Success tips for students

Recently, the wife to a friend of mine excelled in her Masters’ degree programme. She came top in a special postgraduate programme that included some 13 universities from across Africa. As Malawians, we should be proud of such great daughters and sons of our land. For my part, I want to share with the readers of the Real World Preparation column some of the key secrets behind her success. I asked her to share they key drivers that made her excel like she did.

She shared three of her secrets that enabled her to excel as follows:

1. Don’t fear difficult subjects: In most study programmes, there will be one or two or more subjects or courses known for being difficult. Even before you embark on the studies, you will hear of the bad stories about the difficult subjects. According to this successful lady, your fear of the difficult subjects limits your performance. Do not fear difficult subjects or courses. Approach them without fear. Take it easy but work hard to master them. She says while most of her classmates feared difficult subjects, she did not let the stories from those in upper classes discourage her from mastering the content and excelling in the subjects. Indeed, many students fail to maximise their performance potential simply because they have so much fear against certain courses. Do not fear difficult subjects. Have a positive mind and be confident to perform well.
2. Get your foundations right: She says that one thing that helped her excel was the great foundation she got in her undergraduate studies at Bunda College. She talked about some of the great lecturers she had in her bachelor’s degree programmes who gave her a solid foundation that enabled her to excel in her postgraduate studies. She was able to recognise and appreciate the great lecturers that she had in her undergraduate studies. That way, she was able to leverage this strength to her advantage.

She says that in some courses, it becomes difficult to excel if you did not fully grasp the basic foundation subjects or courses. This is a powerful tip especially for those in Form 1 or Year one of university. Basically, this means that as you start secondary or university education, you need to put in place great foundations which will make your future studies easy and enjoyable. If you don’t sweat early into your studies, you will not enjoy sweet rewards at the end. Your academic journey start right at the beginning and not just the time you have to prepare for examinations – it may be too late!

3. Work hard: The third tip was the obvious academic commandment – working hard. Without hard work, no student can excel in a sustainable fashion. As a student be motivated to work hard so that you excel in your studies to the best of your ability. In her particular case, she was not working to be best in class and did not even know that there would be an award for the top student. She got her reward as a pleasant surprise. It is important that a student should develop the good habit of making books his or her best friend. Let working hard become an integral part of your life. With time, working hard will become second nature – it will no longer be a bother to work hard.

If you are to excel as a student, you need to start working hard at the very beginning of your programme. Remember the tip regarding the need to establish solid academic foundations. You can only achieve that if you start working hard very early into your studies and then what remains is just to sustain the good performance. As the hard work results in great performance, you will be motivated to work even harder and so working hard becomes self-reinforcing.

Good luck as you develop your framework for academic success, based on the proved tips from this young lady that beat many students from some 13 Universities from across Africa! n