Time Flies…So? What are you doing about it?

We are currently in the third week of the school calendar. The eleven weeks of lectures, tests, and assignments are slowly but surely creeping upon us.

It is not uncommon to hear jokes about the date of resumption, especially among non-freshmen. The start of the session according to the school management was the 21st of August with classes beginning on the 28th. Yet, as we are about to begin the new semester, some students are yet to ‘resume’. This means that some students (usually those who live out of town) have not begun lectures, perhaps receiving notes and recordings from friends.

As per the decision of the management, the duration of the academic semester is 11 weeks, unlike the previous sessions where students had 13 weeks of lectures. Freshmen might have very little trouble with this calendar as they have known nothing else, but others who are used to 13 weeks of classes, might suddenly look up when tests begin, wondering where all the time has gone.

The startling reality is that we had very little time in the beginning. Not to talk of the time we have left. The changes in the school calendar have affected virtually all activities on campus. The structure of the current academic calendar and your outlook on that calendar play a part in determining the extent to which your goals will be achieved at the end of the session.

One particularly overused quote is, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” But the fact that Benjamin Franklin's words are now a cliché, does not make them any less true. It applies to almost every situation where a form of readiness is necessary, speeches, pitches, and yes, academics.

It is very important to understand that now is the time to begin hard work and preparations before exams or tests begin. Cramming two weeks before examinations is just as unproductive as it sounds and yet it is the norm for the average student. So, successfully pulling all-nighters is a celebrated reading culture at the University of Ibadan, and those who can pull them off consecutively are celebrated as the best, and the most hardworking. Starting term papers days before they are due should be a thing of the past. A terrible habit that should be broken.

Imagine, for once, that the approach of the tenth and eleventh week does not come with apprehension or fear but with a certainty that the past ten to eleven weeks have been spent in preparation for acing two weeks of exams.

When the sixth week rolls around, it certainly seems like the Fresher’s welcome was held barely a week ago, however, you have an impressive backlog of lecture notes and assignments that you cringe from every day to prove that weeks have passed. Time is not your friend, it is a tool. One of many that would be undeniably helpful in the Race of the Academic Year.

Some habits ought to be cultivated early in the session. Habits that will not only aid studentship but can also help an individual to become her most productive self.

One of the most important lifelong skills is time management. Eleven weeks were given to all students but some produced more results (not necessarily academic) than others. If time is managed wisely and with due diligence, then eleven weeks no longer seems too little. With this, a student can engage in extra-curricular activities, volunteer, and fulfill religious obligations. Deciding what to do and when to do it is an important skill every student should have. 24 hours is never enough time to get things done. But armed each morning with a list of things to achieve for the day will go a long way in achieving your goals.

Another important thing is to be result/goal-oriented. Anyone can be busy. It is a fatal trap that students fall into and they continue to explore even after they are no longer in school. Success is not always measured by the amount of effort that is put into an endeavor. It is important to be goal-oriented.

It is not enough that study is measured by how long you spend in the reading room/library. Or how many TDB sessions you have done in a week, because let’s face it, some efforts are futile. Does this make these efforts any lesser or less genuine than the effort put in by “more successful” students? No, it does not.

The best way to view this is to get more for less. Better results with fewer hours of study. We are not saying that we have the shortcut to success in our left pocket. But the solution to this, much like the solution to other problems is efficiency.

How to understand more material in less time. How to do assignments in the quickest (and most ethical) way.

The need to buckle down cannot be exaggerated, but sadly some students only begin to see this need when they are halfway into the session. This does not mean all hope is lost. But we shouldn’t leave to tomorrow what ought to be done today.