HOW I GOT AN AWARD IN ENGLISH STUDIES

I am not a native English speaker though English Language is the Lingual Franca in my Country because Britain colonised us but I did get a Federal Award for Excellence in English Language Studies when I was about to leave College.

How did that happen?

By magic?  Hell No.

Here's how...

1. I always Loved that course :
Every English class was party to me. I enjoyed it and I participated keenly during class so I got good grades... I started building my love for English language the same way I loved to read books, novels, articles. They were written in English Language so loving them meant I loved the Study of English Language in itself.

2. I took notes down :
In my English class, I always paid full attention and jotted important points down, that also built and Increased my First Love for Writing .

3. I sat in front of class :
It was like a permanent position, everyone knew where I would sit, it was my reservation for English class and every other classes I took.

4. I showed Interest in the course and it's teacher :
Even when class was getting boring, I would raise my hand, ask questions that would bring up more questions from others and before we say "Jack Robinson " everyone has something they want to say to prove they weren't dullards.

5. I was willing to participate in English studies related Competitions :
It made me versatile because to win a competition, you have to read a lot and do a lot of writing too. I participated in literary competitions and won so that registered my name on most teachers mind that I was brilliant.

6. I read, researched and revised my notes immediately after school : English studies was like champagne to me, I used it to create breaks in between seemly difficult subjects any time I was studying. You can do that too, use your favourite subject to break the ice before studying other subjects. 

I also researched further about it too because English Language like I know is not static, it is Dynamic, so you keep upgrading if you must know it to a great extent. 

7. I was a curious learner :
My curiosity to learn English properly improved my Vocabulary a great deal. I wanted to know more so I had to keep Learning everyday, I learned new words every day. 

Well, not like I didn't do well in other courses but I did excellently well in English Studies  and that's why I wrote this to tell you how.

I am sure if you did this for every other course, you would excel in them too. 

These worked for me and I just shared them with you briefly, Find what works for you too and feel free to write back to us at bibeychukwusa@gmail.com , we would publish yours too to encourage students  to work more and be excellent.

PRACTICE DOES NOT MAKE PERFECT!

This ancient cliché tells you “Practice makes perfect” but if you look at it logically it doesn’t. Yes it doesn’t... I have always heard my teachers at various points in my life tell me that practicing a particular art would make me perfect in it... Hey! sometimes we got to question rigid clichés and that’s what I just want to do and I just did.

I learnt to drive a manual automobile, I mean a car, at 17. Someone may say I have perfected it but do we actually get perfect?
I see a public transport driver who tells me he’s been driving for 25years and my brain tells me “wow! You’re looking at a perfect driver.”

Hey! If he is perfect, what happened last week when he lost control of the car and hit a tree? You may tell me  “No… accidents happen, and there are a few external factors that could be the cause.” but the fact remains, the car doesn’t control itself, the driver does and most importantly, it’s an accident, also known as a Mistake... And a Mistake is an attribute of imperfection.

Who ever says Practice makes perfect? When another cliché says “Nobody is Perfect”. And if nobody is perfect how come the solution to imperfection is Practice? Do you get my perspective at all?

Practice doesn’t make you generally perfect neither does it make you perfect in that one area, it only improves you in that area, makes you efficient so you do better but that doesn’t eliminate the probability of a mistake even though it’s a minuit mistake. A mistake is a mistake and a sign of imperfections.

If practice makes perfect, why do you still make mistakes when you write or scribble on a note? Remember if you are 30 by now that means you’ve been writing for over 25 years if you started scribbling at age 3 or 5. Yet you still make mistakes when you type or write, not because you don’t know how to write or because you don’t know what you’re doing but because that’s a reminder that you are imperfect, we are imperfect.

So what does Practice do? You should know by now; It makes you Efficient, it improves you on that stuff you’ve been practicing on, like if you’ve been learning your math often, you get efficiency solving that area of maths, now when given another area how well or ‘perfect’ you do has a lot to do with your fluid intelligence, your ability to take the knowledge you learned from a previous maths problem to solving the next math problem.

So, next time you quote the cliché, change it, say it this way “Practice makes Efficient.”