Ten Best Tips for Teens preparing for Big Exams

The following are ten all time useful tips for preparing for SSCE, Jamb and other Related Exams: 1. Pray to God 2. Make the decision of achieving success in your mind. 3. Enroll in tutorial classes or get home lesson teachers. 4. Read to understand details and salient points. 5. Avoid distractions and be focus towards achieving your goals. 6. Pick the examination form when it comes out. 7. Go through the whole instructions. 8. Do the registration appropriately. 9. Revise notes and other previous materials thoroughly. 10. Ask questions about things you don’t understand.

Five Great ways to Earn Respect

Respect is the act of giving or receiving admiration from others. A respected person is considered and taken seriously in the society or community he/she lives. It makes one to earn the heart of others making them to listen and adhere to the things you want to do. Those without respect are always looked down upon and considered outcast by some people. Getting respect demands exhibiting certain characteristics out of which the following five can considered very important: 1. Zero or Reduced pride: pride is the feeling of superiority over others, those with pride tend to look down on others and consider themselves the best. This makes people to lose respect for someone and ignite feeling of hate or disregard. Those who want to earn respect are not prideful but humble. 2. Be Friendly: to earn respect from others, friendliness commands admiration. A simple greeting or the gesture of asking after the other person’s well being will go a long way in stirring the admiration of one in the person’s mind and thus increasing respect. 3. Stay Away from Crime and Cheating: People easily lose respect for criminals and cheats due to feeling of distrust and insecurity. The lack of confidence is a great factor that causes disrespect. For one to be respected, he must stay away from crime and also not indulging in cheating people. 4. Keep your Anger in Check: When you easily express your anger at the slightest provocation by flaring up, people will often lose respect for you within the shortest possible time as you will be considered a violent person or trouble maker. Anger management increases people’s respect. 5. Be Objective and Flexible: Listen to others, tolerate their shortcomings, consult before deciding in order not to impose your decisions on others, forgive when someone offends you and apologizes and love the wellbeing of others.

MY CHILDHOOD AND ONLY LOVE

Adolescent and puppy love can put one through a lot of wishful thinking. It makes you want to be the extra-ordinary person to the one you love, ‘a super hero’ seem the best words that describe the roles most boys want to play to that little girl they long for her company and the beam of her smile that discloses beautiful dentition always. In my own case, it was my first year in secondary school. There was a smaller girl named Shira, who was a year or two younger than myself and exceedingly beautiful, very friendly and always taking her studies seriously. She wore the crown for the most beautiful girl in the school and took home most awards for the best students in several subjects including English Language and Mathematics. My mind continued to swell with the heap of her feelings; I will lay down on my bed in the evening hours during bed time fantasizing about her, imagining myself as the heroes in most of the Bollywood, Hollywood and action movies I had watched earlier, flying with her in helicopters, walking in hands as we climbed mountains with lush vegetations picking and exchanging roses as we sang our way to the tops. It was overwhelming playing those roles in imaginary scenes; at times, it extended my sleeping beyond the normal 7:00 am, giving mum an extra task in waking me up for school the next day. Shira was a star those days, everyone wanted to be her friend including fellow girls. During break time, gifts of snacks were always pouring on her from all corners and she took them thanking those who gave them to her. Distributing these items to those who could not afford it was also part of what she did; she was mild and very kind. My emotions for her grew so high and I couldn’t help it anymore but to express it to her, it was always terrible for me to do so anytime I saw her, she was always in the company of many people and noticing me less, even when I normally stood from distance staring at her with my heart pounding hard and my head rid of the things I had planned hard to tell her. After failed attempts of talking to her severally, I resolved to write a letter which went thus: “Dear Shira, I don’t know how to start But I love you dearly And always jealous when I see other boys around you My birthday is coming soon And the best gift I have being praying for is you I want you to be my girlfriend Goodbye “ I wrote this letter during the weekend and kept it in a beautiful white envelope, hoping for Monday to come, I was anxious and longing for the weekdays to enable me give her the letter but when the week finally came and I stood face to face with Shira, the fear and nervousness couldn’t make me to bring out the letter. Weeks passed by and the letter was still with me in my school bag. I carried it until one weekend, my dad had demanded to see my books for his usual performance evaluation, and he did that almost every weekend. As he brought out the books one after the other commenting and advising, he opened one of the books and the envelope fell out. I felt like a wind had blown away clothes off my body in the market place, he took it and handed the letter to me as he continued to look through the books. I felt like one rescued from the clutch of a wild beast. He finished and was about handing back my books when he noticed a sign of love after the letter “T” at the top left corner of the envelope signifying the word “To”, he requested to see the letter, I prayed for the ground to swallow me. He ordered me to sit down after reading the letter and went thus: “Liking a girl is not wrong, having a girlfriend is not wrong too but what most people do with girlfriend is what bothers me. Don’t have sex until you are married; learn to appreciate a girl beyond her beauty and body.” When he finally released me to go, instead of the feeling of shame that enveloped me at first, I felt enlightened like I had added two more years to my age and my height slightly pulled up. With that, my fear was removed and I felt stronger, ready to face Shira and express my feelings. I went to school the following Monday a bit late, a deliberate act to make sure everyone was seated in his/her class. On entering the school, I went straight to Shira’s class with the letter in hand and gave it to her asking to see her during the break time with non of the previous fears I had. During the break time, she came and we talked a great deal discussing everything including my experience with dad. She agreed to be my girlfriend on the condition that I take her seriously and never to cheat on her, I accepted because I had already seen everything I wanted in her, we became the talk of the school, did almost everything together, went to the same university and now happily married with kids.

“The Help” Gets Two Big Thumbs Up

“The Help” is a witty, heart wrenching, life changing film adaptation of Kathryn Sockett’s New York Times bestseller. In it, the audience catches a glimpse of life in the Southern United States during the early 1960. The film shows the tricky, dynamic that existed during this time between African Americans and white Americans. The African Americans, often hired as “the help” for white American families, love and raise and cook for white children, who love them in return, until one day they grow up and treat “the help” as disdainful as their parents did. This vicious cycle is largely ignored, but one young woman, Skeeter notices this and decided to do something about it. In the process, she faces a difficult choice, risk losing her closest relationships or persevere in doing what she knows is right? This film makes you cry and laugh in all the right places. It forces you to reflect on a painful part of U.S history, but brings a sense of hope that change and progress are always possible. After you watch, grab a copy of the book as well. It’s just as perfect. Valerie Bagley

Purple Hibiscus: An American Shares her Take on the Bestselling Nigerian Novel

“Purple Hibiscus” is a book I am sure is renowned by Nigerian young and old. I am not a Nigerian nor had I heard about Adichie’s novel until it was assigned as a reading for a women’s study class I took two years ago. I didn’t have time to complete the assignment, and I wrote my paper based off Wikipedia summaries. But I never forgot the storyline and decided after graduation I would pick it up. A few months ago I remembered this resolve, checked the book out from my local library and finished it in two days. After turning over the very last page, I realized I was completely in love. I sat for a very long time staring at the cover of that book, holding it tenderly in my hands, a million thoughts racing through my mind, and it occurred to me that the lessons contained in this beautifully written story are applicable to global audience. The following are a few things I, an American learned from “Purple Hibiscus”: Life is too short not to love others with your whole heart. And to love someone with your whole heart means that you embrace that person for everything they are; including the things that makes them different from you. Everyone you meet has trials and troubles and challenges, even if they are not readily obvious. We must treat everyone as though they need our help and love and compassion, for most likely they do. The most abundant and full life a person can be come from laughter, love, family and kindness. The abundant life has nothing to do with possession or wealth. We should never let the tents of religion obstruct or obscure our view of God. The most useful gift in this world is free will Life is messy, unpredictable, difficult, and full of disappointments. It can also be beautiful and fulfilling when you turn outward and love. Valerie Bagley.