15 Mar 2017

Indeed, the fear of failure is the single most important denominator that separates top achieving students from the rest of the crowd.

While the public views top achievers as nerds who know and understand everything without having to put in extra hours of study, this appears to just be a misconception.

Academically gifted students still have to work harder and spend sleepless nights perusing their books and infact, a majority of them succeed in their examinations because they put a lot of effort in their studies than the rest of the students in their grade.

A lot is expected of these learners during examinations; hence they need to cover enough work to prepare themselves and months before they sit for their high school leaving examinations, they consistently prepare by going through their course content more than other students but still find time to relax by hanging out with their peers.

This scenario rings true for Mater Spei College’s 18 year-old Ms Susan Charlie, one of this year’s Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) top achievers who caused waves around the country by achieving nine A* in her school leaving examinations.

She has dreams that go beyond these borders and has had to work a lot harder than students her age to ensure that she achieved nothing short of perfection.

Failure is a word she loathes and she does not want to be an ordinary student as everything academic that she lays her hands on, she aspires to attain nothing but greatness.

Opening up her home to the BOPA team during a candid interview recently in Borolong, on the outskirts of Francistown, Ms Rebecca Charlie, Susan’s mother wore a wide smile on her face that proved beyond  doubt how proud she was of her daughter’s monumental achievements.

She had nothing but praise for her daughter, saying she is not surprised at how well her daughter performed because she has always been a top achiever in everything she sets her mind to do.

“Susan was sure she would get all A*’s in her finals and I am not surprised at all.

After every paper she wrote, she would give me a report that she expects nothing but an A*,” the mother added.

Ms Charlie described her daughter as a humble, well-disciplined and self-driven young girl who has always challenged herself to do better for herself.

She recalled how heartbroken her daughter was when she got a second class in Setswana despite achieving A grade in all her subjects during her Junior Certificate Examinations, noting that her daughter considered a second class as failure.

The mother also highlighted that Susan used her supposed failure to aim for the skies and nothing less and after the supposed setback, the mother noted that she made promises to her family that she would be a top achiever in the BGCSE examinations and she would shake President Lt General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama’s hand in the near future.

As a public servant, the proud mother said she has high hopes that her daughter will serve her country as well and would have loved to see her daughter choose a career in the health sector, preferably as a doctor.

Susan’s mother compared a child’s educational journey to a three legged pot with three cornerstones, which are the family, the community and the government.

She added that these three should work collectively to ensure every child reaches their full potential and advised parents to take an interest in their children’s school work, adding that a little effort goes a long way in bringing the desired results.

For Susan, her achievements were not surprising at all as she had become used to breezing through and killing every test that came her way.

This, however, did not come as manna from heaven. She had to work for it and the soft spoken “heavy weight,” as she was affectionately called by her schoolmates spoke about her journey with a passion that was visible even to the unschooled eye.

She wore a bright smile across her face and was brimming with tonnes of confidence throughout the interview, which showed how determined she is about securing a bright future for herself.

Her poise and intellect spoke volumes of how seriously she takes herself and her quest at being perfect but admitted to having faced a few challenges during her preparations for examinations.

She said that time management was the biggest challenge she faced as she had to juggle between table tennis, being a Student Representative Council (SRC) member and being nominated as the Minister for Academics.

When asked what she does during her spare time, Susan said she enjoys playing table tennis and has played at national level, adding that she also reads novels when she has time on her hands.

She even contemplated writing a novel at one point but discarded the idea explaining that it would have distracted her from her studies.

Susan acknowledged that she has had to make sacrifices in order to get good grades, which included quitting her favorite sport for a while, only to return later.

She also mentioned that she voluntarily gave up her cell phone, asking her mother to keep it for her until she had completed her examinations because social media was becoming a distraction.

On her study routine, she explained that she had trained herself to avoid panicking by treating her examinations as she would normally treat a test.

However, she admitted that she became anxious and was impatient while waiting to sit for her finals and she also avoided seeing the final examinations timetable until a week before she sat for her first paper.

Consequently, she pointed out that her good grades were down to a lot of studying, adding that she alternated studying individually with group study, which she usually led.

Susan mentioned that she began every school day by waking up to study at 3 am to prepare for the day ahead and during lunch time, she ate as quickly as possible and would spend the rest of her lunch period studying in the school library.

She believes that her fear of failure alone pushed her to ensure she does exceptionally well in everything she sets her mind on.

“I do not want to be ordinary. I want to be known as ‘the Susan’ not just any Susan.” She said with a sense of pride.

The ambitious teenager wants nothing more than to study forensic anthropology or cardiology at one of her prestigious universities, either Harvard University in the United States (US) or Oxford University in the United Kingdom (UK), explaining that she wants a career that will challenge her on a daily basis.

As much as she has the potential to reach for the stars, the young girl plans on fulfilling her mother’s wish for her to serve her country and she intends to do this as a way of giving back to the community that raised her and later on become a famous entrepreneur.

The academic heavy weight encourages other students to seek God first, keep their faith and pray for perfection, reminding them that faith works hand in hand with hard work.

She also insisted anyone who wants to succeed should be able to keep fewer friends, explaining that they can be a distraction and may lead one astray and hinder them from achieving their goals.

On a parting shot, she encouraged students to take languages seriously because she has realised that there is a misconception that languages are not important.

She added that students tend to take them lightly even though they can ruin their chances of going for further studies. ENDS