Want A Higher GRADE At Campus? Dodge Lectures

In my FIRST YEAR: I attended every lecture. I had a discussion group. I handed in coursework on time. I did every test. I bought every handout. I did every assignment. I only had one girlfriend. I attended fellowships and church instead of house parties, hostel drink ups and clubs. I had the WORST COURSE MARKS in my University history.


In the SECOND, THIRD and FOURTH YEARS

I dodged 95% of lectures (I wish I had aimed for 99%). I didn’t step in the University library. I bought less than 5 handouts. I attended more house parties than Church services. I had more girlfriends. I handed in most assignments and course works past deadlines. I dodged 50% of tests. I had no discussion group. I did everything that students primed for academic failure should do. I also had the BEST COURSE MARKS ever in my University life.

MY QUESTION: How come when I followed the rules, when I was a good student, when I was all those things, I had the worst COURSE MARKS? And then when I inverted and did the opposite, I had the best COURSE MARKS?

I am now wondering. What if I dodged 100% of lectures, wouldn’t I have a first class degree? What if I dodged all tests? Wouldn’t I have a super first class degree?

University in Kenya works in amazing ways. The semesters where you party less, the COURSE MARKS will also be less in most cases. When you party more, the COURSE MARKS grows in height.

Next time I am before a Job Interview Panel, I will tell them this story.

I have never shared my University story in greater detail. I always give hints and hints, excerpts. There’s one major thing that shocked me. I know it shocks others that have experienced it too. That thing is the negative correlation between attendance of lectures and the Grade Point Average.

I have a friend. He’s been the second best in course of Geospatial Engineering (not BA (Geography). He didn’t attend a single lecture in the past two years. His COURSE MARKS was much better than in the first and second year when he attended lectures like a fanatic.

I have another friend, one of my OBs from UoN. He was pursuing Civil Engineering. He attended the least in his class, he was one of the best in his course, yes, his COURSE MARKS was too impressive, most lecturers couldn’t explain how a student who attended less lectures would outperform those who attended regularly.

But I begun noticing this correlation way back in Form Four. It was third term, we were yet to complete the Syllabus for all subjects. I decided to stop attending those choke down the throat lessons where teachers were pumping you with material like robots. I was convinced I was going to fail to my level best. First, unlike my fellow students, I didn’t do winters (placing your legs in basin half filled with cold water) . I didn’t stop playing Futa, the school football. I actually dozed in some morning preps. We always had to wake up at 4:30am. To my surprise, for the subjects where I dodged more, I registered the most improvement at KCSE exams. I remember, I only attended two physics practicals. But I had aN A- for goodness sake. AN A-. Having attended only two practicals. One to introduce me to practicals and another to prepare for mocks. Same story in Biology, history, CRE. For starters, my CRE book had only two pages of information. I had an A.

It’s only at A-level where I tried to follow the rules and the results almost turned out disastrous, had I not remembered to break the rules in the final term.

Once again at University, come first year. I really thought my COURSE MARKS was dependent on how well I attended lectures. Here was my life in first year. I will show you how an average day looked like.

Wake up very early for the 8am lecture. Attend the lecture. Buy the handout from the photocopier. After buying the handout, go ahead and do every assignment and hand them in time. In the evening, I had a fellowship to attend. Then I had a discussion group where we discussed these materials. In case I had no lectures, I would go to the library to research. My attendance was at 100%. The only time I dodged a lecture was the day my grandmother died and I went for her burial. That was the only time I dodged a lecture in first year. Anyone can prove me wrong on this. Results came back, my COURSE MARKS was very worrying. I dreaded that noticeboard. I felt nauseated. I should also note, I attended those parties where alcohol was a rarity. Where the girls all acted good. And I only had one girlfriend. One for goodness sake. I didn’t even have sex with her. We were abstaining till marriage. But the COURSE MARKS was saying otherwise.

I was so discouraged, that I stopped attending lectures out of anger. It was pure anger. I thought to myself; “why should I keep doing the same things, while expecting different results?”

I wanted to be sure that attendance really played a part in my grades. So, I took out an experiment. Had my mother known, she would have collapsed. I experimented behind her back. I went out, got a full-time job. Instead of one girlfriend, I decided to get at least four. I mean it. I disbanded my discussion group. I threw my student card into the trash can. Okay, I never got a student card in the first place. I simply stopped going to the library. The only time I went to the library was to the library at F2 where most hot girls would read from. I stopped buying handouts. It would take a lot of convincing for me to buy a handout. Even when I bought it, I didn’t read it. I spent more time at other Universities than at the MU Engineering faculty (coz my labaratori-GIS LAB is their). I remember hanging out more in hostels K than in H. Deep in my mind, I even harbored thoughts of quitting University. And I said to myself; “I must quit in the best way possible.” I stopped attending church. I kept disturbing the girls who came to invite us to fellowships. I attended more house parties, more hostel drink-ups even those I wasn’t invited to, than I did attend church services.

Then something dramatic happened, my COURSE MARKS begun chasing me up. It was like the more I broke the rules, the more it showed interest in playing to my wishes. The more lectures I dodged, the higher the marks I would expect for that course unit.

In the end, I decided to settle on a simple formula. Attend the 1% lectures that mattered. Where the lecturer was interesting and knowledgeable about the subject. These lectures included Environmental Technology, Energy Production and Materials Science among others (OTHERS: my real course). For the rest of the lectures, I dodged them and I am unapologetic about that. After all, attending lectures didn’t seem to help in the first place.

Someone may say, “perhaps first year is difficult.” That’s a lie. When I look back at the course units of first year, they were some of the easiest. The Engineering Maths of First Year is so easy. You can take a kid out of Senior 5 and he will score 100% in that Maths. But I didn’t score that much.

There’s another guy who had a First Class Degree in their Engineering Course. I think he used to think that his first degree was dependent on his attendance. I dared him to dodge. He didn’t just do that. He went ahead and got a full time job. His First Class Degree became even more stable than before.

I know the few who get First Degrees tend to fall into the same fallacy of thinking it’s attending lectures, handing in every assignment on time that gets them the first degree. That’s not true. I told two of my friends in various Engineering courses who had first class degrees at the end of their second years to try and dodge lectures in their third years. They were scared, but the few who tried that out, ended up praising me for discovering a secret.

So to any fresher joining University this year. I think you are reading between the lines. Don’t everything right from orientation. I dodged every activity in the orientation week. I didn’t even care about who was the Guild President or who wasn’t. I remember one time I was sweet-talking a girl and then everyone was giving me stares. So after getting her number, some people come and tell me; “Man, you were talking to the Guild President’s girlfriend.” Read that again, I vibed the girlfriend of the Guild President in my second year. Beat that. Of course, of late Guild Presidents have lost that power they held back then. But in those days, Guild Presidents would fill a hostel parking side with their cars and bikes.

I also forgot to mention. I got a good number of above 90% marks in the course units where I dodged the most. Getting a 90% was a big thing back then even in Nursery. But men, I got what? Some 90% in those course units. Not too many, but a few worth talking about.

Let me hear from those who attended every lecture, bought every handout and still scored some 90% marks in some course units.

By the way, I also remember a lecturer who rejected our business plan because it was so good to be true. She basically gave course work where we were required to do a business plan. We disregarded her format. Went and did a business plan, the Silicon Valley way, we had every financial calculated, we had figures, numbers, the break even points, maturity stages etc. And you know what? The lecturer writes a comment; “not original”. It seemed that when you did excellent work, you stood a chance of being written off. I also learned a secret, leave some allowance for being a student. Don’t over prove to lecturers that you know so much, only a few good lecturers can stand super excellent students.

Back to the story. Why is it that in FIRST YEAR, when I followed every rule, when I didn’t miss any tests intentionally, when I didn’t dodge any lecture, when the course units were easier, why is it, that in that year, that’s when my COURSE MARKS was at its worst?

Freshers go ahead and dodge some lectures. It pays. Trust me. You can study from MTL via Youtube and use that knowledge to pass your exams.