How To Excel As A Student

Anyone observing the events in the world will understand that kings are born and kings are made. Every human being has a brain and is therefore capable to doing great things. One of the things that differentiate people from others is the environment in which they were born. In this article, you will read about simple things you can do to begin to surprise yourself with your performance in school. If you are not a student, what you will learn from here will help you to instruct any relative or friend that is in need of excelling as a student. Any good student knows that it is easier to pass exams (and with high grades) than to fail them. This is true! And I will prove it to you. So after reading this article, you will learn how to get good grades and will start to enjoy studying. It is gratifying to get the knowledge and have good grades, as well. Before we dive into the real thing, let us do a little house keeping. You know, when you want to farm, you have to clear and prepare the ground. If you go for an exam unprepared, your brain will be overly heated, your palm will be wet, you will be farting, you will be ‘giraffing’ to copy from other students, your system will be disorganized and you will lose a lot of energy in the process. These characteristics have been confirmed by people who passed through the experience. Let me ask you – Since you have been going for exams, have you experienced any of these? If you prepared for an exam, the confidence you would have within you would chase away exam fever far from you. Your brain and mind would be relaxed, you would know most or all of the questions in the exam and your only problem would be to choose questions so as to maximize your score.

You do not need an eloquent writer to believe what I’m discussing here. The intention of this piece is to help people who really want to be good students. If you want to be a good student, please read on. The people that make good grades (A’s and at least B’s) do not have two heads. They have one head like you. Human beings are wired to do great things. You are a human being and can do great things too. You only need to do the right thing. In academics generally, permit me to say, there are science and arts subjects. Some people are science and arts inclined, some are only science inclined and others are only arts inclined. You must belong to at least one of the three categories. You just have to know where you belong. You mustn’t belong to the first category. But do not say you do not belong to any category! Don’t even think about it! If you ever think you don’t belong to any category, please quickly get in touch with me at contactposter@bignedu.com and I will work with you to correct that thinking. If you are an undergraduate and you finish your studies with distinction or the next lower grade, you will be able to secure a scholarship to further your studies if you desire that. When looking for the scholarship, you have to go for full and not partial scholarship. With distinction or next lower grade (either of which requires a lot of hard work), any institution or organization offering you partial scholarship is not really ready to reward hard work. There are institutions and organizations that are ready to reward hard work. Such institutions and organizations are ready to offer you full scholarship. Search for them. You just have to search vigorously, either through the internet or offline (e.g. through your school department). Find them and send in your application. You may not get the full scholarship in your first attempt. Some of us were able to get after two to three attempts. Scholarships are usually organized yearly. Apply to as many full scholarships as possible and be patient. Make sure each year you have something new to add to your resume (Curriculum Vitae). One full scholarship will definitely click. Take note that no good institution or organization awarding full scholarship will ask you for money in any manner or form. Beware of fraud! Now, let us get down to the real thing.

There is time for everything. A time to laugh, a time to dance, a time to play, a time to study, etc. Do not forget this. When you are a student, you should make the best use of your time as a student. Although learning is a continuous process, you cannot afford to be a student forever. If you do not make a good record for yourself as a student now, a time is coming when you would wish to reset the hand of the clock but then it is too late. Believe me! Throw your weight on your study during all the months or years you are a student. There are so many things to discuss on this topic but I will present you just a summary which you will find invaluable if you take time to read and apply it. To be a good student, you have to be determined, be self-disciplined, be mindful of who you relate with, study, manage time, attend classes, do assignments, have quiet time and exercise your body. Let me explain these:

1. Be Determined – Do not live as if you are forced to go to school. You need knowledge to survive in this present world and there is no way you will get the necessary full knowledge without going to school. You must make up your mind about it knowing that it is the bedrock of your success in life. That Bill Gates dropped out of college does not mean that he did not get the basic education. When I was growing, I was not good at Math. But later I became determined to know Math and it went into my bloodstream. I can tell you now that I am very good at Math. It was not easy or quick to get to this level. When I was determined to learn Math, if you brought food and Math to me, I would choose Math. I would not let go any math problem until it was solved. With that zeal, Math went into my blood. There are some interactions you need to avoid if you are working to get Math into your blood. I am talking from experience. It is not a one-day or one-year training! But when it is there in your blood, it will never go away no matter how you interact. There are other subjects, especially in the science area, that beg the same requirements like Math.

2. Be Self-Disciplined – One of the top secrets of being a good student is to decide by yourself the life you want to live. Your primary reason for being in school is to study and every other thing should be secondary. Did you get this? EVERY OTHER THING SHOULD BE SECONDARY! With this in mind, you need to decide what you want to do with your life. Do not follow other students’ life pattern. This is where many students miss it. There are different types of human beings. Why would you want to copy somebody, especially in things that reflect individual differences. For example, there are people who study better in the night. A person belonging to this group of people can afford to spend all time in the afternoon going from one amusement center to another. In the night this person goes inside, locks door and studies hard. If you do not belong to the group of people and you attempt to copy this person’s lifestyle, you will quickly realize that during exams this person does well while you do badly or even fail. This is just one example of the shortcomings of trying to follow the lifestyle of another student. Decide and live your own lifestyle but remember that you are primarily in school to study.

3. Be Mindful Of Who You Relate With – You will find out that in school, there are students who made up their minds to ‘waste away time’. Do not associate so much with such students or with any other student that does not understand the primary purpose of being in school. When you are done with studies, you can associate with any type of person. As the saying goes, tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are. Birds of a feather flock together. Those are wise sayings from ages past. If you make a wrong choice of who your friends in school will be, the effect will be obvious in your academic performance. This mindfulness is as important as any other point explained here.

4. Study – This cannot be over emphasized. If you do not study, you will not be a good student. Like I said before, you must not be good in the two major areas – science and arts. You should be good in at least one of them. That is a natural endowment. The foundation is already in you naturally. You only need to study to build on the foundation. If somebody is a student but cannot sit down and study for four, six or eight hours at a stretch, that student is not serious. It does not mean that within the hours you will not go and ease yourself in the washroom or will not stand up for two or three minutes to stretch your body. What I tell you is what has been practised and verified to be working. You will be happy when you will be harvesting ‘A’ after exams. Take note that to study means to study. If you are studying and answering phone calls or doing any other distracting thing, you do not seem to be serious. Switch off your phone, concentrate on your study. If what is happening on the internet will be disturbing you, do not read from a computer connected to the internet. You remember what I said in the beginning? – there is time for everything. You have to subject your body to that training and it will accept and respect you for that. If you do not train your body, it wants only fun 24/7. Is that how anybody will be great? NO. Therefore train your body to do marathon reading. I operate better in the night and can read from 10pm to 6am. It is very enjoyable and brings good returns. You know what I mean? You may be the type that operate better at other hours of the day. Everything is training, though. I trained myself to be able to stay in a market place (noisy environment) and prepare for a tough exam. And I will definitely pass the exam. Be steadfast in your study. Do not wait until exam period. That is the worst mistake most students make. It is very easy to be a genius. The trick is to start reading from day one. At the end of any day’s classes, read and revise everything that was done in the day. If for any reason you are not able to do this any day, do not let the whole week pass by without reading and revising everything. Weekend is usually the next window of time to cover up what you cannot cover in the days of the week. And as you read, make sure you understand what you are reading. That’s a way to read and remember. Being diligent to handle things this way works like magic. During exam, you will find out that you are only doing revision and not reading stuff new. You will see how powerful human brain is and how willing it is to support you. From outside yourself, your brain will be free. But on the inside, it is highly loaded the way you cannot imagine. You will know how loaded it is whenever a question is asked on any subject that is stored there. Wonderful! Try it and you will see that it works like magic.
5. Manage Time – You just have to learn to manage your time. Remember there are classes to attend, assignments to do, work to go to, clothes to wash, food to eat, private readings to do, presentations to attend and other things. It is imperative that you manage your time well. What helps most is to prepare an authentic time table for all these activities and be sure to follow the timetable. Treat each task with respect and it will respect and obey you. Respect, they say, is reciprocal. That applies here too! If you are a business person or farmer or anybody and you toy with what you are doing, the thing will collapse.
6. Attend Classes – I will say that it is a crime not to attend a class for no good reason like sickness or any other sad news. For all the years I went to school, I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I missed classes. Honestly. Why would you not attend a class? Any teacher has good stuff to give you otherwise the school would not have hired him or her. No matter how the teacher is doing, attend the class. Who else will mark your answers other than the teacher? Nothing can be more important than attending classes. I remember one of my classmates then. He was very brainy when we entered university and were first year students; he was from a wealthy family and could afford to buy all books. Somewhere along the line, he started to miss classes and thought he could just stay in his room and study. I remember I advised him to sit up. Guess what happened. His performance dropped to a point he started having academic problems. Please do not make that mistake. Sorry if it sounds like I am preaching. To attend classes means that you have to be in the class room before the teacher. It is part of the self-discipline I explained earlier. Be sure to know in good time where a class is holding and take off from your house in good time to be in class before the teacher. This is even a big training for your future career. You will be happy with yourself in the future if you get used to this.
7. Do Assignments – Nothing can be more disturbing than to be chased around or noted as not doing assignments in school. Sometimes these assignments count to your final grade. Not only that, as you do assignments, you will learn more and will test your knowledge on the subject. You always have other students and other sources of information to consult. Ask questions and make sure you are up to date. When you attend class late or leave before the end of the class, you may not know that an assignment has been given or you may miss a clue from the teacher on how to tackle the assignment. Or it may be late by the time you know anything. Knowing about all assignments and doing them in time with other students will remove unnecessary stress from your study life. Know that there are things you will be doing that will bring stress into your study life. Those are things you do not want to be doing. Not doing assignments as and when due is one of them.
8. Have Quiet Time – I am science and partly arts inclined. From my experience, science subjects require you to be having quiet time often. During the quiet time, you have to be alone and think about what you have learnt. This way, your brain will be able to assimilate and move information from ‘temporary registers’ to ‘permanent registers’ and you will make better meaning of those information. This quiet time is especially important if you are starting the journey to make Math enter your blood stream or if you are writing an academic research paper.
9. Exercise Your Body – You need this for your whole body. This is important for your fitness, health and wellness. See the blog on this page for how to exercise the eyes. You can use any sporting activity you like doing to exercise your body – football, soccer, hockey, long tennis, badminton, sprinting, walking, dancing, etc. Just exercise and freshen out your body. It is not easy to sit down one place for hours. Thirty minutes to one hour exercise everyday is good enough for your body. Eat well and drink plenty of water.

As I said earlier, there are so many things to say on this topic that there will not be enough space if everything should be said. But I am sure that this summary will help you to quickly begin to reap the benefits of a good student if you pay attention to it. Please let me know how this has helped you by commenting below. If you need more guidance, do not hesitate to get in touch and I will put you through. Good luck in your studies!

Guest Writer

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