Of results, grades and acquisition of knowledge

When I was in my second year at the University of Ibadan, I took three French courses as electives. They are Practical French III (essentially French grammar), French Comprehension (essentially reading comprehension), and Oral and Aural Comprehension (essentially spoken and listening French). I was so confident I’d do well in the grammar course and reading comprehension course, but I had some apprehension about the oral and aural course. But I took the last one, anyway.

Me I knew what I was looking for: getting better in French, the results mattered a little to me save for my desire to graduate well. The Practical French result was great, I had 80+ but the other two turned out to be a colossal failure. By my own estimation. Both were 50+. C grade! I didn’t see the other two results until my penultimate year, so by the time I saw it, the cry had already waned.

However, as bad as the results were in my second year, it didn’t stop me from taking more French courses in my final year. I was more interested in the knowledge rather than the results. The other two French courses I took opened my eyes to my defects and inadequacies and where I needed to grow and improve. Right now, I wish I could retake them again. Lol. I’m hell sure I’d get 80+ in both.

The two results affected my CGPA as they brought it down from where it was more deserving of me to be. But it didn’t deter me from taking more French courses. There are many reasons I haven’t stopped learning French and taking French courses. Aside the excitement and fun that comes with being multilingual, I believe it will be incredibly useful for me to know and use two or more languages proficiently. Maybe not really now. But someday in the future.

I’m going to write that grades are really important, at least for some certain reason. But knowledge is way more important than the grades and certificates. I could’ve stopped taking French courses if I were only motivated by my grades. The French courses I took in my first year, I excelled so well at them that my coursemates, many of them, thought I was taking more French courses in my second year because of how “easy” it was for me to pass them. It wasn’t easy. The courses were hard and incredibly challenging.

If you’re motivated by only your results while you’re in school without a noticeable growth or advancement in knowledge, skills and competences, then, you’re doing a disastrous disservice to yourself. You can’t hide your defects and inadequacies for so long. You can only cheat school to get the results and that certificate, but you can’t cheat a lot of people into acquiescing that you’re good or qualified. The courses you take in school MUST make you become a better version of yourself in your field or career that you want to venture into. Or generally, it should make you question and reassess your belief system, assumptions and fears. Anything less of this is you just cheating and deceiving yourself.

At every point in my past life, I knew what I was getting myself into and I always had something bigger than an inking of how the results and consequences would be, but I still wanted to give a shot at it and follow my guts. Sometimes it paid off; other times it fell through. But there were lessons and insights I picked from the experiences that have helped me get better.

I hope you can learn a thing or two from this.