How to achieve Academic Excellence

"There is no secret to academic success. Just do what you got to do and leave the rest for God". So I thought and said for many years, as colleagues and friends approached me to find out 'my secret' to success. You see, I have never failed an examination in my life and I never thought that there was a secret key to my success, until I realized, after a critical analysis of my academic journey, that nothing happens at random; and just like the occurence of diseases, success has a pattern. Here, I will be sharing with you some tips that have guided me over the years.

1. Know Yourself: The first step to achieving academic success is to know who you are, understand how your system functions, discover what works for you; how much information do you have the capacity to learn and fully understand within a given period? how long can you study at a stretch without getting tired? Do you enjoy some music or noise in the background or you prefer absolute quite when you read? Are you active at night or during the day time? I found out that no matter how hard I tried, I was never able to concentrate during the day. My strength seemed to double at night, so you must figure out, what works for you. The answers to these questions will help you schedule your study place and time as well as your reading pattern.

2. You must put in effort: There is no short cut to this. Even if you were born with a genius brain, and you do not put in the required effort to utilize those highly innervated brain cells, you will not achieve the desired results. The holy book puts it succinctly, "Study to show thyself approved" it says.., and "as long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest time shall not cease". In the journey of academic excellence, there is always a seed time, and the quality, not the quantity of your seed determines the harvest. The harvest of course is your success at the end of the session. So if you are a student, it is not enough to attend the lectures and practicals, you MUST do the extra study. Research as much as you can on topics and subjects that you need to cover.

3. Know your syllabus: Whether you are a high school student, an undergraduate, masters or phD student, syllabus is key. It guides you on the range of subjects that you need to cover within a stipulated period, for eg in a semester or a session. Mastering the syllabus, helps you plan your study schedule to cover all that you need to know.

4. Have a Study Strategy: You need to plan your study time. You must take some time, every day to study. The timing of your study is as important as the amount of time you apportion to it. If you are a night owl like me, you'll find you are most active in the night, you may want to schedule your study time during the night time, when you have the greatest strength. Now the amount of time you apportion to your daily study, and to the different subjects/courses depends on your strengths and weaknesses. I would recommend 4-5 hours of study per day but if you cannot study for more than 3 hours at a time, before you lose concentration, then your study time should not exceed 3 hours. You may need to give more time to courses that pose some difficulty. In my medical school, I found anatomy quite abstruse. Every line of the text book sounded so abstract, it became frustrating. So my strategy was to devote more study time to anatomy.

5. Find your Sanctuary: Your sanctuary is a safe place where you assimilate the most when you study. In my student days, my sanctuary was my little room. I discovered it was my best reading spot after I had explored studying in the various lecture theaters in the Science and Arts departments, and spent several sleepless nights simply staring at the pages of the book, and most times dozing off in the classrooms. I find that I enjoy some soft music in the background, but sometimes this sends me to sleep prematurely so I choose to have absolute quiet while I study. Again....whatever rocks your boat.

6. Join a discussion group: If you are studying an expansive and voluminous course, you will soon discover that it is nearly impossible for you to know every thing you need by studying alone. Sharing knowledge and learning from others makes it easy. Personally, I tend to learn more from peers and colleagues than I do by studying on my own. This is not to jettison the importance of personal study. You must do your private study, so you can contribute effectively in any group. Group discussions make knowledge stick longer. Sometimes, all you need to crack a question may be to remember how a colleague cracked a joke out of the topic, or a story told about a subject.

7. Do the extras: Going the extra mile always pays. So, do the extra-mural lessons, go for those tutorials, get a private teacher if you can afford it, do the practical lessons. Just do what it takes.

And surely, success will be waiting for you at the gates..... Good luck!