Factors That Promote Academic Excellence
Excellence means being superior in what is good. While to excel means to do better than others in a chosen field. It also means to be very good, to be best among equals. Before you talk about surpassing others, it means there is competition. This struggle could be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual even financial. It could be an amalgam of two or more.
Meanwhile, there are many factors that promote academic excellence. And in this article we are going to list and discuss about them.
Factors That Affect Academic Excellence
Here are 6 factors that contributes to academic excellence:
1. Vision
First of all, you must have known why you are in school. There must have been a vision, which you may call your ambition. It is the ambition in life that is the driving force in your academic pursuit. This is why you must be in love with your chosen discipline. If you do not like the course you are reading, it may affect your zeal to study. And when the zeal is not there, comprehension becomes difficult.
For the above reason, parents are always advised not to force their wards into course or disciplines, which they have no aptitude for.
If per chance you have already found yourself in a situation where you are reading a course that does not give you joy, it may affect your academic performance.
2. Diligence
According to Stewart Johnson, “Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves to break our own records, to outstrip our yesteryears by today, to do our work with more force before”. Our failures most times could be traced to our laxity. May times, we waste a large chunk of our day.
As Abraham Lincoln opined, “I will study and prepare myself, and one day when the time comes, I will be ready”.
Diligence means steady application of efforts. It means showing care and efforts to what we do. If you choose time to study, stick to that time if it has been rewarding. This also applies to place of study. Study daily before the examination timetable is released. Early reading and absorbing will help to lessen your workload during the exam period.
Diligence in academic pursuits has to do with time management, the type of friends you keep and the type of thing you read.
You should utilize every available time to enhance your academic capacity. Read past and future works to be acquainted with the course requirements. Study and be prepare for when the time comes for exams, you will be ready.
3. Private Timetable
One of the most important factors that promote academic performance is your timetable. Prepare a private Timetable. Though this is not easy to follow, but with commitment, you will get used to it
If you read in your room, you can paste the timetable close to your reading table. But if you read outside like those who prefer reading under the trees or in the library, make a copy of the timetable and put in your book.
If you are able to keep to the timetable, don’t stop. Perseverance will do the magic.
According to Louis xiv, “there is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself”. If by persistence you conquer the habit of keeping diligently to your reading (study) timetable, then you are on your way to achieving academic excellence.
4. Relationship With Friends And Classmates
Academic failure could be traced to the companies you keep. If you have observed that your friends are not as enthusiastic as you are in studies, curtail the friendship if you must excel. They may have godfather’s in the Exams and Records depart. At times, lecturers may dubiously stand in for them.
Do not form linkages with those who do not have the same mindsets as you. They will disrupt your academic plans.
Do not spend your time on frivolities on campus but endeavor to pass your examinations first.
5. Perseverance
To persevere means to hand on. It also means to keep steady to strive even when you do not feel like it.
Many times, a student may be discouraged by problems at home or in school. It could be a financial setback. But times of discouragement should be turned into times of perseverance. In the words of Herman Randall, “Any individual can be, in time, what he earnestly desires to be, if he but sets his face steadfastly in the direction of that one thing and brings all his parents powers to bear upon it’s attainment”.
Keep every setbacks aside and pursue your ambitions steadfastly, you will excel.
6. Confidence
Exam/academic failure could be traced to lack of confidence in yourself. If you want to achieve academic excellence, you have to have faith in your ability. The moment you start underrating yourself, you are definitely digging your academic failure.
What Are The Magic Of Academic Excellence?
1. Relax While You Read
Do not read with tension. Think back. At times, remember stories you read in newspapers and novels more than you do when you read for academic purposes because you read newspapers and novels with a relaxed mind.
To avoid this, read your academic works as simply as you would read an ordinary book.
2. Do Not Read Just Because Others Are Reading
Our capacities are not the same. There are those who can read for thirty minutes and get what they want. There are others who may read for many hours.
However, you have to check your capacity. If you feel you have had enough stop reading. Take a walk, listen to music, sleep or do something else before returning to the book.
In case you don’t know, the brain is like a pipe with both ends open. If you begin to stuff the pipe with things, the moment the substance gets to other end of the open pipe, it begins to gush out. So also, when you over work the brain, there is the tendency that the initial intake may be forgotten. Don’t imitate any body’s timing.
Other Factors that leads to failure in Academic Excellence
Just like we have discussed the factors that promote academic excellence, we are also going to explain some other factors that leads to failure in your academics.
Some of the causes of failure are:
1. Self Imposed Failure
Failure becomes persistent when students think that they will never pass certain subjects or course in examination. The chances are for such students to undermine or under utilize their given potential, forgetting that success is a matter of inner confidence and determination.
It is is unfortunate that some students use their classmates performance as a yardstick to determine their success. The fact that the most brilliant student in your class or department fails a particular subject or course does not mean that you are bound to fail it. Success depends on ones level of preparedness.
2. Dislike For Teachers/Lecturers
It is not possible to nurse dislike for a teacher or lecturer and pass his subject or course, for the fact that negative feelings toward such a teacher or lecturer will becloud the students level of attention. The interest will be blunt and the possibility of passing his courses will diminish.
3. Laziness Or Slothfulness
Laziness is one of the most notable obstacles to academic success. Laziness is exhibited in various ways. There are a group of students that merely writes but never study them or attempt to assimilate what is taught. Other students detest lectures.
4. Absenteeism
For any reasonable success to be recorded in students academic performance, all traits of absenteeism and truancy should be eliminated.