The Art of Acing

Proclamation: I am not a hardworking student, but I am more intelligent than most of them.

One of the best things that graduation teaches a student is workaround ways of doing stuff. I’ll be graduating in a few days so there is no more authentic source that can tell you that. A wise man once said that all students float in a box, some of them are more towards the base while some are towards the top. The people who stress on hard work probably never tried using their brains. Even a donkey can work hard and get something out of its work. I guess most of us are either donkeys or we have a donkey in our heads. Since everybody has a brain and sense of simple logic [If you are unsure about the latter, try putting your hand on fire, if your immediate reaction is to pull it away then yes your logic is working], it is imperative to say that one can increase the overall efficiency of “hard work” by using their grey matter.

In the first year of my university I had the perception of working my brains out to get to a respectable grade. To my luck, I was able to figure out a workaround of doing that. Result, I only had to skim through the course work when exams were so close that I could hear the examiner getting ready [that was metaphorical]. All of you must be wondering what is the secret and why am I setting it up. The reason is that I am not going to tell you any secret.

The main reason behind that is that there is no secret, It is simple analysis of what your boss/teacher likes. The First Quiz that is taken from the class is shouting it out to everybody. Even if that doesn’t make sense to you, you can always bargain on your first sessional and when you get the marked papers back it is easy to see what kind of paper is preferred by the instructor. I believe that 70 percent of you grades depend how you attempt your exam, the more meticulous you are in doing that the more are chances of you scoring better with little effort.

The second thing that can help you is getting one of your friends to explain things to you, this way you only get to do the easy part i.e. hearing it. Explaining things to people makes you master of that subject but requires a little effort, so I’ll not stress on that.

The third thing is sleep, you need to sleep well if you want to save the things you skimmed earlier. Skimming lots of material only works if you have ability to retain it. Sleep is like a process of saving things to your head, it has nothing to do with freshness.

Fourth thing is instilling fear on others. The morning of people get your best confidence on, look good, smell good, wear good and feel good. Try killing morale of people by referring to your preparation and how you are going to ace the paper. Its fun to see worried faces when you tell them that you have prepared well, everybody expects a lie [i.e. you did not prepare well] to be told as it gives them hope that they have a chance of performing well. Do your exam very carefully, and even if you suck at it, come out as you have nailed it. Make sure you invest everything in destroying the overall morale. After all everything is relative.

Fifth thing is sleep in the class, scribbling is fun, takes your memory to a graphical level. Don’t worry too much about attendance, they tend to fix it even if you area little below 75 percent. It optional to take notes, rather irrelevant if you ask me, because it was rare that I opened my notes for studying.

There is more, but I guess I need that right now, so I cant post it. Relative Grading babies. I posted most of it today since all of our exams are over and unlikely it is but I made sure and sealed it, the chance that nobody takes advantage by using my own weapon against me.

Conclusion:  There were two papers in my degree for which I had to stay awake till 4 AM, for the rest I slept at around 12. I have even managed to Ace a subject even after failing a sessional, without hard work. So can you.

Education is something you pay for, try getting extra benefits out of university – need not to explain – and socialize. I didn’t because I didn’t have bowels to do so, but an entrepreneur says that you have to create your opportunity, so this is it. I will not stuff this post with more words.

P.S: There are people who will be skeptic about my post and relate towards the end of my degree and how I only got average marks. The reason behind that was I became too lazy to force myself to a workaround.

P.S # 2: Drink Tea, Lots of it.

Fix[ed]-It–Headphones Volume Control

Symptoms: Distortion in headphones, Volume control gives mono output.

This post intends to solve one of the major problems with most of the headphones that you buy from markets. No matter how much costly they are, they always tend to malfunction over a period of time. Most of the problems are with connecting wires or the Volume control. Wire connections can be fixed by re-soldering them, but Volume control is problematic.

The volume control is nothing but a resistive bridge, with each slit having different values of resistance, therefore varying the sound output as you turn the dial. Over a period of time the contact between the dial and slits either wears out or carbon deposits between them. This results in distortion .

Fix:

There are two ways to fix it:

• Bypass the volume control, by using jumper wires [in case of wearing out of contacts]
• Removing the carbon

This post will tell you how to remove carbon, you can also do the former by cutting the wires and twist the pairs with matching colors together.

Tools of the Trade:

• A cologne or a body spray, alcohol or spirit will do as well – I prefer Playboy.
• A toothbrush or any other brush with stiff bristles

Step # 1: Open up the volume control by twisting the thing or by using a sharp object.

Step # 2: There is a small circuit inside, most probably the left and right wires are marked on the PCB so you can always do the bypassing thing by soldering new wires here. Clean the circuit with the bush.

Step # 3: Use the body spray, and try applying it in the space between the dial and the circuit. Spray from all sides.

Step # 4: Now use the brush and squeeze it in the tiny groves underneath the dial. If you find any slit on the dial try pushing it in from there as well.

Step # 5: Redo step 3 and 4.

Step # 6: Plug the audio pin in the headphone jack of any music player or your laptop and check if there is still distortion. If you still hear it, move the dial a little after applying spray, brush it again. This should fix it.

Step # 7: If there is no change or less that 20 percent improvement, then you will have to bypass the regulator, or get a new one and you can always buy new headphones.

Close down the thing tightly, Voila! its fixed.

How to Freeze a conversation

This post straightaway tells you about ways to render a conversation to a stop. If you don’t like this, a dislike button is for you on the top.

• A plain and blunt, “I don’t want to talk”  is bound to kill –9 [refer to Linux manual for kill] a conversation, but it is kind of obnoxious.
• Be very conservative in your replies. Stick to “Yes”, “No”, “Sure”, “Apparently”, “OK”, “Fine”, “Not Possible” and answers like that a bound to bring a conversation to a halt.
• An “I don’t Know” is very ideal for showing your disinterest in the conversation. The other person if ethically sound will get a blow of it in the face. While a think skinned novice might require something of a more materialistic magnitude.
• A conversation dies if you start negating everything and procrastinate your part of it.
• It is easy to get out of conversation altogether by stating that “I have got a run for an errand” or if escape is not possible then a “Headache” or a “Busy day” is perfect to go to a pretentious sleep.
• A decent escape is possible if you have something to read in your hand. Even if not, try looking very deeply interested in an object, someone by the window or the chandelier. The trick is to constantly stare at it.
• You can trade in your personality by breaking the eye contact and looking down as if you were shy.
• Also an emotional and a lengthy reply in a conversation may scare the other party off from proceeding further into a talk.
• You can also try annoying people by a “Hmmm” and a “aaaaa” i.e. long pauses
• Things that propagate a conversation a conversation are open ended replies, try to seal every nook and corner of your sentence.
• Measure your words, don’t step into controversial issues. Most people are driven crazy if you tell them something that triggers their emotions.
• Don’t answer everything, give a blank stare and wait for next attempt from the other party.
• Maintain a poker face, do not give smiles , frowns on the other hand make people uncomfortable.
• Sound sarcastic, try some if you have the capability. Throw it on their faces.
• .
• .

Right now only these were on top of my head, I’ll share the rest later, maybe.

“A NATION’S MORAL CULTURE IS EVEN MORE FUNDAMENTAL THAN ITS PHYSICAL ECOLOGY”.

Consider the situation of Pakistani Society in the light of this statement. Why is our credibility index slipping down day by day? Where has the nation gone wrong, and who is to blame? What needs to be done to secure for Pakistan a respectable place in the comity of nation? As an educated youth, what can you contribute to this patriotic cause?

Pakistan, a land rich in natural resources, human intelligence, strategic location, weather conditions, skilled force, sports superstars, competent academia and what not. With one of the riches cultures in the world and some of the tastiest cuisines this country has full potential to become axis of the world. A brief elaboration of what we have in terms of natural resources:

Pakistan houses one of the largest coal mines in the world. The Khewra Salt mines are second largest salt mine, worldwide.

Thar coal reserves have 175 billion tons of coal, which is equivalent to 618 billion barrels of crude oil. This is more than twice if we compare it with oil reserves of KSA and equal to total oil reserves of top 4 countries.

In Baluchistan deposits of copper and gold are present. With production targets of 170,000 metric tons of copper and 300,000 ounces of gold a year, many companies are targeting to mine in this area.

We have a large fishing industry. A lot of capital is earned through fisheries present in the coastal areas of Gawadar and Karachi.

Pakistan has a system of mountains in three parts of the country. Adding further embellishments to it we have the world’s second highest mountain – K2.

If we keep on writing the bounties which this country has been blessed with we will run out of word limit. So it has been established that we have the second part of the statement, i.e. Natural resources.

Now I make a counter statement, that Natural resources [physical ecology] are “the” only thing required for country to excel. Since we have established that we have all the natural resources one can find anywhere in the world. So ideally we should have been one of the super powers. After all we are a Nuclear power; our one province has more area than the whole Britain even our population is fairly educated.

Looking at it realistically using the current standing of nations, we rose to a respectable level in the league of corrupt nations. Most of the countries think and it’s true that at each budget we are going bankrupt. Most of the countries have acclaimed that Pakistan is a failed state. United Nation doesn’t trust us; they don’t put us in the Security Council. Foreign investments are almost NULL due to the fact that people do not put their faith in us. Tourism ended due to some other unfortunate reason but still that too is one ethical problem. So it is demystifying is the fact that we having all the resources of the world are heading towards chaos. The only reason for that being ethical instability.

The question is divided into four parts.

· Why is our credibility index slipping down?

· Where has the nation gone wrong, and who is to blame?

· What needs to be done to secure for Pakistan a respectable place in the comity of nation?

· As an educated youth, what can you contribute to this patriotic cause?

Let’s make an attempt to answer these questions. The credibility index is measured by the number of times you fulfill what you proclaim for the future. It also depends on the stability of the governing bodies in countries, the outcomes of a countries offices and productivity of its department/ministries. Unfortunately for us, the system of governments has been fragile and volatile. Multiple changes in system of government have rendered administration of this country to be nearly impossible. That is why rulers come and fail, resulting in loss of trust in the leadership of our country.

Above is a very philanthropic account of what may have gone wrong with Pakistan, but have we ever tried observing the traits of majority of our people? By looking at them it is evident that we lack substance for maintaining ethical values. We have sold our esteems and consider following the rule “In Rome, Do as Romans do”. This consequently denounces people from keeping on the right moral and ethical path, just because everybody else is not doing it.

Let’s take an example of a traffic signal, how many times you see people violating it because:

· There is no police officer

· Everybody else is violating

· You are the only one on road [possibly late at night]

Now a red traffic signal is bound to be stopped at, come what may [except for emergencies], but often we see people violating it and driving on. We have stitched ethical traits to be exercised only under watch. This is very alarming for a Muslim country like us because it defies Muslim belief that God Almighty is watching all the time. That is another topic of discussion, but the example proves that the ethical values have dropped to the level that we do not consider following them if we not have been watched upon and that too by a physical entity.

Noticeable is the fact that if we look at system of government in our country, every time democratic government has been overthrown by a dictatorial rule, the country shows economic growth. We also see stability for a while and rise in foreign investments. The sole reason for that is the same, we live like animals. If our master is strict and keeps a watch on us, all the time we remain ethically sound. As soon as that is over we revert to our native unethical characteristics.

Since we have discussed and proved that Ethical waywardness is the reason behind collapse of our country’s credibility. Let’s go into reasoning. If we look at the development of the education sector it is almost nil. 80 percent of the universities are in the big cities of the country. Coming at the lower level the condition of government schools and level of education is very pitiable. Moreover the budget we invest in education is a tiny amount on what we spend on defense. The reason I am emphasizing education is that, it is the source of awareness of moral values. It teaches us to practice them. All of us when get out of our homes in childhood are ethically sound, but deterioration starts when we come in contact with our society, unfortunately which is mostly uneducated.

Let’s now talk about Unethical behaviors in the educated. Most of us are either struck with the scythe of economic difficulties or are blessed with so much money that we have become oblivious of whatever happens around us. In both cases we don’t really care, because hunger is something that can be attributed for bringing a man to cannibalism, let alone leaving the moral values. The riches of the country have either acquired their wealth from corruption or if they haven’t they are too stoned in the oblivion caused by their wealth, therefore leaving moral grounds way behind them.

The corruption level in the country has risen to an alarming level because of our rigidity towards moral behaviors. Personal Interest has taken over everything; Nepotism on the other hand expands this circle to twice the radius. Furthermore incompetence in organizations leads to loosening of the workforce under that particular organization, rendering them ethically deaf and dumb. So if people of a country possess evil traits like that, they get leaders of the same sort.

The final question, Remedy? First and foremost thing at least level that one can do is believe in themselves, and believe in the fact that efforts on individual level do pay off. We have to regain our self-esteem and stick to ethical grounds in all conditions. That’s a least an individual can do. Further increasing the efforts you can preach ethical values and another increase in the level is to stop people from doing unethical things. This is solely based on the principles given to us in our religion to hadith.

We as educated youth will be leaders of tomorrow; it’s upon to us to be torchbearers of ethical traits and the metaphors of being morally formidable. The second thing we have to do is participate in everything that has to deal with selection of our government, as only 10 percent of us decide who rules the other 90 percent. WE have to speak out if we want to bring a change. That is the only way to fix the system of government in our country, which evidently will decrease and denounce unethical practices as competent and confident people will be sitting in parliaments instead of the illiterate lot we have today. This will give us a respectable position in the League of Nations. That how India got its position, they have a strong government of sound people, and economically they are also having a hand to mouth affair considering the size of that nation.

WE are fortunate enough to be given this wealth of education; all we have to do is to use this. We have to practice what we preach. We have to have the courage to stand up and speak in crowd of a million people that we will not bow down to unethical practices. We have to take a stand against this evil of immorality. Evil is normally a deserter, when it sees people taking stand against it flees. Life is simple, and passed on simple moral principles. We should learn to practice them, give more value to life and remain steadfast with them. There is no force in the world that can stop us from self-improvement and this is the only solution to the havoc we have created in 60 years.