*My Golden Advice To Newly OAU Matriculated Students*

_By Kazeem Sodiq Olamilekan_

With a deep sense of felicitation, let me seize this medium to welcome the entirety of Great Ife freshers to this great citadel of learning situated in the heartbeat of Yoruba race; Ancient city of Ile-Ife where the dawn of the day was first experienced. I congratulate you all on this matriculation day and I pray that you all witness your convocation day with happiness as you witness this matriculation day.

It's an undisputable fact that many students choose this great institution for different reasons, some choose this citadel of learning because of its reputation, perhaps of the historical deeds of her predecessors, may be because it was adorned as the most beautiful Africa campus or could it be because of the quality of her scholars or because of her high level of intellectualism and political consciousness amongst many others. No matter how divergent our reasons could be for choosing Great Ife as one of the best institutions in Nigeria, we all have the same primary objective of being here, which is to acquire and explore the best academic excellence in our diverse fields. Thus, let me quickly draw our attention to certain steps and methods towards our journey on the path of achieving great success on this campus.

After the aforementioned, let me quickly say this, at the beginning of this fresh session, students must have been eavesdropping here and there that OAU is read to get “F”, yes it is true based on your own perspective, also true if you consider it to be true and vice versa. There is an adage that goes thus "If you really want to do something, you will find a way, if you don't, you will find an excuse".

At least, we have seen graduates of this school who graduated with minimum of 2 B”s. In fact, there are speculations of a student who graduated with 5.0, his name is Anthony Olusegun Adegbulugbe, though not totally confirmed. The summary here is that it is very possible and realistic to graduate with first class irrespective of your course in this prestigious university.

Apparently, almost all departments have the record of first class graduates. If someone can, who said you can't? The journey might seem difficult and impossible, but the truth is that, nothing is impossible even the word impossible says I'm possible if we put an apostrophe after I. So, if you can put more and more effort, an impossibility will come to reality. That's the fact, believe it or not, decision lies in your hand.

Now, let's delve into the aim of this write up.

The first and the most crucial way to survive on this campus is to read before the exam. One should learn how to overcome procrastination which is the thief of time. If you are the type who used to compile notes till the day they announced test or till when they release exam timetable, before a blink of an eye, you will then realize that your note has turned to voluminous. You will struggle to finish all the chapters you have been taught but trust me, once they release your results, you will testify that indeed OAU is read to get F except if you are a genius or an extraordinary student.

If your reading starts from the day of your first lecture, smile will be on your face once you see your results.
Let me share you an interesting story of a graduate who graduated two sessions ago with over 4.9 CGPA. His name is Ahmod Quadri, he graduated in the department of Economics, faculty of Social Science. He broke the record of 4.86 highest so far and set the record of the first person who has highest CGPA of over 4.9 in both the department of Economics and faculty of Social Science in the history of OAU.

When I quizzed him on how he achieved that, he simply answered me that he only make sure that he reads all the courses taught in a particular day before the next class. He said he would read to the extent that he would be able to answer any questions being asked in the next class. He assured me that anyone who imbibes in that idea would have minimum of 4.5 GPA and that's first class.

Just imagine one who compiles note till the day of test or till when they release exam timetable and eventually becomes sick during test/exam period and unable to read, if such person manage to write exam, he will only count the number of fans in the exam hall.
So, one should start reading not during test/exam period but before test/exam period.

Albeit, the ultimate message is not to relent when you don't meet up with your expectations. Imagine someone who reads night and day and later had C in a particular course now depressed and reduced his/her reading time. That particular person might later end up having something less than C which is either D, E or F. So, if you don't meet up with your expectations, all you have to do is to just restrategise, identify your mistakes and make a reasonable solution. So, if you don't meet up with your expectations don't give up but put in more effort.

Furthermore, it is worthy of advice not to depend only on what you have been taught in the class, download both textbooks and lecture videos online. To download textbooks online, just write the name of the text book with the author name and end it up with pdf. For example, to download Intermediate Micro Economics Analysis by H.R Varian, just type it on Google the keyword "Download Intermediate Micro Economics Analysis by H.R Varian pdf" it will appear on the first page of your browser then, click on the one you want to download. Likewise to download lecture videos on YouTube, go to YouTube and search for your desired topics for example, search for "Demand and Supply" it will show you hundreds of videos, click on any of your choice, it will direct you to another page, then, edit the website on your address bar by adding 'ss' before the address i.e if the website is youtube. com/... then, edit it to ssyoutube. com/...
Your browser will direct you to where to download the video.

I'll indulge you to participate in team work whereby you will be able to rub mind together. Everyone can't know everything but in group, we can make it happen. _Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up._ - Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Avoid friends that don't add value to your life and don't leave friends who contribute to your life. Choose your friends wisely.

For the average students, don't joke with tutorials even if it is fix at your inconvenient time and there's no other alternative, try to attend tutorial that will help you in your "nightmare" course.

Try to figure out yourself and don't compare your reading time table with someone else. Know the exact time you assimilate well when you are studying. If you are a type that can't joke with your sleep, then, don't force yourself to read overnight. Get the exact time you comprehend your reading.

Once again, I wish you happy matriculation and you can as well invite me to your matric celebrations as a specialist in Matric rice-eating.

*Kazeem Sodiq Olamilekan is a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.*

_I can be contacted on 08094315990_