June 04, 2026

The Background Behind the Method — Who Is Curtis Siewdass?

Meet the Person Behind This Blog

The Background Behind the Method — Who Is Curtis Siewdass?

I started very humbly. I grew up poor. And somehow, without knowing it, I accidentally used the exact method I now teach — and came second in my class.

By Curtis Siewdass | Founder, Pass Exams Faster

So I guess you are wondering what my background really is.

Yes, I told you in a previous post that I am a martial artist. But my expertise goes deeper than that. My background is really in finance, business, and marketing. And it was through all of those experiences — and through watching people I cared about struggle — that I made the decision to branch out and build what eventually became Pass Exams Faster.

I want to give you a little bit of background about me. Not to impress you, but because I think when you understand where I came from, you will understand why I care so deeply about helping people perform better under pressure.

Where I Have Been Featured

Over the years, I have had the privilege of sharing my work and ideas on a number of well-known media platforms. I have been featured on:

Television CNC3 • CCM TV6 • IE TV • IDN • Win TV	Radio Radio 90.5 • Isaac 98.1
Print Newsday Newspaper • Entrepreneurship Magazine • Quest Magazine	Speaking Featured speaker at a Back-In Conference with over 3,000 attendees • Many platforms across the region

I also have a publisher, and I have written several books across different disciplines of examination strategy, each one designed to help you zero in on the specific type of exam you are preparing for.

I share that not to boast, but because I want you to know that the information I bring to this blog is not coming from someone who simply read a few articles and decided to start writing. It comes from years of real experience, real research, and real results.

Why I Really Started Pass Exams Faster

I really wanted to branch out when I observed just how many students were failing exams and struggling. And it was not just people I was reading about. It was people close to me. I saw the kind of stress and anxiety students were going through, and it stayed with me.

One of my deepest passions is helping people get better and better at what they do. And more importantly, helping them find the confidence to believe that they are actually capable of doing it. Because so many students are capable — they just have never been given the right guidance.

What I Believe About Every Student

You have always been able to do this. You have just never been given a coach who could point you in the right direction.

Where I Started

I started very, very humbly.

My dad was very poor. We took care of cattle. I was so embarrassed about my lifestyle growing up that I used to tell people we did not take care of cows, but that we took care of cattle — because I thought it made me sound a little less poor. Looking back, I smile at that. But at the time, it was real.

Things were hard. But one of the key things I came to understand about myself is that I had the ability to look at things differently. That ability — to see what others were missing, to observe patterns where others saw only problems — is ultimately what caused me to start this blog and to write so many books on the different disciplines of examination strategy.

The Day I Accidentally Used This Method — Without Knowing It

A lot of students carry bad experiences from their early school days. Many have been told, directly or indirectly, that they are not good enough. I understand that feeling personally.

I was never a good student in primary school. I was consistently coming out 20th or 25th out of 30 people in my class. That was simply the reality of where I stood academically at that time.

But there was one particular time that I will never forget. Without realising it, I had unknowingly used the exact method I now teach — I had focused on retrieval rather than just taking in information. I did not know that is what I was doing. I had no framework for it at the time. But something shifted in how I was approaching the material.

The Moment That Stayed With Me

During a normal school session, I was called to the front of the class. I genuinely thought I was in trouble.

Then I was told I had come second in class.

I was both shocked and overwhelmed. This was the same person who had been finishing 20th or 25th out of 30. Nothing about my circumstances had changed. What had changed was the method.

That experience never left me. Not because it made me feel special, but because it showed me something important: the result was not about intelligence. It was not about natural ability. It was about the process.

And if a person like me — who came from that background, who was never considered a strong student — can produce that kind of result by accident, imagine what is possible when you apply the method deliberately.

What This Is Really About

The most important thing about this system is the retrieval process.

When you understand that it is about retrieval — not input — everything changes. It is not about repeating something over and over again. It is not about reading the same notes until your eyes are tired. It is not about suffering through exam anxiety that never seems to go away no matter how much you study.

It is about learning how to pull information out in a specific format. A format that trains you to know not only the correct answers, but the incorrect ones too. And when you have practised that retrieval enough times, something shifts. You stop struggling to remember. You stop second-guessing yourself at the worst possible moment. The information comes out because you have built the pathway for it to come out.

And your study sessions become faster. After a while of working this way, you begin to master concepts more quickly than you thought possible. It gets better and better and better over time. You will surprise yourself with what you are capable of producing — just as I surprised myself all those years ago standing at the front of that classroom.

If you want to understand how retrieval actually works and why it outperforms every passive study method, you can start with the active recall hub page right here on this blog. And if you have been putting in the hours and still not seeing the results you deserve, the post on what to do when you study hard and still score below average speaks directly to where you are right now.

If I Could Do It, You Can Do This

I grew up poor. I was not a strong student. I had no coaching, no system, and no one pointing me in the right direction. But I stumbled onto the principle that now sits at the centre of everything I teach — and it changed everything.

That ability to look at things differently is what led me to the media platforms, the speaking stages, the books, and ultimately this blog. And I want to use all of it in service of one thing: helping you build the confidence and the capability to walk into any exam and perform at your real level.

You have always been able to do this. Let’s go forward together.

The Complete System

Pass Exams Faster — The Book

Use the free content on this blog fully. Absorb it, apply it. And if it makes sense to you — if you find yourself thinking this is different from everything else you have tried — the book is where the full system is laid out step by step.

Get the Book on Amazon →

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Share this with five people you care about — a student, a friend sitting an exam, a family member who has been told they are not capable. Sometimes the right message at the right time changes everything.

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Active Recall — The Core Method Read more →	Why Some Students Learn Faster With Less Effort Read more →
What to Do When You Study Hard and Still Score Below Average Read more →	10 Memory Techniques for Exams That Actually Work Read more →

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