Life hacks that I learnt to get by in school

I've previously written about my love/hate relationship with school and how many neuro-distinct individuals, like myself, struggle to navigate it. In case you missed it, here is the article. (Again, a disclaimer: some neuro-distinct individuals thrive in school). Today, I'd like to discuss the skills I had to develop to get by, many of which remain useful to me today.

I would spend a considerable amount of time trying to discern what the teachers would be evaluating. This included attempting to identify patterns in the type of questions and assessments a specific teacher would use. In doing so, I'd realize that some teachers would inadvertently or consciously hint at the material on the test. If one were attentive, they could also discern the teacher's areas of interest within the material, which often indicated what to focus on. After a few failed tests, I'd adapt to discern whether the teacher consistently asked certain types of questions: short, long, multiple choice, etc. This resulted in spending multiple hours evaluating teachers and meticulously studying them: these skills are still very useful today. I work with people and being able to understand their behavior is definitely useful.

I also invested time in studying trends. For instance, statistically, there's a higher chance for the correct answer to be B or C in a multiple-choice question with options A, B, C, D. When in doubt, I'd lean towards selecting B or C. If I was hesitating between A and B, I'd choose B because statistically it was in my favor.

Secondly, I embraced the principle of "minimum effort, maximum return," borrowed from Judo. In essence, it means being efficient and economical with your actions and effort. I knew that the larger the volume of information I needed to memorize, the less likely I'd be able to do so effectively. Therefore, I'd specifically target the information that I felt held the most value for memorization, setting aside the rest. I applied this same approach to assignments; if I had two assignments in a class and one held more weight than the other, I'd focus my efforts there, while setting aside the less significant one.

Another thing I'd do is not lose focus on time. I'd try to get the most done possible and to get the maximum points. I'd quickly go through all the material in a test to gain the maximum points possible and if I still had time would review it afterwards instead of staying stuck on a question ensuring I had made no mistake. This strategy helped me learn to intelligently manage my priorities.

Being organized and structured was another crucial aspect that aided my performance in school. I briefly mentioned this earlier, but I always had drafts and pre-built documents on hand. While these may have been redundant in form, they helped minimize the occurrence of mistakes. This practice has also shaped how I prefer to work when given the opportunity to plan in advance.

Lastly, I learned resilience. I had parents who wouldn't allow me to quit. I persevered through summer school, tutoring sessions, and retaking exams until I achieved success. This instilled in me the work ethic I hold today: never give up and always get back up.

It's difficult to face, but these aren't the typical skills acquired through rote memorization, but rather the result of my efforts to navigate a system that wasn't designed with people like me in mind—and it worked. I could perhaps add that learning to work around the system has also been beneficial, though I have mixed feelings about this point because part of that was cheating. (I am not proud to admit. I promise I don't do this anymore, maybe except when playing Monopoly!)

In conclusion, I'd like to emphasize that skills are acquired in various ways. We need to be flexible in how we approach skill development and move away from compartmentalized thinking. As we enter 2023, the industrial revolution is behind us; what we need are out-of-the-box thinkers—individuals who not only think outside the box, but are willing to shatter it. I feel like my experience with school is some what explained with the famous meme of design vs. user experience below.

You've all probably seen this meme before. Basically, I learnt life skills in school that weren't inherently what I was supposed to learn from school nor what school was designed for, but it helped me get to where I am at now.

P.S Welcome to my dyslexic mind: if you see any mistake feel free to let me know.