LEARNER'S TIP ... LOOK BACK AND PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

I THOUGHT about discussing particualr goals for students but I realised I have to point out something important this week.
Let me remind you that for progress to continue in someone’s life there must be time for reflection on past activities as in carrying out an evaluation.

That is why people often say, without knowing what happened in the past, it is quite a difficult task to make plans for the future.

Having no form of evaluation of what happened in the past can mean another week’s, another month’s or another year’s efforts and resources will be wasted.

Businesses evaluate their performance and a nation’s decision makers, good coaches, teachers and managers do the same – and students, or learners in general, must do likewise for possible progress in the future.

  

How did you go in 2013?

Did you learn anything new, as in acquiring some knowledge in a particular field – or polished up on skills you possess?

Many people look back into the past year and they feel that they just survived – meaning, they ate, slept and then went to school or work, five days a week for 52 weeks in the year. And from time to time they entertained themselves.

Does that sound like living? You can be the judge.

Personally, I learned a lot last year. Working in place that we write a lot, I have noted some of those experiences in my notebooks or published them in this newspaper.

Learn to sit down and evaluate how you went in the past – and also if you did achieve the main goals you set at the beginning of 2013.

I did not achieve all my goals and therefore I am bringing some of those forward to 2014. I am already achieving a few of them and I plan to get others done in the first few months of the year.

Aim for the top grades

I have been urging students to always aim for the top grades in whatever they study.

When a student believes that and works, regardless of bad incidents in the past, there is space for improvement.

That may seem a small thing, but this affects thousands of students each year.

They want to improve in certain subjects, but they do not set out goals for improvement in those and they continue to perform below average – or, worse, they fail.

Students discontinuing studies

I noticed in a newspaper a few weeks ago the names of students who would be discontinuing studies because they failed to score grades above the accepted pass grade.

There will be thousands of students too at the secondary and primary levels who felt that they were doing better in the year and had hoped to progress smoothly to the next level of studies. However, that was not to be because their grades were low.

If you are still in school, take note of what I am saying and do something about the subjects you always seemed to be struggling with. You cannot continue playing the game of turning a blind eye on a particular subject and hope that everything will turn out okay.

The reality is if you have a problem and ignore it, it will come back to you.

Ignoring a subject while you are at secondary level will not take away the problems when you enter university or a college. In fact, the magnitude of the problem will be much greater at tertiary level.

Next week: Someone asked me how he could do better