studies or co-curricular activity.  With the accumulation of knowledge and skills comes development of his intelligence.  With intelligence, the student may learn even better ways and means to do things and in days to come, become talented as a result.  So we cannot count on one quality but the combined qualities of diligence, intelligence and talent to enable a student to do well in school. 

The less-than-complete MIND-MAP

This lesson was conducted on 28 June 2010 (Monday), the very first day of Term 3.2010 at St. Hilda's Secondary School.  The two classes were Secondary 4B and 4D.