Taikakäsi

I'll try to explain the concept of "Taikakäsi". "Magic hand". My hand got that nickname back to the days I was doing my first Master's in Vaasa.

This is how I study: I pay no attention in the classes, I really cannot focus three hours and listen to somebody speak. One hour maybe, but not three. I don't think I never took notes. I always think that I will remember the important stuff later, of course I cannot. Studying for an exam a week earlier is impossible, three days is the maximum I can do. But then I lock up in my room and start studying. The first day is normally a waste of time. On the second day I realize that I do not have time to read everything. The third day I panick, select the stuff I will read and I then study like a maniac. And I study during the night. Usually I only sleep a couple of hours in the night before the exam, and I'm always thinking "why can't I have one day more?" At this point I have no clue about how the information I have read connect to anything, I just have pieces of information that I know well. So I drag myself to the university tired and confused.

Then comes the exam. It really doesn't matter how much time I have to make it: I either know or I don't and either ways I'm fast. When I get there, I'm still very clueless and very sure that it will be a nightmare. If the test is mathematical I know if it was ok or not, and I'm much better with numbers than essays. So when I have an exam with essays, I really don't know how they were. After the exam I can't tell if I'm going to get 5 or 15. Because sometimes I have beautiful answers, but they are not exactly fitting the question that was in the exams. Some professors can be tricked with writing BS, others not.

So this is why my hand is called Taikakäsi. I seem to be clueless (and I am!!) but somehow Taikakäsi stays cool and goes to the exam and writes good answers. Sometimes I'm relly amazed how good I did when I really wasn't expecting much.

Kids: this is not the way to study. I hate it, too. Stupid uneccessary stress and I bet the information is out from my head as quickly as it went in. I'm trying to change, but I'm too lazy.

But this works for me. Got the best grade from my class for one exam.