Why You Must Avoid Carryovers At All Cost As An Undergraduate

Carry overs in the university system is normal; it
basically means a student has an unfinished
business. A student can only carry over a course
when he or she scores 39 downward in both C.A
and exam (over 100).
Carry overs are not in all cases a real reflection of
how intelligent or not intelligent a student is,
rather it's a reflection of how unserious, unsmart
(if that word exist), unchecked and uninterested a
student is.
I have seen highly intelligent students have
numerous carry overs and relatively dull students
pass through without carry overs. Such is life,
that's why a coin is two sided. Carry over can also
be a result of unfortunate and unlucky incidents,
such as missing scripts, lecturer's attitude
towards marking your script, or even a student's
handwriting (that's right).
I have once been a victim of an unlucky situation.
I was not around Kogi State when an assignment
worth 20 marks was been submitted, when I
heard about it I quickly rushed back to school
from Lagos to get mine submitted. Unluckily for
me, the lecturer in charge of the course is very
strict and sent me out of his office. I thought to
myself," I still have 80 marks to fight for so why
panic".
This lecturer is the kind that barely comes to class,
but he gave us a material to read ahead of his
exam. For most part of Monday evenings we'll
wait in class expecting him to come to class but
he never does. On the day I decided I wasn't
going to wait in class for him, he showed up in
class and seeing how scanty the class was he
decided to conduct test with the little number of
students in class.
The test was for 20 marks and I missed it, making
it 40 marks missed already which ruled me out of
contention to score an A. Words can't describe
how devastated I was during this period, my worst
fear of carrying over a course is lurking around
me. I tried bottling my sadness and fear until the
lecturer announced that marks will deducted for
every undotted Is and uncrossed Ts in his exam,
he was basically asking for a perfectly written
error free exam which looked impossible under
the sort of pressure we were in.
I prayed to God about the situation, focused a
little bit more on that course than the others, did
a whole lot of library work and research and when
the exam came around I completely smashed it,
narrowly escaping a carryover (which many of my
mates had) that would have completely changed
the dynamics of my academics.
Am still grateful to God till today, who knows what
it might have been....
Reasons why you must completely avoid carry
overs:
-It brings you down;
A) Academically: having carry-over means you
have F (0) in that course. It’s bad, it’s really bad.
Having an E(2) or a D(4) is far better than having
a carryover. It means you just scored 0 after
studying a course for a semester and it will
definitely reflect on your result.
B) Psychologically: having a carryover affects the
psyche of a student. It’s that evil. You don't feel
whole again, you won't feel yourself among your
peers anymore; you'll feel devastated, less
intelligent, less smart and so on. Carry overs
inflict serious psychological damage on the
bearer. It brings your thinking and psyche to the
lowest minimum.
C) Physically: keeping tabs with your main courses
is physically tasking enough, add carry overs to
that and you'll barely sleep at night. You have to
meet up with the time table of your main courses,
then meet up with the schedule of your carry over
courses, that's so physically demanding, it’s
almost like punishment.
-It's hard to recover: even though its technically
possible to recover from the evils of carry overs
and get your academics back on track, it's
extremely difficult and take so much
determination and hard work.
-The odds aren't favourable: the odds of you
graduating with a great result or a good result
shifts every time you carry over a course. Imagine
doing a carry-over course in place of an easy to
pass elective course...
- It leads to self-esteem issues: when you are
writing a carryover paper with guys that are below
you, it’s a hard hit on your esteem and confidence
level. You certainly won't be the most confident
person on campus, in fact you'll be the least
confident, if you're not then its either you're
shameless, delusional, dull or completely out of
touch.
- It’s a bad experience all together: the
demanding schedule, the insult by lecturers, the
embarrassment of writing a carry-over exam with
your "juniors"...it’s a bad experience all together.
How To Avoid A Carry Over:
-Never joke with your Continuous Assessment C.A
-Always be around class and get adequately
informed
-Serious studying: studying isn't every one's bread
and butter, not everyone enjoys reading and
reading, it’s not sweet at all, but you got to do it.
That's the way. Use the library to research helpful
information as much as you can.
-Do your calculations: your GPA and stuffs
-Always add to what you know
-Always do the conventional first: do what's
required of you in test or an exam first, and then
spice it up with the result of your research to the
lecturers delight.
-Be strong physically and psychologically: in KSU
only the strong will survive
-Use your time and work with schedule
-And finally and most importantly...Know your
God...