Study Plan - An Anecdote

When I was running NIIT, a Parent, Bank Official, came to me with a request for help. His daughter was in 11th but according to him not living up to her potential. His solution to the problem was simple "She has to work harder, but she doesnt. X,Y score more than her" I asked to see his daughter,he brought her,but he and his wife accompanied her. I asked them to wait outside. He was not happy but agreed. The girl was sullen, clearly unhappy and in a rebellious mood. I spent the few minutes talking about her hobbies, friends.She relaxed. I asked her what she liked about her school, what she didnt like, and gossiped a bit. Then I casually asked her which subjects she liked best. "Sir, English", she was very enthusiastic I allowed her to open up about English. Then "Which subject do you like least?' "Maths' And she had her reasons. Gently, I made her rank the subjects in the order of her preference. "English, CS, Physics, Chemistry, Maths". Then I asked her for her marks in the last 2 exams. She was at 88% level and a good student - 441/500. She told me she was 13th in the Class, and the first mark was 98%. I told her not to worry about others. She was genuinely surprised. She gave the split up on marks and surprisingly it matched her preference of subjects with the exception of Physics and Chemistry. Marks from high to low was English, CS, Chemistry, Physics and Maths" She told me she put 4 hours after the school studying which was a good workload. I gave her a small exercise. Created a simple excel sheet with Date of X Axis for a month, and Subjects on Y axis. She was to just note down the hours she spent on each subject at home every day. She asked incredulously "That is all" I replied in the affirmative. I called her parents in. Father was clearly unhappy that I hadnt given any "Good Advise". He told he will 'Supervise' whether his daughter did fill in the table. I told him to let her be and not go anywhere near her The girl came back exactly one month later. The Table was filled in without any errors. I asked her to analyse herself. She totaled the hours for each subject and looked at me with mixed emotions. Whenever she started studying she spent more time on English, her most preferred subject, and least on Maths, the hated one. The spread was like 40% E, 20% CS, 15% each P & C, and just 10% on Maths We also went back to her Marks. I gave her the first target of moving up from 441 to 450 - additional 9 marks. Told her where it will come from. She was scoring 74 in maths. Gave a target of 77 in Maths. Likewise for other subjects so that she scores 15 marks extra. assuming she might lose a few. I also asked her to restructure her Home Study hours. She did the workings on her own happily and took ownership. We continued this exercise till she finished 12th, pushing up the target little by little. She ended up scoring 473/500. She came with her parents with a big box of sweets when her results were announced, and she was a little disappointed she didnt score 480, her target. I brushed aside her disappointment and congratulated her She later on studied in REC, and is well settled now