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STUDY FOR APPROVAL
Some years ago I pastored a campus church at the university. I had students who honestly depended on biblical inspiration to succeed. One passage that often came to mind was this one “study to show you are approved, a work man which needed not to be ashamed”. Each time I came across this passage, I realized that there is an expectation of any student who wants to study to pass examination to study to attain approval.
When one looks at the word approval, the thought arrives that we are trying to get the approval of people to know we are actually hardworking. Well, getting approval could be in this light. I spoke to a group of students I had prepared for matriculation exams. I shared with them the personal experience I had when I was preparing for the same examinations many years back. I had read my books till people around me bore witness that I was actually studying.
I told the students that if people don’t know they are reading, then they are not actually reading. I sacrificed to buy books and then I studied every time I could just to ensure I was prepared. I read everywhere and every time. I didn’t care about who noticed but they noticed that I was putting in serious effort to succeed at the examinations. The actual approval though does not come from those who are watching but from the examiners who had designed the examinations.
When a laborer works at the factory, he waits for the supervisor to come over, inspect and give approval for the work done before it is transmitted for onward delivery. It’s the same with passing examinations. You have to labor to study while the examiner examines your input at studying and your output on the examination sheet. Your goal as a student is thus to impress the examiner.
One Important thing to note is that you look at being approved by the examiner first before starting the studying. When you know the goal, you begin to work and walk towards it. Many students go ahead to study without any focal objective in mind. Normally, the supervisor has approval ratings which he gives to different level of work. The examiner also has different approval grades which he gives to the student. It is thus important that before the student begins to study, he looks ahead to the approval grade which he hopes to have. This will spur him to put in effort to achieve it.
When we write examinations the goal is not just to pass the examinations but to obtain the certificate at the end of the program that requires the examination. The certificate is what proves you have actually studied. It is the approval that shows the knowledge had being obtained. In our academic environment however, the result does not prove the study. There are many first class graduates who are short of the knowledge to be qualified to have gotten first class while there are those who managed to come through at the bottom of the class are known to be so knowledgeable of their subject that job supervisors often query why they never made good grades at school.
Many students pursue grades ahead of knowledge and sadly, they are proved wrongly. There is actually no approval for such people even if they make great grades. Grades aren’t knowledge and the true test arrives when there is a need to show the knowledge that had being obtained at school.
Being approved is a dual function. You are approved first at school and then you get an approval outside school. Those who fake approval will certainly hit rock somewhere where they will be expected to prove the knowledge they have obtained. The crowd may consider grades ahead of knowledge but those who become valuable are those who are knowledgeable.
My classmates and I found ourselves in such an environment. Some of our lecturers looked out for what we could offer financially ahead of our getting knowledge. Sadly we fell into their trap and most of us saw no need to get knowledge since money could pay for he grades. Guess what? It was a trap. Soon we all finished school and most discovered they could not fit into the knowledge requiring environment of engineering. Some of us had to go get extra courses at extra cost to fit.
What I’m actually saying is that there is a need to put knowledge first ahead of approval. You will certainly be approved when you get the right knowledge. Study first, then the opportunity to show what you have will arrive and then you will get the approval of those who should approve. The other way round is disastrous and will be detrimental to you.
Be sure to study and be approved.