HOW STUDENTS SHORTCHANGE THEMSELVES ON CAMPUS
In life, there are people who cheat themselves without realizing it. The same applies to many who go through campus every year. A close observation of many of them reveals to me five (5) different ways cheat themselves. My desire is that you learn not to cheat yourself now that you are still in school and try correcting the errors resulting from your cheating yourself in previous time.
Cheating To Pass Exams
Many people think that cheating to pass their exams is cool and sees it as a way of complementing their efforts. Apart from the fact it’s a sin to indulge in exam malpractice, it sucks the strength to study from you once you hope to do it. The eventual result is that you leave school with good grades but poor brain.
Resolution to write your exams without exam malpractice makes you focus on your study hard to learn all that you have been taught so as to answer your questions correctly. In your bid to learn these things, you will develop tenacity, doggedness and humility (in the process of begging people to teach you). All these virtues are vital for life success even outside school, but when you depend on exam malpractice you deny yourself the opportunity to develop these virtues and you will graduate to suffer the deficiency of those virtues in your workplace, family and society at large.
Reading To Pass Exams And Not Learn
Another way many students cheat themselves without realizing it is reading just to pass exams and not for the purpose of having a good understanding of what they are taught.
See, the purpose of school is not to write exams and get excellent grades. The purpose of school is to acquire knowledge, training and gain exposure that will equip you to be able to contribute your gifts to your society. Exams are exercise designed to determine if you learnt what you are taught. That is why I consider it foolish to read just to pass exams. Unfortunately, many of us did it, at least on some courses.
The problem with reading just to pass your exams is that you memorise just to remember it and write exams and perhaps forget it the day after the exams. This gives you grades that don’t match your level of knowledge and the result is an eventual disgrace in the labour market.
Even when some lecturers (who either due to negligence to their duty or simply shallow understanding of their courses) make it difficult for you to understand your course, make an extra effort on your own to learn by consulting your textbooks, checking online materials and discussing with your classmates.
Read to learn; it enables you pass your exams as well as have knowledge of your course. The one who memorises to pass and even get an ‘A’ may look at you as a time waster, but the future will tell who is the true time waster. Just by the way, Ben Carson took to in-depth study of his courses and it has paid him off greatly and still paying.
Exclusive Pursuit Of Academic Excellence
The primary purpose of going to school is for mental development and acquisition of specialized knowledge that will make one useful to one’s society. To go about this is wisdom, but to go about its pursuit alone throughout your stay on campus is most certainly NOT wisdom.
To excel in your academics alone means that you have learned your course well and are equipped with information which, when applied will make your society a better place. But our school systems hardly teach how to apply this bundle of knowledge excellently. That is why if you go through school just to acquire the specialized knowledge alone and don’t make an effort to learn to apply it and work with other people in applying it and how to sustain yourself in the process of applying it, you must have cheated yourself.
So, as you go about learning your course, make efforts to read self help books, motivational books and publications in your industry. Personally, I spent a large chunk of my feeding many books and newspapers just to learn how to apply what I am learning in school, I read BusinessDay on Tuesdays because there are about three pages devoted to media related business where trends and analysis of the industry are reported. I also read Work and Learning though they have replaced it with Human Capital to learn how to behave in the workplace and make myself better equipped to deliver the knowledge I get in class.
To go on in pursuit of academic excellence alone and acquire ancillary knowledge and skill will make you a reservoir of knowledge with difficulty is dispensing it.
Note that beyond reading, you could also learn by associating with groups and with fellow students.
Neglecting Training Opportunities
On campus, there are many opportunities to be trained. This may or may not be related to your course of study, but it’s just important for you as a human being who will graduate from school to start going to work to get married train children and be a living member of human society.
Such training opportunities come in the form of workshops, seminars which are either organized by school authority or private organizations. Many times it’s free. But when it’s not, pay to get it; after graduation, you may never get the opportunity for such training for free at a subsidized fee.
Note that joining student organizations where you could also help you get these trainings. Being actively involved teaches you on how to participate in meetings and leadership. For me, I was refined in the campus fellowship I joined – SCM.
Misplacement Of Priority
Another way many students cheat themselves is misplacement of their priorities in the use of their primary in the use of time, money and emotion. These things are supposed to be channeled to your self development and building your future. Use your money to buy books and read. Use it to pay to learn. Don’t use it to pay for a lady’s weavon. There is time for that! It’s wise to buy good second hand clothes and make less expensive hair and invest your money in developing your mind and acquiring skill. Channel your emotion in your future and any boy or girl and save yourself the distraction.
