Here, we’ve tried to compile tips on how to graduate with first class. It isn’t easy, but eventually you will learn how to graduate with first class in Nigeria university. Everyone in the university wishes they could graduate with a first class or at least a second class upper. We know very well it would make our parents proud and also boost our overall confidence. But deep down, we know that it isn’t an easy feat. It isn’t easy but it is definitely possible if you discipline yourself and maintain a really strict routine.
If you think the only way to get a first class is through “extra chips” or excessive sorting of courses, I’m happy to tell you that you’re completely wrong and far from the truth. There are numerous people who have graduated with high CGPAs without spending a dime trying to sort.
If you believe you can’t achieve something, then you probably won’t achieve it. The difference between you and the people who graduate with first class is the fact that they have a strong mentality. They believe they can do it through their own hard work and yes, it works. The moment you believe that you can’t do it without trying something illegal, graduating with first class will be extremely hard for you.
If you can finally rid yourself of the mentality that it’s extremely difficult to get a first class, you’re already on your way to graduating with it.
What else do these first class graduates do and what are their rules to success? How do they live their lives? Let’s head on to that and see what really helps them get achieve what they worked hard for and how you can do same.
How to graduate with a first class in Nigeria university:
1. SET SPECIFIC GOALS:
I know this is an obvious advice but it is utterly impossible to achieve anything without setting the goals you plan on achieving. You would just be walking around headlessly without any certain destination. If you have a particular goal, then you know all you have to do is put in all of your effort to achieve it. It’s that easy. Set a goal and work towards it.
But we shouldn’t forget to set realistic goals. Some of our goals are extremely impossible to achieve. I know it’s a good idea to dream big but let’s be real, some of our dreams are ridiculous and unrealistic. If you earn 30k a month you can’t expect to buy a Lamborghini in a year, that’s an unrealistic goal. Set goals that easily fit in with your current abilities.
The main thing about this advice is to start small. Instead of focusing on the big picture, focus on the small details that make up the big picture. Assignments, tests and practicals are the small details, focus on scoring as high as you can on them. They go a long way to help boost your grades, if you leave all your attention to only your exams, chances are that you might not succeed as much as you would want with your journey on how to graduate with first class in Nigeria university.
2. BE CONSISTENT:
Consistency is key to everything. If you aren’t consistent in your studies you are only hurting yourself and this doesn’t just applies to academics. If you want to lose weight, you have to work-out consistently. That’s how these things work, you need to put in effort to see results. If you work-out only once a week, you won’t be as fit as someone who works out 4 times a week because they’re more consistent than you, hence they will get better results.
If you try to read and study every day, it makes the whole “graduating with a first class” thing easy.
If you wait until the exams period to start reading, you’re not going to perform as well as someone who started reading from the beginning of the semester, it doesn’t matter what you say. Be consistent with your studies by trying to read at least one topic a day. That’s just it, one topic a day.
Keep doing that and you’ve covered 30 topics in a month! That’s how powerful it is to be consistent. Try to be 1% better every day. Of course you’ll be tempted to slack off sometimes, it’s normal. You can skip a day or two but you need to get back to your normal routine of consistency. This is one of the best tips you could apply on on how to graduate with first class in Nigeria university.
3. ATTEND CLASSES:
Taking your classes seriously shouldn’t be a new thing to you. There are very important things that could be clarified in class than just reading the textbooks. For students who do practicals, try not to miss them because they are extremely IMPORTANT!
As a medical student, skipping anatomy practicals is a way of signing yourself up for failure. Practicals should be treated with extreme seriousness, don’t miss them.
Asides that, the chances of you seeing whatever the lecturer says in your exams are very high. Some lecturers also drop questions in class that you might see in your exams or tests. They rarely set exams questions outside their syllabus. Work with what you are given in class. Attending classes and listening attentively to what is being taught are two different things. Minimize distractions. You can still press your phones outside, you will still get to see your friend after class and you can continue your interesting conversation. When you’re in class, focus on the lecture and the lecturer, nothing else matters.
If you can control the urge to label your lecturer as “boring” and just take your time and write down notes of the things he says, then you will be fine.
4. DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES:
This is among the rare tips on how to graduate with first class but it is important. Many people are quite unaware of themselves and their abilities. Everyone is completely different, what works for one person may not work for you and what may work for you might not work for someone else. If you don’t have an extremely good memory, you might find it easier to read while jotting down what you are reading.
Some people prefer to read at night but that doesn’t mean they’re first class materials. Don’t let that crazy peer pressure get to you. If you can’t stay awake at night then focus on reading during the day, it is the same thing. Our bodies work differently, listen to it and do things in the way you feel most comfortable with.
Put your attention on your own strengths and not on other people’s strengths, focus on yourself and your own improvement. Try as much as you can to reduce your weaknesses, work on it. If you find it hard to read a topic a day, try to read half a day and increase it from there. In due time you’ll realize that you are actually much more capable of what you thought you couldn’t do.
Discover your weaknesses, work on them. Discover your strengths, improve them.
5. MAKE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE BETTER THAN YOU:
Of course you might think that the most entertaining people are the ones you need to be friends with because they’re fun to be with. But you need to sit back and think, apart from the laughs and fun, what else do you benefit?
If you’re the smartest person in your group, then you’re in the wrong group. Hang out with people who are smarter than you, who are more focused than you are, who also have the same goals of graduating with a first class. These are the type of people that will help you because they will motivate you directly and indirectly.
Don’t make friends with people who have the same weaknesses as you do. If you find it hard to write assignments, don’t make friends with someone who can’t write assignments. You will both stagnate. Make friends with someone who can write so you can learn and improve from them.
The kind of friends you make are important because they influence you and nothing can stop that unless you dissociate from them.
When you are out, pick friends carefully and make sure they have something of quality to offer you which would help you in your journey.
You can use this idea and form reading groups with them. You can all have study sessions where you reflect on whatever you had read the past week or so. This would help you memorize and understand things better than if you tried studying alone.
6. USE YOUTUBE IN YOUR SPARE TIME:
YouTube is an underrated source of information. There are tons of information you can get on YouTube and all of them are FREE. Instead of binge watching videos on tik tok, redirect that data to watching quality YouTube videos that you can learn something from. It doesn’t matter what you’re studying, you will always find something you can learn from that is directly related to your course of study.
YouTube is a gold mine and you have to make the most of it. Search for good channels and subscribe to them so you can get their videos whenever they upload. They’re informative and can help you get a broader view on things.
7. HAVE PASSION FOR YOUR COURSE:
If you don’t like what you’re doing in school then you won’t be motivated to get a first class. Passion is what drives people to achieve great things because they are extremely in love with what they do. If you love what you do, nothing seems stressful and difficult to you.
Maybe your target was to study medicine and surgery and you didn’t get in, instead you were given medlab to study. When you get into school, you feel less motivated to succeed. You tell yourself you are just doing the course just because you don’t want to stay at home. You are less motivated and it will affect you. Try your absolute best to fall in love with what you do as it makes everything go smooth for you. Life isn’t easy, it could be that medicine wasn’t for you. You can still succeed with something else, you’re just stopping yourself from seeing that.
8. GATHER ENOUGH MATERIALS:
You can never have too many information. After covering everything you’ve been taught by the lecturer, try and get your hands on textbooks or hardcopy materials you could read and expand your knowledge. If you don’t have the money to get these materials you can definitely download most of them on your phone and read.
Gathering materials like past questions and textbooks gives you a wider range of knowledge to gain and it could help you understand a few things that might have been vague to you. Your senior colleagues might also have these materials so you can network with them. They will have useful materials like your departmental past questions so you can familiarize yourself with the way your lecturers set their questions and you can also use these past questions to test yourself.
9. PRIORITIZE PROPERLY:
If you want to graduate with a first class you have to realize that you have to make your studies your priority. Some things are more important than others. It’s very easy to slack off and spend the evening with your friends by having fun and “flexing”. But that is all unnecessary when you realize you could have spent that evening in a way that would benefit you by studying.
Do not pick your friends over school, do not pick TV over school, do not pick “flexing” over school and do not pick parties over school. You get the point. You need to learn how to prioritize properly an don’t let mediocre things eat away your time.
In the end, you might have fun by wasting your time but it would dawn upon you that you had misplaced priorities when you take a look at your CGPA.
Overall, you need to try and be diligent in what you do. You should take your first year in school very seriously because your CGPA then could be what you graduate with. Getting a 4.5 CGPA in your first year is extremely easy because you only deal O’level courses. From your second year it gets harder as you get to deal with more professional courses. At the same time, I’ve known people who have graduated with a first class despite having a low CGPA in their first year. You just have to apply the above tips as much as you can. Even if you couldn’t graduate with a first class, you will be happy to see yourself with a second class upper. Work hard and apply these tips on how to graduate with first class and it will all pay off in due time.