‘Best’ is not a word in everybody’s dictionary. It is for the few who are ready to sacrifice short term for long term. They know the pain and the gain therein. If you know, you should have been above average since. Now, I will discuss some secrets with you. Not really secrets, but unveiled truths about those who lead their classes, groups, communities, nations and continents in all things they believe they can do. They never play when others are playing. In fact they never have friends without purpose. We shall look into ten proofs why some students excel in their academic pursuit to the top position in life.
1. Approach
The approach of best students (genius) is different from other people. The genius brain works differently. Ideas are not eliminated based on efficacy or practicality. Everything is considered. Thoughts are not immediately disqualified. A genius often tries many different avenues to arrive at a desired result, rather than simply deciding which ones will work and which ones won’t. They do not give up in time. They study hard to reach the end of any situation. They put their teachers on the run. Their approach to learning is for success and nothing more. They are too loaded with ideas because they never stop learning, attempting and studying. Think of the creative geniuses who were high school drop-outs – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. Because their thinking is different, they often express the idea that standard ways of learning and teaching are not always helpful and may even be distracting, and that they prefer to learn on their own. Your approachto your teachers, classwork, assignments and examinations will determine your position among the best students. Do you prepare before examination or when it comes you run pillar to post and stillwant to lead the class? Your approach must change.
2. Control of Curiosity
Curiosity is common to human beings at all ages. Everyone has curiosity but the level defers. Without curiosity, we will not be able to learn. However, it can still be misused. Many students want success in examination at all cost, this led them to malpractice and they were caught – expulsion from school is the result. The best students manage their curiosity. Curiosity is bad, when it is indiscreet - to read the letters/SMS of other persons without permission, to look at somebody's paper during examination, etc. Curiosity is bad, second, when it is scandalous - when one looks at what is indecent, be it in movies or in photographs, books, magazines, phones and so on. Curiosity is bad, third, when it suggests attempting sex before marriage, wanting to romance opposite sex to calm the sex move. Curiosity is bad, fourth, when a purpose is not known in reading just any book or information on the net. Occultism – Wanting to know the mystery of this world makes some students travel far into the dark side of the world. Doing The Forbidden – In African culture, there are lots of “don'ts” with consequences.
However, curiosity can be managed positively. This is the secret of the geniuses.For Scientific Invention–the geniuses will guess, experiment or observe to know solution to problems when they are successfully interpreting the nature into things that will benefit human race e.g. discovery of drugs that cures diseases like Ebola, HIV/AIDS; waste recycling; communication advancement; crime detector, etc. Invention requires curiosity. A good and praiseworthy curiosity was found in Andre Ampère who made great contributions to mathematics and chemistry; Alessandro Volta, inventor of the voltaic battery; Louis Pasteur, famous for his breakthroughs in microbiology, and other great minds in the world of invention. Every science student supposes to be curious of new discovery during JETS Club in the school. Some Professional Duties – A police officer or detective – will be curious to gather information that will resolve a matter. Such curiosity is timed and useful to save the innocent and punish the offender. A journalist will be curious on a story that will get the public informed. Auditor and accountant will be curious on “why an account is not balanced”. Develop a good curiosity towards your career as from today. For curiosity can occupy all your time. Lastly, curiosity to know God makes us adherent to your faith. We grow to know God out of healthy curiosity. Best students are disciplined.
3. Learning Skill
We live to learn and store up. There are seven (7) ways of learning.
Observation- When you keenly and purposefully watch a thing without questioning or participating; therefore, observation has occurred. Observation injects interest into the mind to take more steps into the reason for what is observed. Learning through observation can be used in the classroom during practical session, lecture, exposure, studying a business idea or when an incident occurs with amazement to everyone. You will not just watch to please your eyes alone but to feed your mind with possibility of stopping such occurrence in the nearest future with possible solution that may earn living also for you.
Interrogation/Questioning- When you are inquisitive about something in form of questioning, then interrogation is in process. Anyone who wants knowledge will not watch alone. If he/she has opportunity to ask question, he/she will go ahead before others. It is a pity today in our schools that only few students ask questions during learning time. I discovered that a student who asks questions is always ahead of others. Questioning is a skill of the mind. You have seen a picture which is not really clear and to get it right, you ask questions that will cause the teacher to speak more on the subjects. We should not always accept all things; hook and sinker. Questioning can be in form of probing, querying, examining and inquiries on why, how, what and when of a subject matter. There is no harm in questioning. However, you must be constructive and intelligent in your approach as you question anyone, for respect is reciprocal.
Research- This is a bit close to interrogation but farther in term, time and results. Research for more information may last many years, just to formulate data to solve problems. The researcher will go extra mile to expose what, where, why and how of a thing. Learning through trial by error ends with great discovery. Just believe in yourself that you can do it.
Apprenticeship- It is the act of bending or bowing low to learn under a person for a duration agreed by the parties. In a unique situation, there is always intelligent variance; all fingers are not equal. If you don’t mind, you can derive your intelligence from others who know the subjects better. Anyone who wants to learn will see others as blessing in disguise. You can be an apprentice at home, in the school under a teacher, or in an innovation school under an instructor.
Participation- When there is collective effort in discovering data with the expert. The novice will be allowed to do the miniature work while watching the professional doing the core ones. Participation breeds collective results. When you want to do it alone, you may not get it all.
Meditation- The act of ruminating on what has been observed, questioned, researched, participated and read in calm and solitude mood. What you feed your mind is what it shall meditate over. The principle of regurgitation in ruminant animals can help in learning through meditation. Whenever a sheep finds a pasture, she will be happy to eat as much as she can. She will swallow grasses with little chewing. After a moment of ups and downs, she will find a conducive environment to regurgitate. She will bring back the food, bit by bit, into her mouth for rigorous chewing and digestion. Meditation goes with act of jotting/writing. When you mediate, you must pen down your thought in black and white for our memory is not a computer that keeps many files. The more you read, think, and think over your write up, the greater it becomes your inner drive and desire to accomplish them.
Reading- This is an act of gleaning data and information from written books. When you sit back to read from books, you sit to learn from those who are dead or alive, far or near, in a solitude and readiness to change, you learn more. Learning by reading should be at least one hour every day. Reading is easy and simple if you possess mind for learning. Reading a book brings the author closer to you. You are in the mind of the author when he/she wrote the book. Reading transfers mind-to-mind knowledge.
4. Understanding of every Opportunity
The best students have understanding of opportunities around them. It is best to use the opportunity of life to achieve the schooling goal. Opportunity is neither friend nor foe. Opportunity comes down like gentle bubbles which will later grow wild with soaring wings like eagle and it disappears into the thin air of no return. Opportunity of good, reliable and responsible parents, opportunity of good education and teachers, opportunity of good learning materials, opportunity of sound mind and good health are not forever.
Opportunity comes with distractions and superfluity. Opportunity has enemy – called distractions. Technology is your friend but can also be a distractor if not managed. Addiction to food, sex, romantic novels, music, fashion, friendship, sporting, betting, partying, etc. can cause opportunity to speedily fly away. Life and opportunity are not permanent friends. Opportunity of life comes in mask and does not look attractive. A lost opportunity is lost forever – bitter truth. The consequences are future regret, horror and pain of waiting for another opportunities, shame and contempt in the neighbourhood. Whenever another opportunity surfaces, there will be no more equal strength, support, structure, satisfaction, and interest to use as they were.
5. Deadline principle
Best students have overcome the greatest enemy of students called procrastination. One of the best ways for students to overcome procrastination is by working as though you had only one day to get your most important work done. When you discover a truth/fact, do not delay to know more. Whenever an assignment is given, you do not wait till teacher begins to place pressure on you. Place pressure on yourself by burning your night candle now. Put pressure on yourself now before third parties such as society, parents, families, religion, friends, marriage, and age put pressure on you. Create imaginary deadlines for yourself and strive hard to achieve them before age and time of studentship knocks you down. Youthful age has deadlines. Passion to be (exuberance) and drive to imagine (intuition) is for a while. Whatever you achieve with them is what will be in your archives for life. What you do is what you have done. No one will add to it. Use the deadline strategy for success as a student with learning mind.
6. Daily Plan
Every blessed day is an opportunity for the best students. They plan their days with relevance and do away with irrelevances. They live with time table of reading, few leisure hour, average sleeping time with balanced diet and time of worship. Their worship time is not for reading. Irrelevant talk has never taken their reading away. They visit library for more knowledge. They make their books their best friend to solve difficult topics before the next day. They never procrastinate what their schedule says. Their concentration is on what they need to do. They have goal per day. To be like them, learn to do this: Do things that are very important, something that you must do – like reading and studying. Delegate what others can do for you. Delete what you know are not necessary for your life and delay what is important but not urgent till another day. Student who lacks concentration will not achieve success. You must plan your thought over everything you want - one thing at a time.
7. Problem Solving Skill
Students are created by God with diverse and perfect abilities: intelligence and creativity. These are generally regarded as highly valuable assets of human mind. Some called it Intelligence Quotient (IQ), while others called it being genius. What is intelligence? Intelligence is problem solving ability. It has ability to process issues in the mind. When you hear about someone in your class or neighbourhood who has problems, how do you feel? Does your reasoning start working immediately to proffer solution? Or the mind in you keeps quiet unbothered? Solving problem is a peculiar attribute of genius. They lose their peace when they see problem unsolved. In 2014 when Ebola disease struck Nigeria and other West Africa countries, how did you feel? Did you process abstract solution within? The potential geniuses will start to read, study, pass exam and seek admission for course that will solve the problem in the nearest future. In the classroom, how do you reason along with your teacher? Genius sees problem ahead and processes solution in form of questions. Nobody is a dull student. It is your decision. If you engage yourself, you will produce result. Are not disturbed that Nigeria is just a consumer of other continents’ products? We are just consumers. When shall we start to build our machines and equipment for industrialization? Start to think to be the first in your career.
8. Inner Strength
Who are you? What can you do? Do you really know yourself? Why are you in this school? All these questions are known and answered accurately by the best students. They know their strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. They know when to talk and when to keep quiet. They can think constructively. They never take ‘No’ for answer. Their minds are always ready to receive new ideas. Ideas rule the world. Let’s note these quotations: “It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all” — Edward de Bono. “The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later, or six months, or six years. But he has faith that it will happen” — Carl Ally. “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen” — John Steinbeck. “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” — Vincent van Gogh.
9. Never Afraid to Fail
Failure is not a disease; it is a pause for checkup. Failure is a test on your capacity, endurance and tolerance. “When I fail, I try again,”–This is the tone of successful people who was once a student. Failure weakens mind and leads to depression that will totally sap health to zero. Depression soars on the wing of student who has believed that he cannot make it again. Great men and women who were once failure but today everyone celebrates their invention, discoveries and endurance because they did not give up are like you. Abraham Lincoln failed many times before, he got it right. Failure is a true test of your endurance in schooling. When you fail, you know another way that does not work. You will not follow such path again because you failed there. A failure is not an end but a means to successful end. When you fail, do you discover why you fail? If you do, you have done a research. How do you manage failure? Best students do fail. Do not give easily. You can still do again.
10. ‘With God’ System
Ideas were born by God. God is before idea and shall be when all ideas will be of no use. He conceived the world without the counsel of any man. He structurally created the earth from scratch to finish without stress. He was not short of materials, labour or power. God made man’s head with bones that can strongly protect the brain. Brain is just an ordinary flesh that is sensitive to any shock, and then God put shock absorber in the head. Brain has sensitive work yet the neurosurgeons cannot physically see the work—mind, thought, behaviour and emotions. All human emotions—including love, hate, fear, anger, elation, and sadness—are controlled by the brain. I have not seen brain surgeons who will be able to remove behaviour from the brain or cut off bad emotions from man such as hate, envy, fear, anger, etc. If God owns all things—including you, then mind of students should take a cue from Him for strength. The best students that will last in their generation must acknowledge God through Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Why? Ideas belong to Him. Resources belong to Him. You and your brain belong to Him. Secrets of success belong to Him. When the genius will be no more, He has power to preserve the great work and the eternity of soul. You need God in prayer as a student who wants to excel. He has wisdom and knowledge in His treasury.
Conclusion
Nigeria is still very young and expectant of more brilliant students with brilliant ideas. The African nations are waiting for thinking tanks, discoverers, initiators, innovators and researchers that will give the expected products with standard. Your parents and families are waiting to celebrate your success. No one associates with failure. Consistent failure brings poverty. Poverty is not part of our community; it is human creation. We should go to school, study hard and brainstorm way-out to produce commercialized innovation. Do not follow bad friends who have no passionate dream like yours. Flock with like-minded students in the school and community. Pray and believe God. The world at large is at the waiting room for you at the stardom.
Written and Presented By
Pastor Allen Olatunde
Chaplain, Patterson Memorial Baptist Grammar School, Abeokuta
Coordinator, Africa! GLOW Missions Connect (www.africaglow.org)
08032346674, allen.olatunde@gmail.com
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