lesson 1: (The Idiot who Got the best result) by Etim Ebere

Best Students A+ (Episode1)

When I said the topic for today’s session was, “The Idiot Who Got the Best Results,” I’m sure you were wondering who the idiot was.

See, I was the IDIOT.

I was an idiot all through my JSS classes. 

But most people who knew me back then thought I must have been very brilliant. 

You know why? 

I was always carrying books with me everywhere I went. 

In fact, some parents even advised their children to become like me.

But I knew who I was. 

I hated books. 

I hated reading. 

I hated my school teachers.

And worse, I hated anything called assignments, tests and exams.

Exam was always very frightening.  

Although I carried the books around, nothing was really in my head. I was an idiot.

Reading notebooks and textbooks was a very boring and difficult task—not fun at all. 

So I carried the books with me in the evenings and on weekends pretending to be going to the library or a friend’s place to study so that whenever I returned from playing with my friends on the street and my parents asked me, “Etim, where have you been for the past 3 hours?” I would tell them I went to read and showed them the books.  

Lol. Sharp guy!

Because if I stayed at home just to play my video games or just chill, everybody would be yelling at me, “Go and read your books, go and read your books!!!” 

And I hated hearing such. 

Why can’t they just leave me alone? 

Read book, read book! 

Very boring thing.

Even if I managed to read because they forced me, I would still not remember anything during tests or exams. 

So what’s the need?!

So to be smart, I would take my books outside, not to read them, but instead to play games, listen to music, play football and just being naughty with my friends on the street. 

Anyway, I managed to pass and got promoted from JSS1 to JSS2 to JSS3. I trained my neck and my eyes. During tests and exams, I would stretch my neck and “shine” my eyes to copy from anybody around. 

I was one of the worst students in class. 

Each time the class teacher gave us our report card at the end of the term, I would feel my heart beating very fast in fear because I knew what I would score. 

Poor grades.

This subject, red ink; that subject, red ink. 

Only a few blue ink. 

They used to call my report card rainbow sheet. 

Till today, I don’t know how I managed to pass Junior WAEC. I just found myself in SSS1. They said I passed Junior WAEC. Lol. How manage?

Maybe I must have copied very well from my colleagues.

My academic performance continued like that one term after another until SSS 1 third term. 

To make matters worse, I went to Science class department because we felt that was where the brilliant students should go. 

Meanwhile, nothing was in my head. 

My first term and second term results were not good, as usual. 

I had been a below-average student for too long. 

But we had new classmates now. 

You know, in SSS1, everybody goes to different departments and you now have new classmates and some former classmates. 

And again, I was still the Olodo. 

I was ashamed. 

Imagine the English teacher asking you to kneel in front of the whole class in SSS1 because you can’t give one example of an adjective—senior student for that matter; in front of other boys and (fine) girls. 

I was ashamed.

So at the beginning of third term, I decided I wanted to be different. 

I wanted to become one of the best students in class, but I didn't know how. 

There were many of my colleagues who were far better than me. 

Some of them were exceptionally brilliant. 

Our teachers loved these ones. 

And every student wanted to associate with them. 

I was challenged by how they usually answered questions in class, and always got everybody clapping for them. 

I wondered if they had two heads. 

But something happened along the line that changed me. 

Let me tell you the story.

I used to have a portable music player and I had the very first album of Plantashun Boiz (The former group Tuface belonged to in 1998/1999). 

Because I loved every song on the album and wanted to learn how to sing the songs, I bought a music lyrics book which contained all the songs. It was the reigning song that year.

I was always with my music player, playing the songs and reading the lyrics along. 

I had a goal—to learn how to sing all the songs in the album. 

In my school, the big boys were the ones who knew the latest songs and could sing them offhand, you know. The girls loved the big boys. 

I hid the music player away from my mum and my teachers. (Those people don’t like to see somebody just enjoying himself. I don’t know why. Lol. “Go and read your books, go and read your books!”) 

I continued listening to the songs and singing along. 

I would replace the batteries once they were dead and continued.

After about a week or so, I was able to sing all the songs on the album. 

Whenever they played any of the songs on the radio or at a party in my neighbourhood, I would sing along by heart. I still know all the songs till today. They sunk into my soul. 

My friends knew the songs, but they could not sing them like I did. 

They would praise me and I really loved the feeling—you know that feeling, right?

But while in class, I was a complete IDIOT. An Olodo.

I couldn't answer a simple question asked by the teacher. 

Meanwhile, the answers were in my notebooks and textbooks. Can you imagine?

What was wrong with me? 

If I could sing a full album from track 1 to the last track, why couldn't I know a simple definition that was taught in class or in my textbook? Is it not the same thing? Learn it and master it?

So you know what I did? 

I decided to apply the same method in my studies. 

I decided to be as diligent with my studies as I was with learning the songs. I wanted to become intelligent, too. 

That was when I developed what I now call: Technique for Effective Study and Exam Preparation (or ES-EP technique). 

This is what we shall be looking at in this Best Student program. It is the technique of the brilliant students all over the world. 

I realised that I wasn't having excellent results in exams because I did not know how to study effectively and prepare for exams, even though I sometime read my books.

So you hear people tell you: “Go and read your books.” It's an incomplete advice. It doesn't work. It is not enough. 

This technique, which is presented in every page of this book, transformed me into an A+ student.

During second term exam in SSS1, I missed the Maths paper, because I was sick on the day. After all, I was even going to fail it. 

In my new class, the classmates were wicked. They wouldn’t let me copy from them. 

I hated Maths. Nonsense subject!

Very nonsense subject!

Our Maths teacher called me in the next (third) term and was going to conduct a separate exam for me so that I would have a score for second term. But I rejected it politely and asked if it was possible for my Maths score in the third term exam to be multiplied by 2 to cover for second term. 

I was confident of what I was saying because I knew I had found the secrets to passing exams and becoming the best student. 

I was prepared to take my studies seriously from now on. 

He looked at me in surprise and asked, “What if you have a low score in the exam? Are you sure that's what you want?” I replied, “Yes, sir.”

The new term began and classes commenced. I diligently applied my new-found ES-EP technique. 

Not too long into the new term, my teachers and classmates noticed something. 

I was becoming smarter and smarter by the day. I was answering questions in class and making good contributions. 

They were like, “Wow…Etim, what happened to you? You are getting intelligent.”

I would smile and say in mind, “Just wait and see.”

Guess what? That term I got 86% in Maths. That term I had the best results. I was the youngest in class. They began calling me, “Small, But Mighty.”

By SSS2, everybody was behind me in knowledge and understanding. 

All glory to God. 

I continued to excel in school and finished with the best results in both WAEC and NECO final exams from Awori College, Ojo, Lagos State in 2001. 

Because I had a good foundation in secondary school, I easily became the best graduating student from my department in the University of Calabar in 2008. 

The motivation for my academic success came in SSS 1 when I got tired of being an ordinary student—an idiot.

What really changed me was my love for music. 

I want to challenge you this evening.

There is something you love to do. You enjoy doing it, and you are very good at it. It may be a good thing or a bad thing.

It could be dancing, singing, talking, playing video games, football, premier league, watching Telemundo, Whatsapp chatting, sleeping, gossiping, dating, etc.

I want you to channel that same energy to your studies.  

Convert it today. Start now. The same way you strive and plan to do that “thing” well, do so with your studies. Be angry that someone in your class is better than you in Economics or Geography. 

Decide to excel. Be serious. If you are excellent in school, you will carry that excellent mindset to the university and to your job or to your own company. You will not want to be a back-bencher in life. 

My friends, wake up! Start having the mindset of a best student. 

Stay on this group. We are just starting. 

I love you.

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