Vinit Jogani

Vinit Jogani received a 44 on 45 in IB with a 7 grade-point in all courses. An exceptionally talented young lad, he is currently pursuing Computer Science with a focus in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Toronto. A passionate computer scientist, he is making our country proud by receiving awards and excelling at the University of Toronto. He is interested in cognitive sciences, psychology, philosophy and economics. And in his free time, he loves to write about some of the intellectually stimulating problems in these fields on his blog. He also loves art of all kinds and plays the piano and guitar to decompress after a busy week. A lifelong learner, he is passionate about leveraging the problem-solving potential of modern technology to solve some of the crises we face as a society. In this interview to Priya Sarin, Vinit Jogani will share his wisdom and show you the path to success. Let’s get inspired from the best!

A good revision is the key to excelling in exams. During exam days, how do you revise your lessons and ensure a quick brush up?

>>    Performance on exams derives from consistency during the academic year, which implies that most of what you are to write is already revised weeks before the exams. During exam days, however, you can focus on practising to a point where answering questions, and solving problems, and spotting metaphors, and explaining processes becomes like a reflex action. While practice is no substitute to conceptual learning, it can help make certain cognitive processes automatic, which can decrease the time it takes for you to approach new problems. This increase in speed can be the difference between having enough time to check your paper and rushing through the last few questions because of little time.

A curious mind plays an important role in a student’s quest for knowledge. It helps him learn new things and become better. What are your views on the importance of being curious and inquisitive?

>>    There is a certain amount of mystery involved in all our social and natural sciences. There are oceans of unsolved puzzles, and one of the core purposes of education is to garner minds to further these horizons, and to push these boundaries. When you realize that as a student, you immediately find a larger purpose in what you are learning: it’s not plainly about grades, or degrees, or money, or jobs, or stability. It is a passion to indulge yourself in the power of knowledge. I think that passion is always rewarded with a better academic performance, because you are bound to retain more of what you enjoy. Curiosity puts an additional layer of motivation that is driven from internal factors, not external ones. When learning feels like enlightenment, that’s when true growth takes place.

Routines are important to lead an organised life. And to succeed in annual exams, one needs to be consistent in his or her studies throughout the year. Though most students are good at setting routines, when it comes to following them, they fail. Or often burn out. Do you have any tips for such students. And what are the things that helped you overcome mental and emotional fatigue?

>>    Routines are certainly a good way to discipline yourself, to remain focused, and to build up dedication towards the goals you like to achieve. However, I have found that breaking away from a routine often fosters creativity and is often actually required for a challenging program like the IB where a flexible and adaptive attitude towards scheduling wins over a rigid one.

As a result, I have found that it is far more important to focus on rehearsing the micro-routines, rather than the macro-routines. To clarify what I mean, think about a normal school day – most of the macro-routine is already imposed by the structure of daily activities. What remains is perhaps only 4 to 5 hours of actionable time. Through consequences of this structure, we are often so fatigued by the time we get to these 4 hours, that creatively engaging in assignments is challenging and often futile.

On the other hand, micro-routines can have a transformative impact on your performance. These routines are about capitalizing the short 10-minute spans of time during the day when nothing productive can be done. For example, the bus ride to school, or transition periods between classes, or while taking a shower, or trying to sleep. Given the nature of IB, a lot of assignments concern critical thinking about learned concepts followed by ideation.

The biggest barrier to writing a report is usually to get an idea worth writing about. This is followed by deciding a suitable and meaningful structure to your report. There are plenty of such micro-tasks that don’t require as much dedication in terms of time and effort to actually make progress, and yet once this is out of the way, sitting to write the actual assignment is a breeze.

The micro-routine therefore is training yourself to be able to capitalize small chunks of time during the day, internalizing your attention and just thinking. The short-timed nature of such routines makes it possible to do them frequently, without inducing further tiredness, and with significant spans of time between them, also allowing you to tap into further subconscious creativity.

Winners often live in the present. They don’t waste their time lamenting about the past or unnecessarily worrying about the future. How do you ensure that you make the most of your time by being present in the present?

>>    I think it truly boils down to one’s personalities and motivations. Personally, failures of the past always stuck with me, but that gave me a drive to prove to myself that I was capable of something more. Not in a clichéd sense – not because it told me that there was still a lot more to improve upon or learn about, but because I just worked harder to not feel that way again. At the same time, I have known people who couldn’t improve as much because they could get over their failures more easily and live in the past. Thus, the real way to succeed academically and otherwise seems to be knowing what truly works for you. I’ve found that honestly clearing personality tests like StrengthsQuest helps in this process of self-realization.

Self-motivation and self-control seem to be a better predictor of success than IQ in school and beyond. Do you agree? Why?

>>    That may not be very true for high-school, but that is definitely true for University education. Depending on your performance in high-school, if you’re lucky you get put into a University corresponding to the bracket of your IQ. At that point, it doesn’t matter if you were in the top 10% of your high-school or the bottom 10% – you will find people that match you. At that point, truly the only differentiating factor for academic success is the work ethic. I think it is true for a lot of great people you see out there. Elon Musk, for instance, is no genius in terms of his IQ; however, his persistence and work ethic differentiate him from the rest because when everybody is tired and asleep, celebrating festivals, he goes on. Putting in the hours is a direct function of self-motivation, and particularly whether your motivations are derived from external incentives like money or parents, or internal incentives like finding a larger purpose in life. Self-control, is equally important, because a solid work ethic involves overcoming temptations to digress into ephemeral gratifications. While that may not be as true for high school, where people with a higher IQ seem to do well usually, despite relatively less efforts, it is a perfect time to build a good work ethic to last you beyond high-school. High school has its challenges to keep you occupied and train your determination, if you are willing to engage in them, and if you do, then it can make all the difference in life sooner than can be imagined.

~  Priya Sarin
priya[at]thestudentsdigest.com

 Loading ...