YOU CAN ACE THE PAPERS; JUST PREPARE WELL

“You can never guarantee you'll be the smartest person in the room, but there is no excuse for not being the most prepared." 

Brendan Paddick

It will be quite heart breaking to spend countless hours in your studies and then to be robbed of victory in your exams because of ill-preparation. That is why at the cost of making this book longer than I had planned it to be, I am compelled to add a chapter on how to prepare adequately for your examinations

Practical Tips and Strategies For Preparing For Your Exams

There are three main stages where you have to prepare yourself as far as examinations are concerned; the very few days before the examination, during the examination and then after the examination.

Before the exams

1. Create an exam timetable/schedule. Even though a lot of your performance in your exams depends on how studious you were from the beginning of the semester, your last-minute preparations can make a lot of difference. As we learnt in the chapter on planning, you should always draw a different timetable for your exams.  I hope you still remember all the tips about drawing timetables. You should find out how much time you have before the actual exam begins, identify your strengths and weaknesses and allocate time to each subject based on that information. Having drawn a comprehensive timetable, you should endeavour to follow it to the letter. If you do not discipline yourself to stick to your exam timetable, you will have quite a big price to pay. Therefore, make sure the timetable is realistic enough for you to be able to follow it.

2. Prepare well before the exams. Examinations do not just pop out of the blue. You will usually know of them way back. Hence, you should not be caught unawares by them. It will not help to leave everything to the last minute. Therefore, throughout the semester, you should take your studies and lectures seriously. That way, by the time exams pops up, you will be all ready to get your distinctions.

3. This is the time to utilise your notebooks. The exam period is the period to review and memorise your notes; it is not the time to read fat textbooks. The reason is simple; if during exams you find yourself still reading textbooks, you will most probably run out of time. It does not mean you should not read textbooks at all. In fact, if you have enough time to read all that you have to in your textbook, you should go ahead. But this is most likely not going to be the case. Therefore, make sure you write comprehensive notes for use when you are preparing for your exams.

4. Create flashcards or summary sheets. As you do your final preparations, summarising the information on flashcards may make studying certain facts easier and even exciting. A flashcard is basically a small rectangular piece of paper with a question on one side and the answer on the other side. You could even go online to create your own flashcards on websites such as www.quizlet.com. You could also condense the essential facts onto sheets of papers for quick reference. Do not try to put every piece of information into the flashcards or summary sheets. You should concentrate on the easily forgettable facts/factoids.

5. Get into the mind of the examiner. As you study for your exams, you should occasionally put yourself in the shoes of the examiner. Think like him. Ask yourself, what question will I have asked in this section if I were an examiner? Write down the questions as you study and try to answer them. Sometimes, you will be surprised to find the same questions in your exams. After all, the examiner is a human like you, and so you can think alike.

Apart from forming your own questions, you should also pay attention to points that were emphasised by the lecturer. Teachers always characteristically repeat concepts that they would like to test students on. So, take note when you observe a teacher stressing on a point over and over again.

6. Make every second and minute count. If there is any other time you should make sure you use time judiciously, it is during your preparations for your exams. As we learnt earlier, this is the time to carry your jotter/flashcards/summary sheets with you everywhere you go. That way, you can revise even as you stand in queues or as you are in traffic.

7. Attempt sample questions to get an idea of the nature of the exam. Fortunately, there are a lot of sample questions available for you to use. Some lecturers even give out sample questions for students to try their hands on. You will be putting yourself at an unnecessary disadvantage if you do not try to answer sample questions. If you find problems answering them, it may mean you did not really understand the concepts and will need to go through them again. If it is possible, you can seek help from a colleague.

8. Undertake regular exercise and eat well. More than anything, you will need a sound mind to concentrate on your studies. Therefore, even as you prepare for your examinations, do well to still exercise even if it is for a few minutes. You should also avoid depriving yourself of sleep as this will affect the storage of information that you have learnt. Apart from exercise, you should also eat well to preserve your health and provide you with energy.

9. Know your exam timetable very well. In the university where you have so many students writing examinations on the same day in different examination halls, it is important to know exactly where you are writing your paper and at what time. It is not unusual to find students in the morning running up and down, because they cannot locate their exam halls. It will take nothing from you if you even go to check out the examination hall a day before the exam if the location is not familiar to you.

10. Send all the materials that you will need to the exam hall. A day before the exam, you should make a checklist of all the materials that you will need for the exam and put all of them in your bag. Before you leave for the examination grounds, do well to check again, just to make sure that you have all that you need. Precious time will be wasted should you walk into the exam hall without your pen, compass or other materials. If possible, get additional pens and pencils, just in case your pen/pencil stops working.

If the examination requires that you bring your identity card, do well to send it. You may not be allowed to write the exams if you do not send your ID card. One important thing that you must send to the exam hall is a watch (a digital watch preferably). It will help you to keep track of your progress against the time that you have, so that you will know when to accelerate or decelerate.

11. You have to be positive about your capabilities. You need to psyche yourself up for the exam. Some students spend all the time they have snivelling about what they have not yet studied. You should avoid this! Throughout the semester, you have learnt a lot and should not be afraid or anxious. You cannot possibly know everything under the sun in a particular subject matter, but you can know just enough to come out with distinction. Therefore, do not be discouraged by how much you have not studied; be encouraged by how much you have studied.

12. Arrive as early as possible. Arriving early to the examination hall will give you ample time to relax and calm down. On the contrary, rushing in late into the exam hall will not only make you nervous, but also takes away your precious time.

13. Do a self-check before you step into the examination hall. During your preparation, it is possible to have left a summary sheet or a flashcard in your pocket. Therefore, check yourself to ensure that you have no foreign material on you even before the invigilator inspects you. Should you enter the examination hall with a foreign material unknowingly, raise your hand as soon as possible and report it to the invigilator and do not try to hide it.

 During the exams

1. It is normal to be a little nervous, but control it. It is normal that just before the exam, you will find your heart beating a little faster and probably a little perspiration here and there. Do not worry, that is just adrenaline doing its job and will pass away soon if you control it. What you have to do is to relax, take in deep breathes, and be positive about the exam.

2. Follow the instructions strictly. The examination is basically a set of instructions that you are expected to comply with. You should not be in a rush to supply answers to questions. What if the instruction is “do not attempt any question”? You would have deviated completely if you started answering the questions blindly. Therefore, read the instructions painstakingly and make it a point to comply with all of them.

3. Do a “brain dump.” You will agree with me that there are certain concepts that are just too elusive to keep in one’s memory. They can easily be forgotten as soon as they are learned. This is especially true for laws in the physical sciences or other formulas. For such, immediately they say start work, it will be convenient for you to quickly write them down so that you do not forget them. This is what I mean by you doing a “brain dump.” It is like dumping elusive information as soon as possible. However, let me be quick to add that doing this before the start of the paper may be considered a malpractice. Therefore, do wait until the exam has officially started.

4. Survey the entire question paper. Once the exam or test has started, the first thing to do is not to start writing your answers. You should preview the entire paper. Find out how many questions you are expected to answer; how much time you have and how many marks have been allocated to each section. That way, you will be able to allocate time to the different sections depending on the weight of marks and then work towards that goal. Doing this will help you to avoid the possibility of running out of time.

In some examinations, you are allowed some time to read through the question paper before officially starting the exam. In that case, you can use that time to survey the question paper and planning so that when the paper starts, you will be good to go.

4. Skip difficult questions and return to them later. If the questions carry equal marks, there is no need spending so much time on a question you honestly do not know. Skip such items and move on to the easy ones. You can always come back to the more difficult ones to try them out again.

5. Write legibly. Whether you are writing your index number, name or your answers, you should always write boldly and legibly. For the examiner to be able to mark, he/she will have to be able to read what you have written first of all. Therefore, if it is not legible enough, you are likely to lose some marks. In fact, the examiner is impressed by a neat, legible handwriting, but you should not be overly worried because your handwriting is not good enough. I am not oblivious of the fact that some students naturally do not have good handwriting. So the trick is, don't panic if that is the case. I have a tall list of “academic gurus” who do not have very good handwriting. So even if you do not have a good handwriting, be confident and try to write as legible as you can and make sure all the key facts are presented.

6. Go over the test when you are done. Do not be in a haste to go out of the exam hall; after all, there will be more time after the paper is officially over. If you are done, there is no harm in reading through your work to dot your “i’s” and cross your “t’s.” This will also afford you the opportunity to fish out mistakes and correct them before you hand over your answer sheets.

7. Ignore other test takers. Once the examination has started, you have to work as an individual. Focus mainly on your exam and not spend unnecessary time looking at other test takers. Focusing on other test takers may affect you negatively. For example, if you saw one of your colleagues sleeping in the exam room, you might be tempted to relax or even do same.

8. Do not cheat during the exam. All examinations that I have come across take a serious exception to cheating. Cheating does not only take away the sanctity of an examination, it also goes to demonstrate how low one’s morals are. No matter the situation, you should write the examination on your honour and not try to seek help or offer help to other people during the exam.

IS THIS LIFE A LINEAR EQUATION?

Many of us when we set-off for school are sure to receive the age-long advice-study hard in school and you would realize your dreams. Is this entirely true? We watch movies and when two people get married at the end, the story ends with “and they lived happily ever after”.  Again is that always the case? If life was as simple as purported by these assertions then life would just be a linear equation. Study hard= do well in life. Get married=live happily ever after. These assertions however fly in the face of reality. You and I have lived in this world long enough to know that things do not always happen that way.

It is unfortunate we do not talk about these things. It is unfortunate that we are not taught to know that life is not a straight road. Linear equations are quite easy to solve but if you asked me, life is a very complex equation that no mortal mathematician—not even Archimedes can work out with certainty. Life is not 1+1=2. Rather life is 1+1= erm. Wait I have to add 5, multiply by 0.3, divide by 1000 and then wait for further variables. That is how life is, not just unpredictable but sometimes difficult to understand.

The probability experts would tell us that, those who do well in academia are likely to become successful people in future.  Some people naively replace that economizing phrase “are likely” with an elusive phrase “will always”. The world is full of people who failed their exams or got expelled from school who are doing great things in this world. Bill Gates of Microsoft, Walt Disney, Simon Cowel of X-factor, the list goes on and on.  

We see celebrities on T. V smiling away to the cameras and we are like—wow, I would like to be like that. Yet we know next to nothing about what happens when they go back home from the red carpet and enter their closets.  I tell you, it is not all that glitters that is gold.

It pains me when people compare themselves to others and sentence themselves to unworthiness. As I said, move closer to the so called successful people and you would be shocked to find out that some of them wished they were just like you. You are unique, created to face unique challenges, created to get unique opportunities.  You are the only one that is exactly the same as you.

Instead of expecting life to work like a linear equation, rather ready yourself for unexpected turns and twists.  We all hope for the best but we also have to prepare ourselves for the unexpected. We have to prepare ourselves for the disappointments, for the better opportunities etc. that will definitely spring up in our lives. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Of course you cannot do anything about how life would turn out by your own strength. There is hope if you know this simple fact. Yes! Just know and accept that life is not a linear equation. That way, when things do not turn out the way you planned them to, you would not spend your precious time brooding over spilled milk.

GOD'S LOVE : THIS EASTER PERIOD AND BEYOND

I guess when we talk about love; our minds easily revert to the story of Romeo and Juliet. At the tail end of their tragic romance, Romeo drank a portion of poison when he realized that Juliet, the love of his life was dead. Having woken up from her deep sleep and realizing Romeo was dead; Juliet also stabbed herself to death. There is no doubt from their tragic acts that they had an inseparable addiction to one another. To each of them, it was worthless living if the other partner was not alive. And yet they each had something special they saw in the other partner. 

For example, both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun, brighter than a torch, a jewel sparkling in the night, and a bright angel among dark clouds. Juliet also described Romeo as "day in night" and "Whiter than snow upon a raven's back.” In other words, each of them had a reason for showing that intense love for the other partner.

After the fall of man, man became corrupted, polluted and lost fellowship with God. There was nothing in man worth loving. Unlike Romeo and Juliet who each found something in the other to motivate their love, man had nothing and absolutely nothing to motivate any love.

Notwithstanding the fact that there was nothing to love in man, God showed unmerited favour, grace, mercy and love in saving man from doom. The sacrificial death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary demonstrated a deep seated and unimaginable love. There can be no one ever like God. Yes, we were made in the image of God and can to a certain degree emulate His illustrious and majestic virtues however we can never have the heart that God has. He showed love when there was absolutely nothing in us to merit His divine love and mercy.

That same love still blazes on even to this day and all we have to do is to have faith in that love and to trust Him to guide our way. There are some who question the love of God when bad things happen to them. But I believe that if we each had the gift of foretelling the future, we would not have done some of the things that we have done in the past. Let us say that you are able to see into the future that you have aced all your papers and out of your celebration were knocked down by a car. After that revelation, would you pray to God to help you ace all your papers?

One important thing many people forget is that God is all-knowing. He can tell what will happen to us in the next few hours and in the next thirty years. Yet we always insist that things be done our way. The gratification of the flesh has taken center stage in the lives of many and instant gratification is all they ever seek for. Some unfortunately would even go to the extent of questioning God's love for them. How heartbreaking it would be for your daughter/son to walk up to you one day and say “Do you really love me dad/mom?” I believe that would be the most disheartening day of any parent and yet it is the same we do to our creator when we question His love.

When certain unfortunate things happen to us, we have to appreciate the full impact of the act. Try to ask yourself what would have happened had that event not taken place in your life and maybe you will appreciate God's blessings in disguise. Some of the things that we categorize as “bad” may in many cases become God's favourable detours to bring us onto higher ground. That is why the saying that there is a silver lining in every dark cloud could not have been more lucid, accurate and eternally correct in all respects.

His love as I said still blazes on and all we have to do is to trust, accept and have faith in that love. It is one thing hearing about this so called Love of God and another thing actually experiencing it. I have experienced this amazing love God has for all and in this Easter period, I have only one wish for you that you will also come to trust, accept and have faith in the Love of God.

CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN AFRICA

Sunday the 8^th of March marked the international women’s day. This a day which is set aside each year to recognize the contributions of women to the advancement of the world as well as tackling challenges faced by women across the world. In this piece, I discuss how we can empower women especially in Africa.

It is quite cliche when writing, commenting or speaking on women empowerment to refer to the Beijing Declaration of 1995, yet I believe it is the most conducive standpoint from which to assess the state of the world’s women. Since that declaration, more attention has been focused on women issues especially in Africa where traditionally, issues concerning women are relegated to the background. There is a popular saying that “the way to a man’s heart is through his belly”, an axiom that makes an allusion to the fact that we all need food to survive. Women do not just feed us all practically at home, but it is estimated that women provide 90% of our most survival need-food. Therefore the advancement of Africa is intricately linked with women and their potential. They are not just there to cook sumptuous meals for us or to rock the babies to sleep; neither are they there to do household chores and nod to every cough of their domineering husbands. In my opinion women are a colossus of untapped opportunity.

It is conventional wisdom that governments will always invest in areas that yield the greatest returns for the country as a whole. The statistics are quite unequivocal in their illustration of the importance of integrating the interest of women into our economic policies. Yet the gap between men and women is not being bridged at the rate that was envisioned by the Beijing declaration. Amongst other things, the declaration bemoaned the untold hardships suffered by women. I do not believe that the situation has changed significantly. Most women especially from less endowed nations grow up with one hope in life; to get married to a responsible man who will take good care of them. They have no dreams for personal advancement. This is predictable because the majority of them are illiterate. Even though a lot of public education has been carried out to bring the attention of parents to the importance of educating their daughters, many parents are yet to accept it as a normal thing.

It is reported that women in Africa own less than 1% of the total land mass. This is quite paradoxical because even though women produce the bulk of our food, they have virtually no right to land in the community. Beyond just being given equal land opportunities as men, women should be supported with agricultural inputs and soft loans to expand their farms

Another really important way of empowering women is to remove the perennial impediments to their survival. In sub-Saharan Africa, women unfortunately constitute 60% of people living with HIV/AIDS. The disease is killing a lot of able-bodied women who could have contributed to the human resource base of the country. Violence against women because of their vulnerability has contributed a great deal to the increased incidence of HIV in women. Unfortunately, when they are infected, there are no support systems and sometimes even barriers exist for seeking information on HIV. It is very common to see people stigmatizing women living with HIV as social misfits who are being punished for their past lifestyle, yet men who in my opinion are responsible for infecting many women do not take any blame. Tackling the HIV scourge is a major way of empowering women because it ensures their survival and also lessens the repercussions of the disease.

General programs will not solve the problems facing the empowerment of women in Africa; they face peculiar challenges and they need special attention. We all have to shun the inferior mentality towards women and see them as equals capable of transforming the fortunes of Africa. There is no need walking on a tiny rope across a valley when there is a beautiful bridge to walk leisurely on. Investing in women is investing in husbands, wives and children. Let us create the opportunities to bring women on board the developmental agenda of Africa.

Wutor Mahama Baleng

DISCOVER THE GIFT WITHIN YOU: GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT IS A MYTH

Many school leavers have one big but important question in mind. How am I going to secure a job once my certificate has been handed over to me? This is because, there has been an almost endless talk about graduate unemployment to the extent that it seems to be the status quo instead of being the exception when one is transitioning from school to the world of work.

Many graduates are out there without any decent job to do and waiting patiently for the government to do some kind of magic and get all of them employed. The discussion on the cause of graduate unemployment is quite cliche and I would for the sake of remaining brief  not join that discussion. However I believe that the idea of finishing school and not finding a job to do is a myth and a victim mentality that unfortunately has become well grounded in the mind-set of most graduates. And this myth has generated so much fear in these capable graduates to the extent that many of them have become virtually paralyzed by circumstances. The "victim mentality" where graduate have indoctrinated themselves that it is because of the inaction of the government that is responsible for their predicament does not hold any water.

Many graduates have searched for jobs with futility. You would see them searching frantically everywhere else but themselves for a job. I dare say that they should stop looking elsewhere for a job but rather focus the searchlight on themselves. I believe the almighty God created all of us with some thing unique and special in each of us which  cannot be found in another person. Therefore if you do a careful introspection of your abilities and systematically examine them, you would realize that deep down within you lies not just a job but a potential employer of others.

I am talking about entrepreneurship. The most successful people today did not get as much training as many of our graduates have. But they looked within themselves instead of without and used their ideas and innovations as raw materials to solve societal problems and as a reward for such a feat, society pays them handsomely for their services. The skeptical ones would be quick to shoot down the talk about entrepreneurship and rather say "if everyone one becomes an entrepreneur then there will be no profit in it". The sky they say is too wide for any two birds to collide. The are many societal problems today then ever before and if everyone sets out to solve a particular problem, at the end of the day we would even have better solutions and approaches and that will all culminate at the end of the day in societal development.

If you are a graduate, or a graduate to-be reading this, I would like to encourage to look within yourself and discover that unique and untapped resource that the almighty creator has implanted deep within you. This would not be an easy task, but if you make the conscious effort to discover this wonderful gift, you would not just lift yourself out of the woes of poverty but you would become part of the solution instead of the problem itself.

Wutor Mahama Baleng

A Case for Teamwork in Schools

For anyone who has gone through the mill of the formal school system one of the unforgettable tasks that you most probably took part in at school was group work or teamwork. Most curricula in many levels of education have always given a special place to group assignments because of their perceived benefits. This notwithstanding, over the years, there have been legitimate and serious concerns about the verifiable importance of teamwork in schools. While some feel that group work helps the student to develop totally, others think group work is rather unfair.

One argument often proffered by those critical of group work in schools is that it will always benefit the fast, vocal and boisterous students while the more introvert ones will just coil back and languish in the background. There is no denying the fact that this assertion may contain some quantum of truth. But then, it immediately begs the question; what other alternative would be useful in helping our friend—the introvert? Leaving such a person to his/her own devices may not help him/her, so at the end of the day the solution still lies with teaming such a person with other students.

Another argument often advanced against teamwork in schools is that some people may not just get along and will do badly when grouped together. But again, this begs a question; what is the real world like? The world is full of people you would most probably not get along with, but many a time you would have to compromise and work with them. It is therefore an advantage that students are exposed to this reality as early as possible in their education. After all the essence of education is not just to teach people how to read, write and do arithmetic but to be all-round individuals who can fit in squarely wherever they find themselves and this is exactly what teamwork in schools seeks to accomplish.

Furthermore, teamwork in schools helps bring students up to the same level. Most of us have had the experience of understanding a concept better after it was explained to us by a colleague. Groups in schools if well-structured can accomplish within a few days what teachers will take months to achieve. In group tasks, the smarter students are always naturally obligated to help bring the weaker ones up to their level. This benefits both parties equally, as the smart student is explaining a concept; he is emphasizing the concept for himself/herself while helping the weak student to understand. Therefore rather than discriminatory, teamwork actually creates an opportunity for the mutual benefit of the members involved.

Back in senior high school, I do remember working an Elective Mathematics question for three days without any result. Finally this friend of mine comes up and puts me in the right path and within minutes, I arrived at the correct answer. This and many more experiences with my other colleagues at school have convinced me that, teamwork inspires faster problem-solving skills amongst students. The different perspectives presented by the members in executing a group task are sometimes just too amazing. A problem no matter how complex if attacked from different angles would have no chance of survival. Teamwork therefore rather than benefit a few, sharpens the problem-solving skills of all the members in the group. Group members would usually tend to adopt perspectives of other members which help them to solve problems faster.

Around the world the school syllabi are becoming overloaded. More academic work needs to be done within a limited time frame and teamwork comes in very handy in this regard. Group work offers an opportunity for students to pool their knowledge and hence more ground is covered than would have been done individually. Different group members obtain information from different textbooks; do research from different angles and the fusion and integration of all of these ideas makes for a delicious soup of knowledge. Hence, instead of having to pile up tens of textbooks on your study desk and become discouraged by the sheer load of work, one just has to master a few concepts and then learn the rest from the other group members at a group meeting.

Additionally, in a world where people are becoming increasingly individualistic and greedy, teamwork in schools offers us an opportunity to turn the tables. Many of us probably made our first friends in school within the group that we were assigned to. Teamwork creates a bond that cements all the members together because of the shared goal all the members have. Apart from helping one another academically, the group members also support one another outside the school system. This ensures that the student is trained to be able to look out for other people in the world and not just himself/herself. Today, the world is replete with so many crimes because of greed and lack of affection for other people. This gives us another reason to emphasize group work in schools so that the priceless trait of looking out for others and not just oneself would be imparted in students.

From the above, it goes without saying that group work is absolutely necessary and rather than discriminate, it inspires students. Group work does not only build well-rounded students, but also creates opportunities for students to pool knowledge and help one another in school. The outcome at the end of the day is productive academic work and improvement in the grades of all students and not just a few privileged ones. Teamwork therefore is a win-win approach to learning in schools.

Redefining courage; Lessons for education 

 

By Baleng Wutor Mahama. Baleng is a 21 year old third year pre-medical student at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. He is from Tumu, Ghana. Please read his article and leave your thoughts and comments below. *Shortlisted for the NUHA Adult Blogging Prize 2014* 
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Growing up as a child, one of the people I have come to identify with and in fact whose memory I will forever cherish is that of the first black president of South Africa Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. We loved Madiba as he is referred to in his native Xhosa clan so much that we knew him more than ourselves. It became a habit therefore to memorize the many poignant quotes that Mandela made one of which is his famous axiom that "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear". I could not agree more to this eternal truth that has within itself a lot of wisdom we can tap from if we are to overcome the plethora of challenges facing the acquisition of good quality education.

Education is the key to many of the challenges that we face today. Democracy as promising as it looks, still has a long way to go in many countries because of the high illiteracy rates. Education uplifts a person out of the cancer of ignorance. However, it takes courage to obtain a proper education no matter where you find yourself, whether in a poverty stricken country or in the most developed country in the world. It is therefore important for us to have a proper grasp of what courage really is while drawing important lessons from the life of Nelson Mandela.

Courage is not bullying other kids in school. Courage is not settling down on easy tasks when you should be tackling a bigger challenge. Courage is our ability as human beings to overcome our fears and doubts. Mandela himself until his unfortunate passing in December, 2013 served as a living testimony of courage. How many of us today can withstand the discrimination that Mandela had to face growing up in a racially segregated South Africa? How many of us today can afford to still pick things up after languishing in prison for 27 solid years? Mandela did not just overcome these two enormous challenges but many more in his lifetime.

Fear is a thematic component of our lives and physiologically helps us to survive. And since all of us are created with a quantum of fear in us, it is instructive to realize that the ability to overcome this intrinsic fear is what really makes us courageous. None of us have been able to evade the natural phenomenon of fear no matter who we are. No matter how well prepared I am for an exam, my heart would usually miss a beat anytime an exam paper is about to start. This however does not make me weaker than any other student; neither does it have any bearing on the grade I will obtain at the end of the day. It is our ability to handle fear that truly makes us courageous. Courage like fear resides in all of us and we must never lose sight of this glowing fact.

Growing up in Ghana where educational facilities are lacking, where some parents prefer to send their children to tend farms rather than send them to school, it takes courage to brave the storm to attain an education. This is one of the reasons why we readily identified with Nelson Mandela back in basic school. He started out as a cattle-boy in his small village like many of us and ended up being a global icon. In today's age and time, there are still many families who do not understand the importance of education and see it as a waste of time. It takes courage to skillfully persuade one's illiterate parents to fully understand that education is not for lazy people but in fact for everyone including them. For many children in such families, that you would ever go to school lies in your ability to confront this primary hurdle in your family.

To add to the above, many students drop out of school not because they are not good enough to seek higher education, but because they do not have money to pay fees. When they finally do get the money to further their education, they are afraid considering that very few people pass the final examinations every year. It is not only the academic fear they would have to bear with, but they will also have to endure the bullies in the class and in the dormitories. Notwithstanding the challenges, the courageous ones endure and still make it. Real courageous people like Mandela are not washed away by the magnitude of problems they encounter but strive to find the silver lining in every dark cloud.

Another practical application of courage in education is that it teaches us never to give up. As I described earlier, the sheer problems inherent in obtaining quality education in many African countries has led many to call it quits. But some have purposed in their hearts to withstand the fear, confront the challenges squarely and triumph over them. Such people refuse to be discouraged by the bleak future hanging menacingly on their heads but rather have resolved to utilize the opportunities available to them today.

Another lesson we can draw from Nelson Mandela's axiom is to pick ourselves up when we strip and fall in our quest to obtain an education. Some people unfortunately are consumed by one or two challenges and finally fail in a particular aspect of the struggle. Such are the times we have to demonstrate courage and rise up again, shake off the dirt and blaze new and even better trails. Fear and challenges are not in themselves bad, they rather give us an opportunity to be better, an opportunity to be courageous. Several students have committed suicides because they have failed their exams. Some have decided to even call it quits because their grades are not improving. Failure is an ordinary and sometimes even necessary component of the human life. What we must do especially with respect to education is not to look so hard at our bad grades that we miss the golden opportunities available to turn the tables around. We must always appreciate the bigger picture and not be discouraged by a few mishaps. Just because one may fail in one or two subjects does not make you a failure as a human being. Academic work can

sometimes be frustrating but the truth is that at the end of the day we will get to learn something we did not know before.

Nelson Mandela once said that "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". Today throughout the world, there is a general cry for change. There is a general consensus that the world is not in the best of shapes and something urgently needs to be done. For so long we have looked for this "something" in politics but it has not worked. Why don't we take a break and appreciate that one of the best ways of really changing this world is to look up to education. However, let me be quick to add that the challenges in ensuring that everyone receives good quality education are many and the struggle will be a difficult one. Notwithstanding this, Nelson Mandela offers us another solution to overcoming the challenges that we will most surely meet in his axiom that "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear".