How To Cheat on Exams

Before we go any further with this post, let's just get one thing straight here:

I'm not a cheater. Never have been. And (hopefully) never will be.

The last week for me has been extremely hectic. You know. Cramming for Thursday's French exam the day before. Cramming for Friday's Science exam on Thursday night, waking up only to realise it's a snow day, not learning your lesson so you end up procrastinating all weekend, and cramming forty-five minutes before the examination? Yeah...

Exams suck. They're not extremely difficult if you study, but they're SUPER LONG and tiresome. To solve this problem, my friends and I were discussing ways to cheat, and how these ways would fail.

The Kleenex Trick


If you've done an exam before, you probably know that you're not allowed anything on your desk. Unless it's see-through of course. You need a see-through pencil case (I used an old Del-Sol shopping bag), and even a see-through water bottle.


However ladies and gentlemen, right now it is January. Yes, January-one of the coldest months in the whole year. In a quiet classroom, people constantly sniff, blow their noses, cough, and other annoying things. When you're sitting in a room for an hour and thirty minutes (plus another half hour if your exam goes into over time) with your head down, noses can start to get REALLY stuffy and pretty soon, you're making very gross noises.  And you REALLY don't want to make those noises in a silent classroom. On the other hand, if you DON'T sniff... well, you know what happens.

Which is why we're allowed a box of Kleenex on our desks during the winter exams (though in my opinion, someone blowing their nose in a silent classroom is WAY more distracting than someone sniffing. Especially since you block them out after a while).


My friend Flav, developed the Kleenex Trick. It's pretty straight forward, really. Basically, you write the answers down on the tissue, fold it, then pick it up and pretend to blow your nose with it.

Do I need to explain why this fails? Sorry Flav...but I can't possibly imagine someone trying to read a tissue that's way up close to your nose :P Also, it's kind of risky :P

The Water bottle Trick


I overheard a conversation a couple days before exams where a group of girls were debating how to get their answers underneath their water bottle. I suppose this could work...but it's still risky. Especially if you're using a see-through bottle.

Also, how the heck would you read the answers? It would be so obvious when you lift up your water bottle and peer at it's underside-part-thing. And what if you really were thirsty? Lifting the bottle up to drink from it would only expose the answers to everyone.

And perhaps the most failish part of all, how many answers can you really fit on a water bottle with a less than 10cm diameter base?

...I'm sorry. But no.

Getting the Answers from your Friends


Like the above, this does not work. Unless the head of the Science department made every single Science teacher give all their grade 9's the exact same test paper, this will fail because none of the exams will be the same. Which means

1) no, you cannot buy the answers
2) no, you cannot ask for the questions in advance

Winging it


One of my very good friends always wings tests. Always.

Winging it is almost as bad as cramming (which I really need to stop doing), and when you get your test back with a big fat 40 on it, don't even think about wondering how you managed to get that mark.

Of course, you kind of have no choice BUT to wing some tests. For example, pop quizzes (which apparently, don't count much towards your final grade). But when your test is worth 20% of your final mark, I DO NOT recommend winging it.

Drawing on you Hand

Please don't tell me I need to explain this.

Studying

Two words. This. works.

There's no risk of getting caught, you feel better about yourself when you do well, and..well...it's just better :)

The Moral -.-

I decided that I'm going to review all my notes from each of my classes every night from now on. That way, I won't have to give myself a brain cramp when studying for next semester's exams.

Also, sorry about not posting in a while :P I didn't really feel like it and decided to quit... But recently, I figured, what the heck, so here you have the first blog post of 2012 ^o^

Cheers, everyone! And for those of you with exams, I wish you guys luck/hope you guys did well XD

How To Improve your Writing while Cramming for a Test

I've spent the last two weeks lying on my bed; trying to decide whether I should study, or whether I should write something.

This is a constant problem for aspiring writers who are still in school. While you may be devoted to your art, there are always other responsibilities that bombard you. Homework, babysitting, your after-school job... There just aren't enough hours in a day!

To illustrate...

Last week, my Lit teacher made us all enter a writing contest. Okay, cool. I'll just scribble something down, send it in, and not really expect anything. Easy peasy. But then APPARENTLY, our teacher wanted to look at what we were submitting, and then grade it. Which basically meant that the piece had to be good. We had three class periods to work on it. Most people would think that this is enough time! Three hours and forty-five minutes? Pssh, you're probably thinking you could get your piece written in half that time!

Well...I thought that, too. AND I WAS WRONG! I spent about forty five minutes reading the rules and other entries, to get an idea what I should write about. Then I needed an idea, and needed to preplan. The next class, I had a first draft. No way in heck you're going to hand in a FIRST DRAFT! So I needed AT LEAST two other people to edit it for me. Which just takes up time, because they're trying to write their story, while editing yours and other people's, and when they finally give you your draft back, they ask you to edit theirs, so you can't type up a second draft, and spend half an hour editing their story. But just when you hand it back to them, MORE people ask you if you will edit their drafts, and what are you going to say? So you edit, manage to get out a weak second draft, ask someone to edit it for you, until you realise that that person isn't really good at editing, so you need to print off another copy, and hand it to someone else (who asks you to edit their draft in turn). So this went on for the next two classes, and in the end, I only had three drafts, not including the final copy.

I think I might have improved as a writer, since there was a lot of pressure to write under. But the point of that story up there (besides venting) was to point out that there is NOT ENOUGH TIME D: D: D:

D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D:  D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D: D:

No mater how many sad faces I put, TIME NO SLOW DOWN D:

Well, I figured out a way to get all the things you need to get done done, while improving at the craft the same time! ^_^

I don't know how to Hyperlink (don't judge >.>), so here's a link to this awesome website: http://www.ladieswhocritique.com/

OH WAIT! NEVER MIND! I found the linky button on the menu thingy ^o^ Ladies Who Critique TA-DA!! My very first hyperlink. This moment should be remembered. Forever. In books...magazines... Yeah, yeah, I know you get the point already, but seriously! This is a MAJOR acomplishment for me! :o

Do not be discouraged by the title if you are male. Even though the title says Ladies who Critique, there are also some guy members...

To be honest, I actually have no idea why the title is somewhat exclusive. I mean, EVERYBODY who's a writer, deserves to have their piece critiqued if they want it to be critiqued, in my opinion. Regardless of their gender. Or maybe the creator of the website just thought, "Ugh! Peoplewhocritique.com sounds too lame! Umm...IMMA go with Ladies Who Critique instead :)" Well, whatevs.

Anywho, if you are a writer who wants to improve, what better way than to get feedback on your writing? :D And not just the type of feedback that goes something like, "oooh! It's so good! You spelled 'hello' wrong, though. Other than that, amazing!" You may feel good about this, and I love those types of comments! But if you're serious about your craft, you need to be open to ways you can become epic. On LWC, you basically write in forums and stuff, and then you find a partner whom of which you are able to trade manuscripts with :)

For the record, you need to be sixteen in order to join, but I never really listen to those kinds of guidelines :P I think the only reason the creator wants you to be sixteen is so the website doesn't become overrun with little kids. Hey, I'm not saying little kids can't write. In fact, they are very much capable of writing. But if there are too many kids running around (virtually, of course), the website will lose it's professionalism, and reliability, I think. (by the way, if you are under sixteen, I'm not saying you are a little kid. I mean eight year olds and nine year olds... no offense if you're eight or nine...)

I joined the site simply because I am serious about publication. Plus, I think I can write. I can't write well, but I think I'm good enough...Maybe. Ish. :P

When I first joined LWC, I thought everyone was going to be...well, adulty. You know, talk about what other adults talk about. Be super formal about everything. But about the second day of my snooping around the site, some of the people there started using emoticons! And I was like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? Hooooooooow? O_O And they started making jokes, too!

>.< I kind of feel really immature right now. For thinking that adults have their own secret code, and everything. >.<

SO YESH! I STRONGLY RECOMMEND GOING TO THAT WEBSITE IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT PUBLICATION XD I also tweeted about it. And Facebooked about it. And left a comment about it. Because it really is an amazing site :) Plus, there is another reason. But I shall not reveal it... *evilly snickers*

So that's how I would recommend improving at writing. Instead of buying yet ANOTHER book on how to write better, send out your piece and get someone to critique it for you :) Tell you what you're doing good, tell you what you can improve on, and other epic amazingness :D

As for how to cram for a test?

Well, I had a Science test on Monday, but I didn't really cram for that. I crammed last year, though (for a history test), and it worked!! XD Just make sure you start cramming AT LEAST four hours before the test the next day, and also make sure it's not a UNIT test. otherwise, your brain would just shut down X_x If you're gonna cram for a unit test, I suggest the LATEST you start studying is two nights before the test. I normally study about four to five days before the test, and I do pretty good. Though that might just be because I review my notes every night. Reviewing every night really cuts down on the amount of time you need to cram for a test, so I would recommend doing that, too :)

I repeat a lot of words in that paragraph... <.<

LES QUESTIONS POUR LES READERS XD

Oh, gosh. My French is terrible X_x Well. Anyway-

• Do you wish there were more hours in a day?
• Do you have any other ideas how one can improve at writing?
• Might you possibly check out LWC? :D
• Have you ever crammed before? >.>
• When do you start studying?

XD

Other comments and/or questions very much appreciated! ^_^ THANK YOU!!!! X) X) X)

How To Gain Confidence

How to gain confidence? Ha! As if! Last time I checked, confidence comes from the inside. Not from the outside. But according to the some idiots in the corporate and media world, this is not the case.

Okay, so I'm not about to start being all preachy about how the media causes peeps to be all emo about their body image, turn to drug-use to satisfy their lives, and all that other stuff, because I think we all get enough of that already at school. Well, at least I do. For the last three years in Health, I've had to do countless projects and assignments on how the media affects our society. But enough about that, on with the post.

Aaaah! Time to be embarrassed >.< (if you're reading this and go to my school...do not harass me about this on Monday >.<) Okay, so I like to read self-help books, because 1) I LOOF psychology and 2) I'm always looking to improve my life. People who think that their life doesn't need any improving can think again, because there's always room to be better than what you already are.

Examples of the self-help books I've read! (not gonna name all of them...a lot of them are kinda embarrassing...)

• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens
• The Six Biggest Mistakes You'll Ever Make
• The Secret
• The Secret to Teen Power
• The Law of Attraction made Plain and Simple
• The Success Principles for Teens

Those are all super good books, by the way! I also have books on world domination, but I'm not gonna give that title away. Otherwise, I shall have an enemy! :O

Anyway, in every single one of those books, the author increases your confidence levels by teaching you how to...well, be happy. Like in The Success Principles for Teens, the authors strongly encourages following your dreams and passions, and tells you 20 success principles that should help you accomplish them. In The Secret to Teen Power, it's all about The Law of Attraction, and how you can use it to improve relationships, money, health, education, and more. In The Seven Happy of Highly Effective Teens, the author teaches you how to have a less stressful life, and just be happier in general :)

By the way, I Lost The Game! XD

On the other hand, in this book I found buried somewhere in my Closet of Doom, the author has a different approach on gaining confidence. Forget following your passions and seeking a fulfilling life! Forget becoming a more responsible person and how to deal with stress better! Forget choosing to see the light in every setback that happens! No! The way to gain more confidence in yourself is to wear make up.

Yes, Make up.

In the book, a twelve year old girl asks the author during a question and answer session how she can gain more confidence. Her response is makeup. The author's response to a twelve year old girl asking how she can be happy, is makeup! If a twelve year old asked me that question, I would tell her that she's already awesome. You know, say all this positive stuff to get the vibes going, so the LOA starts attracting all this epic stuff to her. I mean, if you believe you're awesome, chances are; you are awesome. If you're convinced you're a piece of crap, chances are; you are a piece of crap! But the point is, would I think for one second to tell her to get a new wardrobe, get a new hair style, get a nose job, lather on the eyeshadow? No... I wouldn't. I would never think to say that, because that's not how you go about achieving confidence.

I'm sorry... I don't mean to sound preachy :(

I have a couple more examples of the media ruining lives, but I'm only gonna mention one more of them, because when posts get too long, nobody reads 'em.

Okay, so what kind of music do you listen to? Country, rock, pop, rap, or...? I used to enjoy listening to those new songs everyone seems to be listening to. You know. The ones by Brittany Spears (eewww! I hate her, though!), Lady Gaga, Rhianna, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and Pitbull? I really liked the beat of the songs, and since I took hip-hop, it made sense to listen to that kind of music (please note the singers just mentioned don't sing REAL hiphop music, except for maybe Pitbull). However, last year I began to listen to the lyrics of the songs. Like, REALLY listen. And wow-flipping-wow, I can't believe the kind of words that were streaming through my ears! It was bruuuuuuutal! :o All the singers ever sing about is drugs, alcohol, and sex :S

Umm...okay? We understand that you enjoy smoking your weed, but that doesn't mean you have to sing about it. I love Spider Man. That doesn't mean I sing about...oh wait. Never mind.

Okay, if you like listening to that kind of music, the ones with the drugs and the sex and the swearing...cool. My opinion of you is not degraded whatsoever. But I firmly believe that this is subconsciously corroding people's brains -_- Not to sound like one of those moms who would kill the creators of Call of Duty if they could, or anything.

Hooray! I finally did a not-so-long post :P

QUESTIONS FOR READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Has the media affected you? (positively and negatively)
• how do you think one goes about gaining confidence?
• What kind of music do you listen to?
• Have you ever milked a cow?
• other comments... :)