NAIJA CGPA

If you are active on Facebook you might have come across Strive Masiyiwa's posts either through Facebook sponsored posts or shared by your friends who follow him. Wikipedia describes Strive Masiyiwa as a London based Zimbabwean businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and executive chairman of diversified international telecommunications group Econet Wireless. He recently shared details of his conversation with a student about combining business (entrepreneurship) with schooling. I consider it worth sharing. Here you have it: ”Johncross writes, Sir, I'm an eighteen year old 200 level engineering student from Nigeria, actually studying Industrial Production Engineering. I really have passion for entrepreneurship and already have some ideas. Doing business is kind of affecting my performance in school. I'm actually confused because I don't know if I should wait till I graduate before facing business or to just continue mixing business w...

In the pursuit of academic excellence, you need to realise that the calibre of friends you associate yourself with will determine to a large extent how far your goals of studentship will be achieved. Man is gregarious. He appreciates and revels his association with fellow humans. Friends are important; the good one will help propel you to your dreams. If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you should be familiar with its central themes: understanding the core concepts of your course of study and getting that eye-popping CGPA . This post, therefore, will revolve around those themes. Going forward, I'll be giving instances where friends will provide invaluable support. Motivation: in my previous post , I talked about the importance of motivation in schoolwork. Friends are one of the biggest motivators for success. Associating with the right friends has a dual impact; you motivate and in turn, get motivated. I had a smart and small circle of friends in my undergradu...

Motivation is key in all life's endeavours. The employee requires appropriate motivation in the workplace to function well. So also do students in institutions of learning require motivation to excel.  Motivation is a propeller of success. It gives the needed energy to attain a certain goal. In the quest for academic excellence and getting that eye-popping CGPA , you'll need a lot of it. Without motivation, your interest and focus drop. The academic environment gets frustrating and boring intermittently. The temptation to lower the bar will come. However, a well-motivated student forges ahead irrespective of those clogs. motivation could be intrinsic in which case it comes from within. Here, you develop an interest in a particular task, desire to get more knowledge and know the mechanism behind a certain process. Being rewarded in this instance is not a motivator. The benefits of intrinsic motivation are that it's long-lasting and self-sustaining. Intrinsic motivation...

Every student has his/her study preference. While some thrive well through personal study, others prefer group study. I wouldn't want to go into the pros and cons of both methods (will do that at a later time). If you find study groups attractive, read on as this article is for you. Study group functions when the right members make up the group. This is by far the most important point to note. Ideally, study groups are made up of students with sincere purpose, self-discipline and commitment. Anything short of this will run contrary to its purpose. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to forming a study group. However, the guidelines below are a common sight in articles on group study. They will help make your study, and study group effective. 1. Form your group. Like I stated earlier, the success or otherwise of your study group depends on the members that make up the group. Self-disciplined members are a beauty to behold in any group.  To form a study group, you ...

I've seen many reasons adduced by several individuals why grades do not matter or are less important in determining future successes. I do think the influence of grades has been understated. No doubt, grades can be a poor way to determine someone's success or better still, measure an individual's self-worth. Your success in life or otherwise may not be determined by how excellent your grades are. It probably isn't going to make you successful or unsuccessful. However, grades are an instant image of you at any point in time. Grades are the foremost tools schools use to measure it's students abilities. This means it will give a huge initial judgement about you, which transcends beyond the academic environment. If you think grades don't matter, ask that friend who missed that fully paid scholarship by graduating with a third class. Grades matter if you desire to get that competitive job where employers look at CGPA. As a fresh graduate, grades will matt...

If you've ever been within the Nigerian academic environment, it's common to hear the oversabi cliché and its other synonyms such as ITK and 'I too know' bandied around. Oversabi as they call it, isn't an English word. It derives its origin from the Nigerian pidgin, a severely distorted version of the English language.It has been taken to mean overdoing something- an assignment, a test, and activity, or anything in particular. Of particular importance is its use within the academic environment, where it is used most times in describing students who present unique coursework. In order not to suffer the infamy of being termed an oversabi, students now turn in bland and mediocre works. Ingenuity has been jettisoned for mediocrity! A lectures gives a task to a group of students, they head over to google, do a few cut and paste, and immediately, assignments are ready for submission. Not content with that, those who dared to stand out with well researche...

Many students love quick fixes. This topic is an abridged version of the one I wrote earlier. So if you fall into the group I mentioned above, read on. To improve you CGPA and write that eye-popping CGPA, follow the steps as itemized below. Don't miss classes/lectures. Copy notes but listen more during lecture sessions. Read you notes promptly (don't pile it up).  Seek other relevant course materials and use them (the internet and the library are good sources). Get you own personal academic materials/equipment (calculator, drawing board, pen, mathematical set, meter rule, stencils and the likes depending on your course of study) and carry it about. Choose a suitable study plan and time. Get past question papers and review them. Know your lecturers, their demands and styles. Choose your electives wisely. Make use of reading strategies such as SQ3R. Roll with the good guys (make friends with those well behaved and intelligent coursemates). Be determined and op...

A quick break from all of these CGPA and GPA articles (hehe). Below is a lamentation (I can't find another word to use at the moment) by a trainee teacher as experienced first-hand by me, on the perceived rigours of the teaching profession. OGA TEACHER Each time I try to picture myself in front of a class teaching, I get that butterfly feeling in my stomach.  Yet, each passing day brings the day of 'reckoning' closer. The scores of eyes staring at me. Having to deal with the "good mor...ning sir" choreographed with precision. How do I begin the lesson?  "Our topic today is...". "You see, to make this work, you need to have a perfect understanding of...” enough! My belly aches. What of the noise and loud chatter? "Shut up", "sit down", get out", this looks really exhausting. Oh, how we gave our teachers tough time years back. Karma! I wasn't such a difficult person though. If this routine activity wa...