Handling Academic Failure 6 Chapter 5: Reasons For Academic Failure

1. YOU DID NOT READ ENOUGH

One major reason students fail is because they have not read enough. This may likely be the reason you failed too. By your own standard, you may think you have given it your best shot but your best has proved not to be enough. You probably did not cover as much as you should, hence you could not deliver as much as you should in the examination hall.

You must guard against this next time. Always read everything that is expected of you before you walk into the examination hall. Do not just read it once, read it over and over again. By doing this, the subject matter becomes part of you and you are able

to confidently answer any question asked. Then your success is sure.

2. YOU READ MORE THAN ENOUGH

Another problem could be that you read more than you were supposed to. This in most schools is called over-syllabus. In your quest for more information, you read far more than the school syllabus stipulated, and hence garnered enough irrelevant facts to the detriment of the useful ones.

At the time of the action, you may not realize how harmful it could be to you. However in the examination hall, this becomes clear. You remembered everything you have read except the important things. Unfortunately for you, the examiner will not award you marks for what you have read, but for satisfactory answers to his questions. Hence, you failed.

This is very pathetic. Try as much as possible next time to study within the perimeter of the school's scheme of work. At times, it may be necessary to

go some extra length but do not go farther away from the circ.u.mference of the syllabus. What will you say of a JSS 3 student preparing for his Mathematics examination with Engineering Mathematics, a textbook for Year-One Engineering Student in the university?

3. YOU DID NOT REST ENOUGH

The temptation to overwork yourself during examination period is always very high on campus. This is because most students do not always read when school resumes. They pile up their workload until examination time table is released. At such time, they read all day and night to make up for the time they have wasted, denying the body system its due right.

The body system can not be operated like machines which rarely rest. So, at the most awkward time, the time you least expects, it demands its own share of your time.

Most times, this may be during examination periods. This is why you find more students falling sick during examination periods than during normal lecture periods. They have so overworked themselves and so overdrive the body so much that it rebels.

It may not come through sickness alone. You possibly might just become drowsy in the examination hall, and the temptation to sleep becomes greater by the minute. This is always because you have not had enough rest and not because of any spiritual force working against your progress.

4. YOUR THOUGHT LINE WAS NOT ORGANIZED

It is possible that the reason you failed is because your thought-line was not organized. You obviously may have read enough but you were not able to arrange your thought in the best frame. Your thought was scattered, your reasoning irrational, and your presentation not straightened.
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5. YOU WERE NOT WELL COMPOSED

You may be too fidgety in the examination hall. The examination tension may cause your nerves to misbehave, especially when you are not too certain that you have prepared well enough.

Every time the invigilator pa.s.sed by, you lost your concentration. Every movement around you distracted you and worse still got you scared. It seemed all eyes were on you always. This lack of proper composure may cause you to make some serious mistakes.

6. YOU FORGOT WHAT YOU READ

This is not peculiar to you; it happens to everyone. It is called brain stuck/block. You just forget everything you have read. This happens most times when your preparation is not adequate enough. Your head just becomes blank and you cannot think of the right thing to say or write.

7. YOUR WRITING WAS NOT LEGIBLE

Illegible handwriting can cause failure too. When your writing is not clear enough for others to read, you stand the chance of being misread, misunderstood or misconstrued. The examiner does not have the time to invite you back to his office to explain to him what you wrote or meant.

He a.s.sumes, and his a.s.sumption may get you into trouble.

This is why every student needs to write with care in the examination hall. It is not enough to keep writing with speed in order to save time, write clearly. Your handwriting may not necessarily be the award winning type, but make it readable and legible.

8. YOU DIDN'T MANAGE YOUR TIME WELL

It could also be that you did not manage your time well. You spent more time on some questions to the detriment of some other questions. This may be because you fell in love with the topics from which the questions were asked, or that you knew the answer so much that you kept writing without considering that there were other questions to attend to. Always divide your time among the questions you have, it will help you a lot.

9. Y O U M I S U N D E R S T O O D T H E QUESTION

It is possible to misunderstand the question. This happens to many students; they give the right answers to the wrong questions, or the wrong answers to the right questions. These happens when you have not read the question well enough and then jump into answering them.

This is why every student must read every question thoroughly and understand it before venturing to provide answers to them, bearing in mind that if you misunderstand the question, you will miss the answer.

10. YOU FEARED THE COURSE

The last most likely reason you failed is that you over-feared the course. You feared it so much that you knew beforehand that you were going to fail. You already were prepared for it; you just went to the examination hall to confirm your doubts. You knew there was no way you could have pa.s.sed considering your level of preparation for the examination, preconceived idea about the course, hatred of the lecturer and of the course. This may be why you failed.

To learn more about why students fail and what they need to do to pa.s.s, you can read the author's book t.i.tled SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS © 2000 SAM. O. SALAU