Little did I know that the class repeat I had while transiting to primary school was just the beginning of my trials in my academic journey. I won't bore us with the details, but in summary, I suffered quite a number of setbacks.
My learning techniques were often used as a payback for my setbacks. Take this ride with me at specific stages of my studies.
I am not sure what inspired me to be serious with my academics, but probably because I was tired of failing. Not until my parents saw some commitments towards my education did they enroll me in an extra mural class. It used to be called "K-class" at Tanke, here in Ilorin, and our tutor was Mr. Ande, now a professor of Zoology. The evening extra mural classes were an opportunity to meet with friends after school, though not for as much playtime as we needed, but it was better than none.
Eventually, my dad got me a one-on-one lesson tutor, Mr. Mohammed, who is also a professor now. He came to my house to teach me my lesson subjects, and even when I tried to escape his tutoring, he always had me in the corner. Well, I woke up late academically in my elementary school, but I was among the top five in the school and eventually came in second in Kwara State at the national common entrance examinations.
I was mostly preoccupied with the school prefectship in high school and paid less attention to my academics. Lucky for me, I was in a gifted academy where bright students attended. The least I could do was come out with average scores, which I eventually did. Let me fast-forward to my university or college years.
I got admitted to study anatomy when I wanted medicine. I took it in good faith, knowing that the best twenty exceptional students would automatically cross over to continue their study of medicine. When I resumed freshman year, I was shocked by the resolutions from students of both anatomy and physiology; everyone wanted to crossover to medicine, except a lady friend of mine who claimed to be comfortable with physiology. Seeing that over two hundred students competed for twenty slots, I almost gave up except that I had a rule:
I can't assimilate in a quiet environment, I get bored easily, and also, when it's all noisy, assimilation is difficult. Thus, I enjoyed studying in environments where I was not alone but also not noisy. I like seeing people walk about as a form of distraction. This is the main reason why I did not enter the school library more than three times in my freshman year, and the times I did were either spent sleeping in the library or chitchatting. This same attitude continued with me in the latter years of my undergraduate career; I never entered the library in medical school.
Reading and stretching my body by moving about helped me often. I could check on friends and colleagues and help them solve some questions while also benefiting from their wealth of knowledge. This was my way of not doing more than my best and not doing less. My eyes were never ready for reading like some colleagues, and I was never the type to sit at the front for maximal concentration. In fact, I was a back bencher, and I continued that title till I graduated.
Thankfully, I was the twentieth student to make the list of those to be crossed over to medicine. It was a miracle, since I had almost given up. I tried to maintain the tempo; however, medical school is a different ball game. The technique below helped me, though:
We were moved to the mini campus and advised on mighty and big textbooks to buy and read. After a few weeks, I studied each lecturer and asked about them to know what they wanted. There are some lecturers that want verbatim that which they have taught you, while by some lecturers's teaching, you can deduce which textbook they're using to teach. This was how I got to know the direction to take.
Remember when I told you I was quite playful? I am that student you should not follow blindly. While my colleagues would not see me reading during the day, they did not know I usually went to the other campus (which is the main campus) to read at night. While at the main campus, I tried to replicate on a sheet of paper what I was taught earlier. To me, I wanted to replicate the topic as though, remembering to state all relevant points. This method helped me, especially for tutors who would bring questions from within the lines of their topics.
So, I got overwhelmed with academics and had a major setback that warranted me repeating a class in medical school. Painfully, it was just a subject I failed, and I had to wait a whole year to have it repeated. And yet again, I picked up the whole textbook and summarized on different sheets of paper the fifty-three topics therein. I made sure that all the relevant points needed were in those sheets, and rather than pick a textbook to read, especially when the examination approached, it was easy for me to pick my sheets of papers and answer the questions, come what may. Among those that had a class repeat and had to rewrite some examinations still within the subject,. It was an easy ride through that course at the end of the year. I took my time and summarized the whole chapter in a book. It was like having all relevant points at my fingertips.
Something similar happened at my postgraduate level when I prepared for my residency examination. The examination was for April, but I lazily read through December, the year before, and heightened my reading when the examination got close. By the time I was writing the examination, I had solved most of the past questions (even though some past questions will show up a few hours before the examination). Though just a fraction of the past questions were repeated, I was able to scale through with the other questions and came out passing the examination, which was in 2021.
It is often believed that people have different learning techniques. I have listened to audio and even watched videos to learn. I love to stick with what works best for me for each academic challenge.
Here is my entry into #aprilinleo monthly and daily prompts. You can participate via this LINK
Thank you for reading. I would love to have your comments and contributions.