How to do your Advanced Level (AL) studies successfully

How to do your A/L
successfully?
By
Aurora Computer Studies
(auoracs.lk)
1

Overview
• Take right decisions
• Manage your studies
• Understanding is the key
• Think in quality & productivity
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The right approach
1. Select the right A/L stream &
subjects
2. Mange your studies
3. Prepare for the exams
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Right selection Manage studies Prepare for exam

Select the right A/L stream
& subjects
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Why is right selection matters ?
• In Advanced Level, you need to
specialized in one area, though there
are certain amount of overlapping
• It is mostly a lifetime decision on your
long professional term career.
• If you make a mistake, it can be
costly!
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Select the right A/L stream & subjects
1. Identify the right career path(s)
2. Pick the right stream for the A/L
3. Select the right combination of
subjects for the A/L
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How to do? (Strategy)
• Follow your passion
• Think long term
• Be realistic in your capacity
• Be open for ideas
• Do not make options too narrow
• Never get fooled by mere popular trends
• Take your decisions & accept
responsibilities
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SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
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Negative (-)Positive (+)
SelfEnvironment

Manage your studies
effectively

Strategy
• Think long term
• Manage it as a project
• Know the fundamentals of the
education
• Study brain friendly way
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Think long term
• A/L is two year task
• Its not a 100m sprint, but a marathon
• Do it as a professional marathon
runner’s approach
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Mange as a project - overview
• There are two ways you can do a task
o Just do it
• Sufficient for trivial tasks
o Manage it as a project
• Required for important/serious tasks
o Better chance of achieving objectives
o More productive
• Do more with less effort
• Doing A/L is a important task that span for
two years and effect your entire career
o So better manage it !
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A/L as a project
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• A project has;
o An objective
• Passing the exam
o Expected quality
• What type of result do you expect
o A time limit (dead line)
• Two years up to examination date
o A scope
• Your syllabus(But its not rigid scope, just a
guideline)
o Limited resources
• Your effort and money that can be spent for
studies and buy study materials etc..

What is managing
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Plan Organize Lead Control

Plan
• Plan your approach
o Plan at right level and refine it as go alone.
o But do not over plan rather make it overview and agile
(flexible)
• Committing to a wrong plan is more risky than no
planning
• Complying to a strict plan make your life
monotonous and boring
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Organize
• Gather required resources
o Syllabus
o Notes
o Reference books & other on line resources.
o Past Papers & marking schemes
o Any other practical related materials (if required)
• For example, if you follow ICT, you must have a
computer
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Lead
• You must lead your studies
o Teachers are to help you
• You must take the final responsibility
of achieving the objectives
• Just be proactive rather than passive
where necessary
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Control
• If feel like things are not going in right
direction, you must take necessary
control actions rather than let things
to go alone
• Example:
o If your original study plan is not effective, change it
o If your current class is less effective, look for better
options
o Etc..
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Know the fundamentals of
education/studying

Overview
• Know the purpose of education
• Study with passion
• Understanding is the key
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Purpose of education
• Acquire relevant knowledge
• Acquire skills
• Build the right attitudes
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What is knowledge
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What is knowledge (cont..)
• Knowledge is not mere remembering
facts
• Knowledge is;
o Knowing the “big picture”
o Understand inter relationships
o Know the usages
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Three types of skills
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Three types of skills (con.)
• Analysis
o Ability to divide and understand concepts in detailed
• Synthesis
o Collect isolated facts to build broad concepts
• Application
o Use of the concepts
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How to verify – studying a concept?
• What?
o Explain the concept in short & clearly
• Why?
o What is the purpose or use of the concept?
• Example/Usages (How?)
o Can you give examples/use of the concept?
• Discussion
o Can you discuss the pros and cons of the concept
o Relate to other concepts
o What are the alternative concepts
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Understanding is the key

Understanding
• Education is all about understanding
o And not memorizing
• Memorizing is a pain, whereas
understand is a pleasure
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Understanding (con.)
“If you learn to remember,
you will ultimately forget.
If you learn to understand,
you will ultimately remember.”
-Unknown

Understanding – how?
• Get the big picture of the topics right
& never loose it
• Identify the connections and
relationships between concepts
• Think of real world usages
• Apply the concepts and solve
problems

Understanding – how? (cont..)
• Use mind maps effectively
o Give you the big picture
o Show you the connections
o Brain friendly (graphical)

• Relate things with other things
o Look at similarities
o Look at differences
• Look for following aspects of a
concept/theory
o Positive things (advantages)
o Negative things (disadvantages)
o Interesting/unique points

• Think extra yard beyond your comfort
zone
“It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I
stay with problems longer.“
- Albert Einstein

“ The more you understand,
The less to be memorized.. and
happier you are.. “

Study in brain & memory
friendly way

How your memory works?

The three parts of memory
• Sensory buffer
• Short term memory
• Long term memory

Sensory buffer
• Very small capacity
o Few sentences/words
o A part of a diagram
• Very short term
o Few seconds/minutes
• Example usage
o You write down something explained or written in the
board

Short term memory
• Relatively small/medium capacity
• Relatively short term
o 1 to few days
“Only a small percentage of
short term memory data
goes to long term memory !!!”

Long term memory
• Very high capacity 
• Less volatile 
o Retain for long
o Difficult to forget

“Once you remember something, it is
almost impossible to forget….
The more you try to forget,
The more you remember….”

How you remember things?
• Human memory remember things as
visual images/symbols and relations
o Unlike computers, human memory is not good at
storing texts !!!

Memory friendly study - Tactics
• Try and understand the concepts while
its still fresh in the short term memory
o There is higher chance of you understanding
o There is higher chance of getting those into long
term memory
• Study day to day stuffs then & there
without waiting till exams or
assignments are near

Memory friendly study - Tactics
• Use visual metaphors
• Relate concepts like a story
• Relate concepts into useful
practical usages

Effective Classroom
Behaviors

Effective classroom behaviors
• Ask right questions and get
clarified then and there
• Help others after the class & in
your free time, if one request you
to clarify something or missed
lesson
o Explaining some one else is beneficial to both
him/her and you

Other Study Tips

Study Tips
• Have a informal plan
o No plan will get you nowhere
o Too much plan stresses you
• So be agile too
• Select a convenient place(s)
o Most of the time your home/apartment will work
o But it has some issues like ventilation/humidity or
disturbances, pick alternative place
• Select convenient time(s) for you
o Remember that sleepless studying will add stress
and counter productive

Study Tips (Con.)
• Do single task at a time
o Humans are usually bad at multi-tasking
• Study in small sessions
o Take small breaks between
• Drink enough water
o Increase concentration
• Do more active studying than passive
studying
o Prepare mind map
o Do some exercises/quizzes

Study with passion

“You remember what you like,
what you love, or what you think
useful”

Enjoy your study
• Enjoy your study & work
o Selection of right field matters here
o Study challenging things
o Study something practically useful to you and
others
o Share your knowledge with others
o Use your knowledge & skills and start
helping/serving others

Verify your understanding

States of understanding
1. You understand & you know that
you have understood. 
o Understood & verified
o The wining situation
2. You understand, but you do not
know that you have understood
o Have not verified
o Resulting lack of confidence and undue worries

States of understanding (Con.)
3. You have not understood & you
know that you have not.
o It gives you the opportunity to work harder and look
for understanding
4. You have not understood (or
misunderstood) & you think you
have understood. 
o Worst & dangerous scenario
o You will be in trouble sooner or later

Verify your understanding
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't
understand it well enough."
- Albert Einstein
• Discuss and/or explain it to someone
else
• Write in a blog or social media, publish
article on studied topics

How to verify? (Formally)
• Exams
• Assignments
• Demonstrations/Viva

How to verify? (informally)
• Can I precisely define the concept?
• Can I explain it using an example?
• Do I know why (usages) we learn it?

How to face the A/L exam
effectively

The overview
• Understand what is to be tested in the
exams
• Plan and prepare for the exams
• Face the exam effectively

What is tested in the
exams?

What is tested?
• Exams test to see if the student has
fulfill the objectives set for the subject
• First thing is understanding the
objectives and full fill it

What is tested (in general) ?
• Have you got the relevant knowledge
?
• Have you got the required skills ?
• Do you have the right attitude ?

What is tested (at concept level) ?
• What?
o Explain the concept in short & clearly
• Why?
o What is the purpose or use of the concept?
• Example/Usages
o Can you give examples/use of the concept?
• Discussion
o Can you discuss the pros and cons of the concept
o Relate to other concepts
o What are the alternative concepts

What is tested (at concept level) ?
• Do you have the following skills
related to concepts
o Analysis
• Ability to divide and understand concepts in
detailed
o Synthesis
• Collect isolated facts to build broad concepts
o Application
• Use of the concepts

How to prepare for the
exams?

Prepare for exams - tasks
1. Plan and systematically prepare for the
exam
2. Gather all the resources (Organize)
3. Understand the concepts
4. Prepare mind maps
5. Do the past papers
6. Clarify all the doubts
7. Face mock exams, verify your answers
with a teacher and validate
8. Sit for the exams with confidence

Gather all the resources
• Syllabus
• Study notes
• Reference books/Online resources
• Past papers together with marking
schemes for at least 4-6 years

Steps for exam preparation
1. Get the official syllabus and mark
all the topics that you are confident
(green), you have doubts (gray),
and not yet covered or understood
(red)
o If there are gray areas or uncovered topics, either
get help from teachers or do serious self study on
those topics

Steps for exam preparation (con.)
2. Rush through the past papers and
get an idea of which areas are more
frequently tested and to which
depth and which areas are hardly
tested
o You can do this section-wise, after a major section
is completed

3. Now prepare mind maps using your
study notes and your understanding
for the each topic (Better to use
paper & pencil )
o For lengthy topics, prepare hierarchical mind maps
o If you have doubts get them clarified from your
teachers, friends or now you may even use on line
forums in the WWW

4. Now do the past papers in serious
way
o If you find anything difficult or not covered so far,
mark those in the past papers itself and later look
for understanding the concepts. Also add those to
your current mind maps & study notes
5. Now again double cross check with
syllabus, notes to see if anything is
missing

6. Now it is time to do mock exams of
sample papers and get the help from a
teacher to mark the answers.
o Also discuss your answers with him/her and see
why you get lower marks for structured/essay
questions (if so)
7. In the close of the exam, do not go into
new things, just make sure that your
current understanding of the concepts is
sound and you are relax

How to answer MCQ
papers effectively

Answering MCQ papers
• Calculate the time for each question
and manage time accordingly.
• Answer in rounds (In general in three
rounds)
o 1 st round – Answer simple and less time consuming
questions
o 2 nd round – Answer intermediary level questions
o 3 rd round – Answer complex and time consuming
questions as time permit

Answering MCQ papers (con.)
• Answer all the questions
• But do not answer any of the
questions on mere believe in luck.
o Use elimination method to increase probability of
correct answer(s)
o For each successful elimination of an answer, you
increase the probability of getting marks

How to answer essay
papers effectively

Facing essay papers
• Check the number of questions to
answer and if there are mandatory
questions
• Calculate the time for each question and
manage time accordingly.
• Answer in rounds (In general in three
rounds)
o 1 st round – Answer simple and less time consuming
questions
o 2 nd round – Answer intermediary questions
o 3 rd round – Review answered questions and attempt
more difficult questions if time permit

Facing essay papers (Cont.)
• In general, answer simple, straight
and brief
o Too short answers show that you lack details
o Too long and indirect or irrelevant answers show that
you lack confidence on the subject.
• Do not write too general points, rather
present specific points.
o .Do not answer like throwing stones at a tree without
real aim, hoping one or two will be hit.
o Examiners know this 

• Play close attention to terms like
define, state, explain and discuss.
• Write your best points first.
• Sketch diagrams where necessary
• Provide examples where useful.

• Use clear (not necessarily beautiful)
hand-writing.
• Use a pleasant language.
• Write interesting and unique points
when relevant.
o Especially, in answering discuss type questions.

How to answer structured
essay papers effectively

Facing structured essay papers
• Most of the points are same as for
answering essay papers
• But, the answers are mostly
o Short
o Specific

Thank You !
Presented by
(auoracs.lk)
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"We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act,
but a habit."
~ Aristotle.
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Further resources
• How to select study stream &
subjects for A/L
o https://www.slideshare.net/auroracslk/how-to-select-
the-study-stream-for-al

You may also interested in
“How to be a real professional”
o https://www.slideshare.net/auroracslk/how-to-select-
the-study-stream-for-al
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Contact Information
Premier Study Center
Aurora Computer Studies,
Summerset College,
# 135, 3rd Floor,
DFCC Building,
High Level Road,
Maharagama.
0115 690 290
City Study Center
Aurora Computer Studies,
Summerset College,
# 88/2, 2nd Floor,
BOC Building,
High Level Road,
Kirulapone, Colombo 06
0703 001 010
For further details and enquiries :
Call - 0719 842030
E-mail – info@auroracs.lk
Web - www.auroracs.lk
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How to do your Advanced Level (AL) studies successfully

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