Meaningful University Life Experience

Meaningful University Life Experience

A guide for effective Academic, social, and personal life for

freshman and senior university students!

By Dr. Abraham Gebeyehu

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Meaningful University Life Experience

Contents
Here's what some university instructors and students have to say about the
book... .................................................................................................................... 5
Dedication ............................................................................................................. 8
Acknowledgment .................................................................................................. 9
Overture............................................................................................................... 10
Part 1: University life ......................................................................................... 16
1.1 What is a University? ................................................................................. 16
1.2 What is university life? .............................................................................. 23
1.2.1 A day on campus roughly looks like this: ........................................... 23
1.3 Warning advice .......................................................................................... 27
1.3.1 The Choice is yours/you are the maker of your future! ...................... 28
1.4 self-assessment questions .......................................................................... 29
1.5 What to know to choose the right department/program ............................ 31
Self-Awareness ............................................................................................. 32
Decision making ........................................................................................... 33
Critical thinking ............................................................................................ 34
Problem-solving skill .................................................................................... 36
1.6 Contact addresses ....................................................................................... 37
Part 2: Academic Life ......................................................................................... 38
2.1 What is Academic Life? ............................................................................ 38
2.2 Principles of Successful Academic Life .................................................... 44
2.3. Study Techniques/ Methods ..................................................................... 55
SQ3R Method ............................................................................................... 56
The SOAR Study Method............................................................................. 57
PQ4R ............................................................................................................. 58
2.3.4 The Rosemary (L):- ............................................................................. 59
2.4 Note-Taking: .............................................................................................. 62
Cornell System of Note-Taking .................................................................... 65
Mind Map( concept maps) ............................................................................ 65
The outlining method .................................................................................... 67

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Meaningful University Life Experience

Hints method ................................................................................................. 67

Charting method ........................................................................................... 68
2.5 Make your note attractive and inviting to read again. ............................... 69
2.6 Academic life test (self-assessment).......................................................... 70
2.7 Contact addresses ....................................................................................... 76
Part 3: Social life ................................................................................................. 77
3.1 What is social life? ..................................................................................... 77
3.2 Developing Friendly Personality: .............................................................. 81
3.3 What are the principles of successful social life? ...................................... 87
Interpersonal skills ........................................................................................ 87
Effective communication skills .................................................................... 88
Empathy ........................................................................................................ 90
3.3.1, Be fruitful............................................................................................ 91
3.5 Be aware of things that Destroy Effective Social life and Friendship ... 99
3.6 Social life test (self-assessment) .............................................................. 102
Part 4: Personal Life......................................................................................... 105
4.1 Personal Life Disciplines ......................................................................... 105
4.2 Purpose steps............................................................................................ 106
Time Management and Planning ................................................................... 111
4.3 What will I do with my degree? .............................................................. 117
Creative Thinking skills ................................................................................. 123
4.4 Personal Life self- assessment ................................................................. 126
Part 5: interventions .......................................................................................... 127
5. 1, Attribution intervention ......................................................................... 127
5.2 Goal intervention ..................................................................................... 134
5. 3 Social facilitation and befriending intervention ..................................... 139
5.4 Extracurricular activities intervention ..................................................... 140
5.6, stress intervention( coping strategies) .................................................... 141
5.7 Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) Self-assessment ........................................ 144
Coping with Emotions ................................................................................... 146
Reference........................................................................................................... 147

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Meaningful University Life Experience

Copyright © Dr. Abraham Gebeyehu 2023

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or
used in any manner whatsoever without the publisher's express written
permission except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed and bound by Siriyan Printing Ambo Inc., in Ambo, Oromia, Ethiopia.

First printing, 2023.

Publisher
Dr. Abraham Gebeyehu (MD).
Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia.
Phone number +251910295220
Email [email protected]

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Meaningful University Life Experience

Here's what some university instructors and students have to say

about the book...

This book is a unique, concise student guidebook helpful for all University
joiners. I remember how confused and frightened I was, whether in academics or
social interaction because everything was new. Though the stress decreased as
the years passed, I always felt fresh when I joined a new academic year. This
book would be like a good friend for you. I recommend that you (all students)
read this book at least once during your campus stay. Have a good read!
Dr. Gersam Abera (MD, Ass Professor of General Surgery and Pediatrics Surgeon) Jimma
university medical center

The book is enlightening and nicely written to assist university students in their
life journey. Since it explains what the majority of us have gone through, from
the confused state of the first year to the final graduation and beyond during a
person's entire career life, it made me wish I could have this book when I was a
student. New college and university students would use it to develop their critical
thinking skills and have a better academic career. Compiling and preparing the
book is a complex task from the beginning to the end of the writing process. You
are an excellent example of someone who works for change and hopes to inspire
the next generation. To effectively complete their trip towards a new chapter of
their lives, I can state that everyone enrolling in university MUST read it,
internalize it, and use it. I am confident that everyone who reads this book will
practice what they share and recommend it to their colleagues.
Dr. Fetiya Awol (Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Chief Clinical
Director of Jimma University Medical Center)

I am sure it will be an eye-opener for university students

Dr. Mohammed Beshir (MD, Ass Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health) Jimma university
medical center

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Meaningful University Life Experience

If you're a new student about to embark on your university journey, this book is
essential to have by your side. It is written to offer a firsthand account of the highs
and lows encountered since day one, providing valuable insights and practical
advice to navigate the thrilling world of university education.

This captivating and relatable narrative will offer you a comprehensive

understanding of what to expect, equipping you with the knowledge that
textbooks often fail to provide. With relatable anecdotes and genuine empathy,
the author paints a vivid picture of students' challenges and triumphs.

From managing deadlines, coping with academic pressures, and embracing social
opportunities, this book is a treasure trove of wisdom. By sharing personal
experiences, the author ensures you'll feel supported and inspired throughout your
university years. Take advantage of the opportunity to embark on this
transformative journey with the insights of someone who has successfully walked
the path. For sure, the book is your trusted companion as you embark on your
exciting adventure into university life.
Dr. Henok Gulilat(Ph.D.) Research and Innovation Director, Jimma University Institute of
Health

I learned a lot of valuable lessons about my academic, social, and personal life
from reading this book. Specifically, I read the social life part with my dorm mate.
It felt that the book was describing our experience because we had a dorm mate
who was depressed and dropped out of school not because of lack of potential but
of social support and another dorm mate who was taking antidepressants secretly
and not having close friends to open up to. After reading the book, we promised
to support each other. Be there for one another so that no one feels depressed and
lonely again. Every university student must have a meaningful university life
experience.
Honey Godana (4th-year medical student at St. Paul's Millennium Medical College)

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Meaningful University Life Experience

This book provides a self-portrait of students' university life experiences. It shows

what you have been doing right and wrong. And guide you on how to do right by
your academic, social, and personal life, enjoy an exciting university life, and be
productive after graduating. This book is an antidote to the crisis we see in our
university student life. I recommend this antidote if you are already a university
student or about to join a university.
Bethlehem Gebeyehu (nursing student)

As a medical student, I was confused when I joined a university. If I had read this
book, I would have scored an excellent grade and would not face the difficulties
I met when I joined a university as a freshman. I recommend this book to all
university students.
Abduljelil Yisehak (5th-year medical student at Jimma University Medical Center)

In 2023, I had the privilege of graduating from Jimma University Medical Center
with a commendable GPA. However, upon reflecting on my academic journey, I
couldn't help but wonder how much more I could have accomplished if I had
access to the valuable guidance presented in this book. With its insightful tips and
strategies, I am confident that any university student who reads this book will
undoubtedly achieve academic excellence. Therefore, I highly recommend it as a
must-read for all aspiring scholars.
Dr. Benti Shentema

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Meaningful University Life Experience

Dedication

This book is dedicated to university students who are struggling with challenges
during their time in school and could use some guidance to make their experience
more meaningful. It's also dedicated to mothers who are eager to see their children
graduate and begin working.

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Meaningful University Life Experience

Acknowledgment

Firstly, I would like to thank God for giving me the passion and skills to write
this book.
I am also thankful to my instructors at Jimma University (Dr. Gersam, Dr.
Kumale, Dr. Mitiku, Professor Daniel, Mr. Melese, Dr. Fetiya, Dr. Henok, Dr.
Mohammed, and Dr. Elsah, Dr. Dr. Yohannes) for their valuable feedback and
encouragement, as well as my classmates and friends ( Dr. Tekle, Mr. Tsegaw,
Ms. Nardos, Dr. Balkewkal, Dr. Rajif, Dr. Benti, Dr. Aman, Dr. Mihret, Dr.
Bethel, Dr. Basilael, Dr. Lidya, Dr. Tsinat, Dr. Honey, Dr. Abnezer, Dr. Nebyu,
Dr. Sirak, Dr. Abera, Dr. Abduljelil, Dr. Abem, Dr. Nahom) for their unwavering
support and affection.
Additionally, I sincerely appreciate the assistance the staff at Shenen Gibe
General Hospital provided and the guidance from my mentors, Dr. Hibst and Mr.
Esisha Mangistu, which made my time at Jimma University productive.

Dear Mom, I am forever grateful for your unwavering support and

encouragement during my university journey and book writing process. I cannot
imagine where I would be without you. Your love and guidance have been
integral to my success, and I know you have sacrificed so much to make me the
person I am today. I can never fully repay you but know that I appreciate you
more than words can express.

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Meaningful University Life Experience

Overture

Transitioning to university life can be a fascinating and new experience for many
young students. However, students need to be in the right mindset before entering
university, as there is a lot of responsibility and commitment that they might need
help to live up to (1).

Do our new (freshman) students know precisely what is expected from them
when they join the university? Are they ready for the opportunities and challenges
of the university's academic, social, and personal life? Do they know exactly what
university and university life is?

University life is a fantastic and challenging experience due to unique emergent

stressors such as leaving parents’ homes, entering a new environment, losing or
diminishing social support networks, developing peer relationships, academic
pressures, and financial management (2, 3).

A cross-sectional study conducted among first-year undergraduate students in

Madawalabu and Dilla University indicated that the prevalence of adjustment
problems is 30.1% and 42.5%, respectively, and social, academic, personal, and
change factors tested for adjustment problems of the students showed statistically
significant association (4, 5).

Most first-year students have stated that the transition to campus is their life's
most stressful adjustment phase (6). Even though it's not common in our country,
many higher-education institutions offer new students options for easing the
transition to university (7).

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Despite excessive government investment in education, most students fail to

achieve good academic performance at all levels of education (8). Many believe
college students should be expert learners; they have practiced learning for a
dozen or more years. In reality, 73% of college students report difficulties
preparing for exams, and this percentage of reported study problems is consistent
across college years (9).

A study at Arba Minch University, South Ethiopia, noted that the trend of
graduating students differs from that of enrolled students, and more students
commit readmission due to poor academic performance (10).

The magnitude of academic failure in the first semester at some Jimma University
faculties was high. About 28 % of the sampled students failed in the first semester
(11).

Recently, out of the 896,520 Grade 12 students who sat for the national school
leaving examination for the 2021-22 academic year, only 3.3 percent scored 50
percent and above to pursue their university education (12). As a result, the
education ministry set up a remedial program as a “one-time solution” and
lowered the pass mark to 30%, down from 50%, to admit more students in the
next academic year (13). The government’s effort is admirable, but there is no
doubt that the same kind of academic failure will be the destiny of those students
in university, too, unless a study skill development program is made available for
students to improve their academic performance.

Many college students also need help organizing information. Sixty-one percent
report needing help organizing ideas, and 52% admit that their notes could be
more organized; many students enter college with little awareness of which skills
are required in order to be effective learners (9).

Study skills (habits) are the most important predictor of academic performance,
and global research has revealed that study habits affect academic performance
(14).

Given the critical role of study skills (habits) in a student’s academic

achievement, today, many prestigious universities, such as York University in
Canada and the University of Berkeley in California, teach study skills to newly
enrolled students(15).

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How intimate or close do students feel with their classmates and dorm mates on
a university campus? The results of a Study conducted in Kenyan Public
Universities assessing the Level of Compatibility in social relationships among
students show that only 10% of female subjects and 23% of male subjects had a
high level of compatibility. The results also show that 6.70% of female and 3.3%
of male subjects had high compatibility with roommates, while 16.70 % of female
and 20% of male subjects had average compatibility with roommates.
Incompatibility with roommates was high for female and male subjects at 26.70%
each. The high incompatibility rates were confirmed to have been caused by the
fact that roommates did not know each other before meeting in the rooms on the
first day of registration at the university. Other challenges were found to have
been caused by the diversity in ethnicity, culture, and economic backgrounds of
the students (16). According to Ethiopia’s education development roadmap
(2018-30), while universities have exercised to promote diversity, none of the
Ethiopian universities have activities to promote unity (17).

University students have been vulnerable to ethnic extremism and becoming

instruments for various political agendas, even at the expense of the lives of their
classmates (18).

Do our students step outside their comfort zone and actively seek out students
whose ethnic, political opinion, religious, and economic background is different
from theirs to be their friends? And be intimate to support each other emotionally
and be there for each other when families are not close.

I wish the answer is yes and valid for all students, but it is not. Some students feel
lonely while they are on campus. There are many hurting pupils from stress and
depression; among medical students in Addis Ababa, the prevalence of
depression and anxiety was 51.3% (45.37% to 57.23%) and 30.1% (24.66% to
35.54%), respectively(19). and Melaku et al. reported a 52.4% prevalence of
stress among undergraduate medical students at Jimma University(20). They
have no choice of a safe place to go for rescue from this stress and lonesomeness.
They won’t let anybody know how they feel, and they are away from their family,
burdened with many university life challenges.

Not having close friends (loneliness), conflict with friends, and low social support
in university were indicated as sources of mental distress and low self-esteem
(21-24), affecting students’ academic success.
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Social support is consistently associated with positive student outcomes

regarding well-being and academic achievement (25).

Is there a dream in our universities?

Is there a vision in our pupil's minds?

Some students do not have an articulated picture of the future they intend to create
for themselves. This may make them take programs of study without a clear
career goal or objectives. Essentially, they choose the wrong course of study or
career (26).

According to Ethiopia's Education Development Roadmap (2018-30), many

students enroll in higher education without adequate subject knowledge to enter
university (17).
Is there a goal in our student’s life?

Harris (2013) states that goal significantly affects study habits. According to him,
some students don’t have a clear plan of what they want to do with their degree,
why they are going to university, and what to do in the future. Cited by (26).

Students must come prepared for university education (17). Without a personal
goal system that is carefully thought-through and connected with one’s sense of
self, individuals will have difficulty focusing their efforts and meeting their basic
psychological needs (27). Studies have indicated that personal goals direct
attention toward goal-relevant activities while influencing the avoidance of goal-
irrelevant actions (7). One of the potential causes of the problem of academic
failure and departure from university is the lack of clear goals (28).

Overall, we can see that not having personal goals(visionless), being socially
unstable, and having poor academic performance are the triad of university life
challenges many students are burdened with. See figure 1

If the challenges are not identified and addressed accordingly by the responsible
body, Failure to cope with stress and challenges may lead students to stop or
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discontinue further education, have suicidal intentions, or participate in activities

such as smoking, drinking, aggressive behavior with others, or damaging the
institution’s property, or be involved in violent actions by disrespecting laws and
rights of others (29, 30).

Let me ask, whose fault do you think it is? Is it the family’s problem, the students
or the government’s? Students will probably say that it is the government and
the weak teaching system’s fault. And the government officials or school
principalities will blame on student's ill-discipline. But there is no need to point
fingers about whose fault it is because students’ problems are government
problems and government problems are students’ problems, and parents also play
a significant role in whatever is going on in their children’s lives. Despite whose
faults, the drawbacks are if we students discipline ourselves and help each other.
I still believe that the journey through university life will be an educational
adventure for us. And I believe university education is the means through which
dreams come true and goals become achievable with the power of knowledge you
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gain, and I want my fellow students to believe this too. And we are not here to
judge or complain about whose fault it is but to discuss bringing a solution.

This book tries to cover different aspects of university life from students’
perspectives without claiming to be exhaustively complete. It has five parts and
the ten core WHO’s life skills.

Part one of this book will discuss university and university life with students.
Prepare students for university life challenges and opportunities by showing good
and bad behaviors and counseling students to choose the right path.

Part two will discuss making students’ academic lives effective by suggesting
effective study techniques that many academically successful university students
have been using, as we observed from different studies (31, 32, 33).

Part three addresses student social life in university, counsels students on

different levels of social interaction on the campus, from dorm rooms to the whole
campus community level, and how to have a practical social life.

Part four Will discuss students' personal lives, guiding them to have a purpose
and goal, how to plan to achieve their goals, and connect their academic education
to their life purpose to create a job instead of waiting for the government to hire
them.

Part five will implement some interventions to tackle the triad of university life
challenges. It doesn't include universities’ infrastructures for making the
university conducive place and lectures quality to improve academic
achievements. Everything written in this book is from students struggling just like
you to have a meaningful time in university and not to be jobless after graduation
and from most respected doctors in their profession, whom I consider role
models. We ought to learn from their life experience because once in their life,
they have passed through university life challenges, which most of us are
currently struggling with. You can take this book as heart-to-heart advice from
students and respected university instructors to students. At the end of every part
of this book, there is a standard self-assessment question to know how well your
university life is and with an address of organizations and their professional
counselor to help you in case you perform below average.

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If you apply the principles in this book, participate in the life skills training
program, and contact a professional counselor if you need help, it will help you
take one step toward saying goodbye to loneliness and purposelessness and take
one step toward welcoming a goal-oriented, warm social life and studying smart.
It will impart mental Stamina for you to be a hard-working student who
contributes a lot to your community in the fields of your study.

Thanks for reading this book and for your contribution to your country.

Part 1: University life

What is a university?

What is university life?

1.1 What is a University?

Before answering that, let me tell you a true story. When we were small kids, our
parents, relatives, neighbors, and even guests often visited our homes; after the
introduction, they asked us, "What do you want to be when you grow up?” If
not all of us, at least most of us, have been asked this question more than once.
Of course, our response to this question differs based on various things: If you
ask a boy who often watches Spiderman movies, he may say, "I want to be
Spiderman,” if you ask a girl whose mother is a singer, she may say "I want to be
a musician,” and. If you ask a boy whose dad is a doctor, he may say I want to be
a doctor. The other frequent answers include pilot, engineer, soldier, teacher,
manager, etc., depending on how they were influenced. And here is how I was
influenced…

Born and raised in Yabello town, Borena zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia, the
nearest university to our town back then was used to be Hawassa University. It is
about 300km away from my hometown. I rarely hear some students go to a
university and then graduate.

I heard the word university for the first time at the graduation ceremony of my
neighbor. When I say neighbor, in a small town, everybody is a neighbor. At the
celebration, there was plenty of food and all kinds of traditional and modern
drinks. People were very excited and happy.

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The house was full of glittering materials that made the environment very
attractive. Every preparation was made cautiously so that nothing would interrupt
the celebration.

The parents and loved ones had been waiting for this sweet moment for many
years. At the ceremony, parents and relatives were beaming with pride. I can read
how happy they were from their bright and smiling faces.

I still remember the mother smiling and gently wiping tears of joy when giving a
speech at the ceremony, "saying God helped my family.”

People were hugging the graduate and each other. He made his parents and loved
ones highly proud. I learned how glorious graduating from a university is. I was
so impressed.
It is a glorious way to graduate, but the joy didn't end there. My neighbor then
started working in the field; he graduated and started making money. I don’t know
how much it was. But it was good enough to change his low-income family’s life.
It changed many things, starting from their house and from eating two times a
day to four times a day. His mother started looking different; the whole town
noticed and asked her ‘what did you get!”?
Her son buys her new clothes every month when he collects his salary. His mother
became an active member of social affairs like edir, and he became a leader in
many road construction projects in our town. This made me answer "I want to be
an engineer" for the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?".

My funny childhood definition of a university also came from what I heard during
this graduation ceremony. The word graduation in Afan Oromo is 'Ebbifamu,’
which is close to the word blessed. So when I heard people saying he graduated
from a university, I used to think that a university is where a group of Elders live
and blesses students.😀ha ha ha...

In principle, yes, it is; even if the process is different, our teachers are the elders
blessing us with knowledge, skills, and exemplary character. Having this
understanding, my goal was to join one of the best universities in our country. As
planned, I scored good grades in my national school leaving examination and
joined Jimma University as a medical student. I changed my field of study from
engineering to medicine due to peer pressure, family influence, and the perception
that everybody wanted me to be a doctor.

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Even though I scored good grades that made me able to join a university, it is not
a guarantee for success in a university. A university is quite different from
secondary or preparatory schools. It is a place to learn, like secondary schools,
but more practical and in-depth.

Learning in and experiencing university life can change and shape you in ways
you might not imagine. We have seen it change the bad to sound and the good to
bad.

The change you see, good or bad, is not just due to students’ behavior back at
home or what they have experienced within the university campus. Sure, some
students bring their violent behavior and addictions from their homes. If they are
innocent when they arrive at universities, they will be influenced by students who
live in the same dorm or classmates. The contribution of the communities/cities
where the university is located plays a significant role, too. In Jimma, most
students are addicted to coffee, including me; we even take for our families as
much as we can when we go back home for a break.

But generally, a university is a great place where you understand who you were,
who you are, and who you will be.

Many have done this and shown us practically. You know Facebook is a social
networking service launched as Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg created it with his
college roommates in his dorm room. And now Facebook runs the world.
University also is about much more than just academic work. It is where you meet
people with different ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and political opinions.
Students have the chance to experience a wide range of life lessons.

University is a concept that has come down to us from Ancient Greece. The idea
of "Universitas" constituted through being inspired by the environment where
Plato and Aristotle created philosophical discussions with their students without
feeling any political and religious pressures is named as a university (Ortas, 2004)
cited by(34).

A university is an academic community established purposely for the pursuit of

higher learning and teaching of students who are either in their undergraduate or
post-graduate studies. University education is meant to increase students’
knowledge base through teaching and learning and build their self-confidence,
skills, and, most importantly, how the students see themselves, i.e., self-esteem
(35).

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Thanks to all the knowledge, skills, and experience you’ll gain in university.
You’ll be able to become a mature person who can help himself, their family, and
the community.
You’ll encounter new things, ideas, challenges, and opportunities while
undertaking academic work and participating in university life. Along the way,
you’ll
1. Experience and know what life looks like away from family

2. Meet new and exciting people

3. Develop enduring friendships
4. Learn more about yourself and the world around you
5. Develop unique desires and passions
6. Gain more knowledge and skills

7. Prepare for a future career

The university experience will challenge and inspire you. It also helps students
develop into mature, responsible, and independent adults. With no one telling you
what to do, when, and how to do it, you need to figure out how to do the right
things, be responsible, and be self-disciplined. And self-prison (imposing
restrictions on oneself and staying away from being involved in destructive
activities that seem entertaining, without being told to do so) from the poisoning
freedom (is a right/freedom given to you without you being mature enough to
choose the correct option) out there on campus.

Some students think university is where you stay for 3 to 7 years, drifting from
one year to the next and getting the title of Doctor, engineer, accountant, etc. And
get out into the community to get a job. But a university is different from where
you spend time. It is a place where you must be cautious about how and on what
you should spend your microseconds—not just spending but learning and
developing yourself by acquiring knowledge and skills to improve your future.
Even some students take university as a chance to escape family control and have
fun without being responsible. Of course, You have the freedom to live how you
like, but with freedom comes great responsibility for your future.

With no family control or guidance, some students go wild and are exposed to
addiction, such as drug abuse, alcohol, etc. You might think the teachers are
responsible, but that is untrue. First, this is not secondary school; you are now

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grown up. The teachers are primarily accountable for your academic life. They
do that by evaluating your performance and making you repeat courses in which
you scored poorly.
Even if the teachers want to discipline your other aspects of life, the situation in
a university doesn’t allow teachers to follow up on your personal life closely;
hence, making your life effective and successful remains your sole responsibility.

The university is not where you plan to meet the boy or girl of your dreams to
have a sweet love life as the Western movies brainwashed us; it is instead the
place where you spend bitter and sweat learning academic life.
Of course, you may experience a romantic relationship, and If you are lucky
enough, you might get a soul mate, but you are not here just for this purpose. This
calls for one crucial issue in university students’ lives, i.e., setting a priority. By
priority, I mean that it is hardly possible for anyone to do everything at a time.
Focus is necessary, my friend. I mentioned this because of what I have witnessed
in Jimma University’s main campus at one of the students' Lounge, Known as
koket. It was half past twelve (12:30) local time. After dinner, I went there to
drink coffee to prepare for a compelling evening study. This is a routine activity
for most of our campus students. Since Kokets’ coffee is the best and cheapest,
many students prefer it. This makes the place highly crowded at this time of the
day.
I ordered a cup of coffee and sat. Some of the students who came earlier have
already started enjoying their coffee. Others are chatting side to side with their
friends. In the midst of this, one of the boys got up from his chair and went down
on his knees in front of a lady and said, "Would you marry me?" The lady's
reaction was so aggressive that she threw the hot cup of coffee at his face and
broke the cup. Then, many of the students started shouting, and I thought it was
an action and looked around to see if any cameraman was shooting. But it was
not an action film. I then heard the lady speaking in grief, “You are a student,
you have nothing, you are poor … How dare you ask me to marry you?” The guy
replied that he was begging for love and asked her not to exchange true love for
wealth. He also tried to remind her of their relationship for the last four years.
Her response was, “That’s just campus life.” This shocked me, and I paused to
think about how students define relationships on campus and in university life.
Do all students understand relationships in such a way? If so, I firmly believe that
it needs some intervention.

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Life in a university can be challenging and enjoyable. It requires a series of

adjustments to different environments. Initially, you may not quickly get into
term with dorm mates and may not know where you can get various services,
including café, registrar’s office, lounges, classrooms, etc. As a result, some
students may feel extremely homesick. The study by Jemal (2012) indicates that
half of the first-year students at Jimma University experienced at least one form
of adjustment problem, i.e., academic, social, and psychology (36).

There have been remarks that institutions of higher learning have become places
of radical ethnic politics. At one point, ethnic-based violence and politically
motivated killing became common.
Universities are ideal places where humanity is cultured and nurtured.
It is where ignorance and illiteracy are killed, not your brothers and sisters from
different ethnicities. A university is where you are educated and prepare yourself
for life, work, citizenship, and a sense of national responsibility to serve and
promote humanity. Not for violence.
Unfortunately, I have observed our university becoming where political crises
manifest. Students group themselves based on ethnicity and do what they are not
supposed to do. The teaching and learning processes become victims of radical
ethnic politics and violence.
Education is the vaccine of violence.

– Edward James Olmos

I am not saying that students should not have a political stand. It is suitable for an
educated person to have a political stand, but no one should impose their political
opinion/interests on others violently and forcefully.

An uneducated man may believe in a fight, but an educated person believes in

solving problems through reasonable discussion. That is probably why we read
and write a lot in a university. We are learning to fight with pen and paper but not
by violence. Learning in university changes how we act, think, and feel about
ourselves, others, and the world around us.

When educating the minds of our youth, we must remember to educate their
hearts.

– Dalai Lama

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We are getting weaker and weaker in educating our youth hearts with moral
discipline.

The function of education is to think intensively and to think critically. But

education, which stops with efficiency, may prove the greatest menace to society.
The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, not morals.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

The highest education does not merely tell us information but makes life in
harmony with all existence.

– Rabindranath Tagore

The university is where you get this education, so the term university was coined
from the words unity and diversity, implying unity in diversity. But the acts we
see now in some of our university students lack morals, open-mindedness, and
character of harmony. Students who engage in unethical and criminal activities
waste their precious time doing such activities. And at the end, many students
don't know what to do after graduating.

We know it is a place to learn, but many waste all that time and become as
dependent on their family as they were in high school.

But some managed to be employed at government offices if they have relatives

there. Some get into a job searching for a long time and wake up after three or
more years wasted not working but looking for a job.

Your time in a university must be for something worthwhile and spent doing
meaningful things that can change your whole life.

The change and ability to create a job or get hired results from your current
university activities and effort, not after you graduate. Students make their goal
to graduate, and many of us think we can get a job when we graduate; that is not
true because graduation is not equal to a job. Yes, now the day’s government is
running out of jobs. Graduating and getting a degree doesn't guarantee you a job.

A great thing can be achieved from education and life experience in university,
but that is possible only if you are open-minded and ready to be a student.

Are you ready? Yes No

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Buckle up; then, we have an incredible journey ahead.

Let’s start by looking at a university student’s life. Our daily routines and whole-
day activities will be put here for you to reflect on and learn from. Pick the good,
leave the bad, and you do not become unwittingly addicted to the bad habits.

1.2 What is university life?

1.2.1 A day on campus roughly looks like this:

1. Attending classes

2. Studying in the library or any convenient place

3. Eating in a café

4. Free time, maybe meet with friends, clean your stuff, and do your other
personal matters

5. Go to the dorm and sleep

Those are roughly a clear list of all possible university students’ routines;
however, based on their department and even the same department based on
student’s personalities and maturity level, How they spend their time on those
activities, and which actions they primarily focus on is different, and that is what
even makes a difference between academically excellent students and those who
are not.

A detailed picture of a typical week and daily routines in medical school varies
from person to person, but I will show you from all possible angles. So, let’s get
into it and look at a typical day for a medical student.
6:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M. Morning Routine
Wake up early, revise the previous lecture, and prepare for today’s class. Get
some breakfast and get to class on time. On second thought, if I sleep up to 8 a.m.,
it is okay. But the class usually starts at 8 AM.
Being a morning person is naturally a privilege because it is the day's most
productive and stress-free moment. However, very few students tend to be more
organized and wake up early in the morning to have more time to do everything

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they want. They get cleaned, write down their daily “to-do” list, have breakfast,
and get to class on time to learn something new every day and add to their
knowledge.
8:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. morning class
Most of my classmates arrived 30 minutes late. For some students, being late is
not enough; they won’t even come to class. God knows where they spent their
time by being absent from class.
Let’s get back to those in the class; some students are present only physically and
mentally absent or sometimes chit-chatting with friends in class. Since the course
is occasionally long, about four hours, some students may fall asleep. Some of us
have a good nap while the teacher is teaching. Studying late at night, missing
hours of sleep, and compensating for it in class. Such Students struggle. I know
this because I used to be one of them; they can overcome this with effective study
time management, but some students are in the class just for attendance. But those
alert students listen to the teachers, take notes, and participate in a healthy
discussion of the class that boosts their confidence and learning. They ask several
questions about the concepts they didn't understand when the teacher was
teaching. This will excite their mind and keep them focused. The morning class
pretty much “ends” at noon.
12:00 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. Lunch break
At lunchtime, most students directly march to the café from class. After lunch,
there is always free time from 6:00 PM up to the starting time of the afternoon
class. In this free time, some students head off to the dorm to get some rest and
take a short nap. Some wander on the campus before the afternoon class.
2:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Afternoon class
For a preclinical year one student, the afternoon class can be a lab session or a
lecture, like in the morning. For preclinical year two students, there is usually no
class in the afternoon, but there may be lab sessions a few days a week. In the
afternoon class, the same thing can happen as in the morning. Some students are
late, some don’t even come to class, and those who come to class may sleep while
those active students dissect the cadaver and observe practically what they have
learned theoretically in the course.

The afternoon class is two hours long. Sometimes, it may take three hours. Now,
the time is around 4:00 PM. This feels good. There is free time from 4:00 PM up
to dinner time. Again, most students return to the dorm to rest by watching

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movies, napping, hanging out, and having fun with dorm mates. Some will
wander around on the campus; some may get out of the campus. By this time
now, the café is ready to start serving dinner.

5:30 P.M. – 7:30 P.M. Dinner time

From 7: 30PM and after that it is evening study time.

At 5:30 p.m., the cafe is open for dinner. Some students eat at this time, have
coffee with friends, and then go to the library. How long they stay in the library
varies according to the student commitment. Some stay for two hours. Some for
four hours and the nerds may stay up until midnight and even more. After dinner,
some students may again return to the dorm and study in the dorm or participate
in the dorm room shenanigans and gossiping.

After dinner, there are many places to go and so many things to do that I couldn't
mention all, but there is one thing that I couldn't pass without saying, which some
students are obsessed with, and that is beg tera drama.

Beg tera is a place where students hang out; I am okay with students hanging out
together, but the location (in the dark), time (at night), and what they do
sometimes are better not to be mentioned. They may stand there for hours, but
those students can’t sit for an hour in the library. They waste their precious time.

The great things they do, when they stand in Beg tera are being in couple
boy/girl and talking. And they may kiss each other, hiding in the dark. These are
things that those students who forget their priorities do.

Clinical years

For Clinical year one (C1) students, in the morning after the café, there is a class
invariably from 8:00-10:00 AM; for clinical year two (C2), it is a morning
session. After the lesson and morning sessions from 10:00 PM to 12:00 AM, there
is around or bedside presentation in the ward. For both C1 and C2 students. After
two hours of patient-oriented learning, here comes a lunch break. In The
afternoon, for c1 students, there may be seminars twice a week. For C2, there
may be a seminar or skill lab twice a week. In other ways, the afternoon is free.

Some students use this free time to read and prepare for tomorrow's round or
bedside presentation. Others waste their time looking incompetent during the
ward rotation and face the consequences of their actions.
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Weekends

Weekends are free since there is no class or lab for preclinical students, but there
may be duties for clinical year students. But most of the time, it is free. In this
free time, some students experiment with different extra-curricular activities and
pursue the activities that genuinely interest and fascinate them and develop new
passions. Some take care of their hygiene. They do take a bath because taking a
bath and feeling clean has many benefits. Clean their dormitory and wash their
clothes. Some take the time to give their friends and loved ones part of their time
and hang out to build strong relationships with peers and even teachers. They
establish a connection to have an effective social life. The nerds and brilliant
students may study all the weekends, too.

Focusing on your priorities and well-constructed routine will make you feel
fulfilled and love doing what you must do, like studying. You will also be on time
for everything without stress, contributing to your well-being. However, some
students waste their time wandering in and out of the campus during the day and
the evening by going to nightclubs and places to get drunk with alcoholic
beverages.
For other departments like engineering, social science, and other health sciences,
their class and other academic schedules are similar to that of medical students
but not as tight as medical students. Medical curricula timetables are overloaded
compared to other disciplines like arts and engineering (27). They have more
free time. How many of them use their free time effectively? They can learn some
academic disciplines, like studying more diligently from medical students.
Medical students can also learn from them about other aspects of university life
experiences like social life and extracurricular activities.
In short, a university is all about experiences that help you know who you are. It
enables you to become more successful when you finally graduate, get your
degree, and search for a rewarding career. That is what it should be. But it can
also be where you lose your identity (identity in a sense a student discipline) and
become addicted to eliciting drugs, khat, and alcoholic beverages and involved in
immoral behavior, unable to achieve your goal and being a burden on your family
after you graduate. I say this because I have observed many students who lost
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their identity in my eight years of university. This is why we need to define

exemplary university life and have some warning advice and wake-up calls to
awaken students to be not one of those who lose their identity and become a
burden to their family and their country instead of becoming an asset and
productive workforce.
An old Ethiopian adage in Amharic says, “Mikerew mikerew embi kale mekera
yimkerew (Advise him, advise him; if he doesn’t heed, let him be advised by
adversity).” Although I respect and love our proverbs and their strong messages,
I don’t agree with this one entirely. I would rather keep advising and telling and
giving warning advice until students understand and turn away from their wrong
journey in university. I don’t want students to be notified by adversity. Failure to
cope with hardships (stresses) leads students to fail or drop out of school (38). It
shows that some even have suicidal intentions or participate in activities such as
smoking, drinking, aggressive behavior with others, damaging the property of
institutions, or being involved in violent actions by disrespecting the laws and
rights of others (39, 40).

1.3 Warning advice

Warning advice is a piece of information that indicates a potential hazard and

obstacle in your life. It can also be a sign that warns you of a condition that may
adversely affect your life. Like some traffic signs that indicate hazards on roads
that may not be readily apparent to a driver, there are many hazards of laziness in
our student’s behavior and in the learning process that may not be readily
apparent to them.

Despite how simple they may appear, those signs and information are essential to
save lives and keep devastating destruction from happening. Despite the warning
advice’s importance, people still do not fully implement it. This ignorance leads
to lots of destruction. You may get cancer if you don't stay away from radiation
exposure. If you don't detour at a closed road sign, you may have a road traffic
accident.

I explain this because many university students’ attitudes and activities need
warning advice to show them the right direction and keep them away from
destruction and failure.

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Here are some attitudes and activities that need warning pieces of advice

1. considering a University as a place to get away from family controls

2. Thinking that graduation is equal to a job (securing a job)

3. Taking University as a place where political crises manifest

4. not self-prisoning oneself from poisonous freedom

5, obsessed with ethnic politics and hatred of other ethnic origins

6, weak preparations for exams, attempts to cheat, and unethical practices

When the above-given warnings are ignored, a crisis will follow. Moreover, it is
common to see students ignoring the signs and suffering from the problem.
Such as repeating the academic year, being jobless after graduation, losing an
innocent life as a result of ethnic and political conflicts,
Considering what is mentioned above, the choice is yours to define your
university and university life. What is it going to be for you, my friend?

1.3.1 The Choice is yours/you are the maker of your future!

As you all may know, a zebra crossing is a crosswalk marked for pedestrians to
use on a busy road congested with cars and where the chance of an accident is
high.

Pedestrians use these lines in accordance with the laws of traffic when they cross
roads to reach their destinations safely. But suppose they refuse to respect these
rules of traffic lights and get onto the road carelessly. In that case, they
undoubtedly get into a car accident Instead of reaching their desired destinations.

In the same manner, University life is the time and place for students to think,
grow, and shine with their unique talents to achieve their goals and reach their
destination. It can also be a place where the opposite is true. If they are not careful
and do not respect the rules of university life:

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Rule number one: Stick to your priority!

Priority number
A) Self–discipline andone is studying
studying hard smartly,
B) be irresponsible and lazy
(smart) even ifnumber
Priority two, learn more and because it is easy
it is painful
A) Create a job
priority using YOUR
number MIND
three: take B) Searching for a job
care of yourself)
A) choice
The Be open-minded
is yours... and welcome B)Be a reason for unnecessary a
differences conflict
A) Taking university as a learning B) Make it where political crises
place and being a student or manifest

Congratulations if you have chosen the correct definition, recognized the

warning signs, and turned away from destruction. But even if you are already in
crisis, I want you to know that crises are not always irreversible. So, if you are
still in trouble and want to wake up and change those negative behaviors and
probably fail to do so, people at the following contact address are at your
disposal. You can immediately call and get professional support before it gets
late.

Moreover, the following self-assessment tool may help you know your
readiness and preparedness.

1.4 self-assessment questions

The following are essay-type self-assessment questions to see how well-

prepared and ready you are to make your university life meaningful. If you
think you are a goal-oriented university student, you at least have to be able to
answer the following questions. Please write it down for yourself.

“Freshman Self-Assessment Questions”

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The following are essay-type self-assessment questions to see how well-prepared and ready
you are to make your university life meaningful. If you think you are a goal-oriented university
student, you at least have to be able to answer the following questions. Please write it down for
yourself.
1. Define a university. What does it mean to you? Personally,
____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
2. Why have you joined the university? List out your priorities. Well-defined
and clear priorities
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
3. Which department do you want to join?
______________________________________________________________
4. Why did you choose this department? List the goal/s that you will
achieve after learning in this department.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
5. Plan well! Write down how you will achieve your goal/s faster, easily,
and effectively.
______________________________________________________________

Make a timetable of when you will achieve your long and short-term goals. Be
specific and set a deadline.

Tips for meaningful university life:

1. Make sure you have a clear goal and plan on how to achieve it.

Make sure your goals and plans are alive. Don’t set and write down your goals;
plan once and forget about them.

Try to make it a part of your day-to-day life. First, write it down clearly on a
piece of paper, then save it in your mind (memory). Finally, set them into your
life and practice them. Because you can’t put into your memory what you can’t
jot down on paper, and you can’t set into your life what you can’t place into
your memory.

Track your progress daily, is your plan leading you to reach your goal? Write a
clear daily or weekly schedule for assessing your plan progress; how will you

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assess whether it is good or

bad?______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

If you are a fresh (new) student and still haven't chosen a department to join,
here is what you need to know before you decide;
6. Identify and avoid distractive behavior ( illicit drug use, alcoholic drink addiction,
Poor studying and pessimistic friend) which hinders you from reaching your goal
_________________________________________________________
7. Make a timetable of when you will achieve your long and short-term goals.
Be specific and set a deadline.
_____________________________________________________________
8. write down what attaining your goals will do for you and your country.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

9. make 3-5 goal mates/friends(someone whose dream/goals is similar to yours)

from your dorm mates or classmates. List their name here.
_____________________________
10. Find out and start cooperating with the governmental or non-governmental
organizations and individuals that your goals are directly related to.
List them here, and at least start thinking about how to connect.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

1.5 What to know to choose the right department/program

1. know how interested or passionate you are and what interests you about that
specific department.

2, career prospects,

The probability or chance for future success in the profession asks a question
about market demand for that profession.

3. evaluate how it can go with your life goal

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4, social development

5, financial fulfillment

Self-Awareness

Story of the bird and his friend

Once upon a time, a fish and a bird became friends. The first day they met, the
bird was singing on a tree in the bay area and singing. The fish came out and said
you have a beautiful voice to the bird. The bird says thank you. The fish asked
the bird to teach him how to sing like him so that he could impress his parent,
who lived at the bottom of the ocean and never heard of a song. The bird taught
the fish how to sing every day. When they met, they sang together, and the fish
improved his skill. But one day, the fish said I want to be perfect like you to the
bird. The bird says you can improve but may not become as perfect as me.
Because singing is my unique talent, and I was made to sing. So before you decide
to be a singer like me, you should know your unique talent. The bird continues
and asks the fish what is your unique talent? The fish paused momentarily and
said, unlike you, I can hold my breath for long and breathe underwater. The fish
says it is not that difficult; I can teach you how to hold your breath. The bird
learns how to hold his breath for a few seconds. The following day, the fish
complimented the bird's tree house and expressed her fondness for such a
dwelling. The bird thanked the fish and inquired about the location of the fish's
own home. The fish replied that her home was at the bottom of the ocean. The
bird was curious and asked about what could be found at the ocean floor. The fish
told him that there were many things like diamonds, oil, and other expensive
items. One night, the bird decided to go into the ocean deep to gather those
minerals to make himself and his family rich. And the bird dived deep into the
water; deeper and deeper, the bird wanted to find where the diamonds were. But
soon, the bird couldn’t hold his breath any longer. The bird tried to return to the
surface, gasping, but he couldn’t make it to the surface. He ran out of breath.
After reading the story to the students, the trainer will ask students to form a group
of 5-10 to discuss and list the story's morals. After the brainstorming, the trainer
helps students to fill out the self-awareness checklist.

Self-Awareness checklist
Write the single inner quality that makes you unique/different from others.
____________________________________
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Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses.

___________________ ____________________
___________________ _____________________
___________________ _____________________
Make a list of your likes and dislikes.
__________________ ___________________
Considering your goals, values, passions, and aspirations
______________________________________________________________
What do your mom and dad expect from you? Add also what your siblings
expect from you if you have any. List them.
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
Decision making
Good decision-making steps (cited by) (41).
Step 1 Name the choices and alternatives involved in your decision
Step 2 Gather information about the decision (considering values and goals, and
list what facts you need to know)
Step 3 List the advantages and disadvantages of each choice
Step 4 Make your decision and list your reasons for this choice
Real-life experience example:
The decision to choose a field of study
It is an essential decision as it may determine your future career and your money.
Not knowing your genuine interest and the large number of available university
subjects will make the choice difficult.

Step 1 Name the choices and alternatives involved in your decision

Medical Doctor, teacher, lawyer, Accountant, Business management, Engineer,

pilot, policeman, etc.

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Step 2 Gather information about the decision (considering values and goals, and
list what facts you need to know)

Critical thinking

The critical thinking steps (cited by) (41).

1. Choose a subject to examine.

Medicine

2. Ask questions about the subject

How many years? , detail about the subject matter, class structure,
lecture hours, and salary.

Does it align with my unique talent, personal goal, likes and dislikes,
strengths and weaknesses? (check from the Self-Awareness above)

3. Gather information to get answers to your questions,

Step 3 List the advantages and disadvantages of each choice

4. Review the information.

Step 4 Make your decision and list your reasons for this choice.

5. Determine how you will react.

Decision-making exercise:

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Three C’s to Good Decision-making (42).

Three C’s to Good Decision-making

1. Challenge (or decision) you are facing: ____________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. Choices you have: _____________________________________________________
Choice 1 ___________________________________________________________
Choice 2___________________________________________________________
Choice 3 __________________________________________________________
3. Consequences of each choice:
Positive Negative
________________________ ______________________________
________________________ ______________________________
________________________ ______________________________
________________________ _____________________________

Your decision is: _______________________________________________________

Your reason: __________________________________________________________

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Problem-solving skill

Problem-Solving: A Step-by-Step Approach (43).

1. Identify/define the problem.

2. Determine the Root Causes
3. Find Multiple Solutions
4. Find the Solution that will Work Best
5. Plan and Implement Your Solution
6. Measure the Success of Your Solution
Real-life example to implement the steps:

1. Identify/define the problem

Homesickness: For many students who pursue their education away from home,
getting homesick can be one of the common problems.

2. Root causes

Because it is the first time for most students to be away from their home, leaving
the environment they get used to and unable to adapt to the new/strange
environment.

3. Multiple solutions

 Do things you loved back home, like playing or watching football, reading
fiction books, cultivating a hobby, or learning a new skill.
 Leave the campus and go home where you missed.
 Ask friends and family to email, call, and send text messages or video call
them every weekend to share your experiences of university life.
 Talking to others with similar experiences can help connect with new
friends and overcome feelings.

4. Best option / feasible solution considering implementation

Option 1, 3, and 4

5. Implement

6. Outcome evaluation

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If you are already a university student and can’t answer those questions, read the
seven purpose steps and try to answer them.

If you are still facing some difficulty, I recommend contacting a team who can
help you at the address listed below or participating in the life skills training.

As a medical student, I define University as a learning environment where I can

acquire theoretical and practical knowledge through hard work and effective
studying. This knowledge and skill will enable me to assess a patient's condition,
identify their problem, and provide effective medication to alleviate their pain.
Ultimately, this will enable me to earn enough income to meet my family's needs
and contribute positively to my community.

1.6 Contact addresses

1, Dr. Abraham Gebeyehu

Phone number: 0910295220

Email: [email protected]

2, Counseling Psychologist's contact

Bethlehem Medhin +251931558397

Email: [email protected]

3. Dr. Biniyam Tehelku (Psychiatrist)

Email:[email protected]

Phone number=0908068285

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Part 2: Academic Life

Let me ask you one question. How do you rate your academic performance?
Good or Poor?

A cumulative GPA of 2.75 and above can be categorized as “Good,” whereas

those with a cumulative GPA of below 2.75 were classified as “Poor”(44). If
you are grouped under a poor-performing category, this part allows you to enjoy
and improve your academic performance.

Source: https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/beautiful-young-african-people-table-with-
books_219728-4452.jpg

2.1 What is Academic Life?

You are as successful as your studying habits in academic life. You are as smart
as your studying habits.

Study habit is the behavior students adopt in pursuing their studies that serve as
the learning vehicle. It is the degree to which the student engages in regular
activities of studying that are characterized by appropriate studying routines (e.g.,
reviews of material, frequency of studying sessions, etc.) occurring in an
environment conducive to learning (45). According to Gbore (2006), effective
study habit is a gateway to student achievement (46).

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Education is a process in which you will be exposed to new facts and information.
Then, you study the necessary materials to gain knowledge and practice it to
develop skills. Then, you can solve problems and defeat challenges later in life.
That is why Nelson Mandela said, ‘Education is a powerful weapon which you
can use to change yourself and the world.’ Because you will defeat life’s
challenges (war) with it. It is not just a weapon. If it is not more, It is as powerful
as nuclear. So, how can you get and use this weapon? It is through critical reading
and studying which is the key to learning in a university.

The Learner’s Dictionary has defined study as a “mental effort to obtain

knowledge.”

When you study, you will get equipped with this weapon. The more you
read/study, the more you are equipped. We all know being armed with weapons
is not to have fun with. It is to fight in a war. Yes, studying is a fight.

Studying is fighting. It is a fight against ignorance and laziness. As students sleep

late at night and get up early in the morning from a warm, cozy bed, it is a fight
against the lazy and ignorant part of them that says stay in bed. The study is a
fight.

We are on the same team fighting the common Enemies: laziness and
ignorance…

Here are the four possible ways that the enemies can attack us.

1. Killing your Self-Esteem.

2. Procrastination

3. Excuses

4. Distractions / Disturbances

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1. Killing your Self-Esteem/low self-esteem (LSE)

The prevalence of LSE and mental distress were 19.0% and 19.7 %, respectively,
In a cross-sectional study conducted at Jimma University from June to July 2018
(22).

Social identity theory explains that students' low self-esteem could induce low
academic achievement (47).

Insecurity/ lack of self-confidence punches you with the thought that you are not
a good reader. That is why all your classmates are ahead of you and have better
grades than you. Then it kicks you with you can’t successfully complete the
program because you are a slow learner, and it is too much for you to get through.
Finally, it knocks you down with mental stress.

A form of stress that occurs because of how events in one’s external or internal
environment are perceived, resulting in the psychological experience of distress
and anxiety(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)(48). is commonly known as tension by
students.

Source:https://images.app.goo.gl/GLxyNe96tFhq1vQj7

As a preclinical year one student, "tension" is the most common distress widely
experienced. I was among the victims. It paralyzed me. I was depressed and
couldn't study. I felt helpless. I want to go to the library and study like my dorm
mates. But I don't know; I stay on my bed when my roommates go to the library
and stay there when they return. Looking at their confidence, their study habits
as well as good grades. I feel envious of my dorm mates.

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Let me ask you a few questions. Are you jealous of your classmate scoring an A
in different courses?

Are you jealous of your friends studying for long hours while you cannot sit and
study for half an hour? If you answer yes, that is good because it is a good kind
of jealousy. It will motivate you to develop habits that will help you succeed.

Does studying feel like moving a mountain for you when the exams approach?
That often happens when you have bad study habits and low self-esteem but still
worry about your academic life.

This feeling won't be the case for those students who don’t care/ worry about their
academic life.

When your self-esteem is gone, and you're paralyzed by tension, all you feel like
doing is just sitting there and staring at nothing because you are depressed.

This is bad, but thank God you are not alone, and it is not the end. You can
overcome this by tackling their source. Most of us wrongly conclude that the
vastness of the academic syllabus is a source of mental stress (tension) and low
self-esteem. So here, I will gradually discuss some sources of tension and how to
overcome them and develop effective study habits.

Source of mental stress (Tension)

A, a bad friend

Bad friends come to you with pessimistic ideas and say, 'We are all going
to fail; the exam is a conundrum.' Or instead of helping you catch up if
you need to catch up in your reading, they brag about how better they
are than you. They even ask you complex questions you can’t answer
now, making you feel more stressed and insecure. A simple solution to
this problem is to avoid those people and stop listening to destructive
information or comments.

B, Insecurity:

They are thoughts that create tension. Whenever you feel insecure, the
following questions start to cross your mind:

How will I get through all the reading? I am a slow reader. How can I
find the time to finish? How will I remember all I read? (I can’t retain

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all I read when the exam comes). These kinds of thoughts will create
tension. The simple answer is not to let your mind be occupied with these
thoughts and Start working instead of worrying. You will remember and
do what you can.

2, Procrastination

The second possible way the enemies can attack you is through procrastination
(waste now by delaying an action to a later time).

Here are some thoughts from the mind of a person diagnosed with procrastination.

Don’t get up from this cozy bed and go to the library! Just sleep; it feels good,
right? You can study in the afternoon. Have fun with your friends now. You can
study later or tomorrow. These ideas steal your moment. The right moment to do
your job is now. And it leaves you only with time to panic. That is why
procrastination is the number one poor study habit that affects students.

3. Excuses for not studying

Here are some of the excuses not to study;

I am not feeling good! I shouldn't kill myself by studying. I don't like this topic,
chapter, or course.

I should stop studying now because I am not in a good mood.

I have to do this and that.

You have yet to learn how tricky it is regarding excuses. The enemy (laziness,
ignorance, etc.) gets into your mind and convinces you that you have enough
reason not to study.
Some students say studying is painful and tedious as an excuse not to study. Yes,
studying is less fun than going out with friends and having fun. However, being
unsuccessful/having poor performance, and staying at the bottom of the class is
more painful and tedious. Trust me; I have been there.

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4. Distractions and Disturbances

Even if you overcome making excuses and procrastinating, the enemy won’t let
you go this easy.

Today’s college students are bombarded with more distractions than ever:
YouTube, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, chat, Skype, and texting, not to mention old
standbys like television and video games—countless ways to connect, explore,
and be entertained (49).

Here are the internal and external voices that can disturb students.

Internal

You just got into the library, but a voice in your mind says, "Let's see what’s new
on Facebook, and keep scrolling through the news feed. You get into the library
but already feel tired and sleepy; if you try to stay focused and read a little longer,
you start feeling excruciating pain and, in your mind, wondering about something
unrelated to your study.

External

Maybe people around you and sounds from nearby surroundings, Friends calling
you through your cell phone, Places / Setups in the library room, tables, chairs.
The lighting of the room can be mentioned as some external disturbance.

The tricky thing about distractions is that they may not force you to stop studying.
It will let you study, but it will not let you be focused on what you are studying.
At the end of the day, you have spent all day trying to read, but you did not
understand anything about the concept you just studied because of a lack of focus
due to the distractions.

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2.2 Principles of Successful Academic Life

I don’t know with which of the challenges you are wrestling/struggling at the
moment. But here are some principles that can help you succeed academically.

2.2.1 Know what to read and from where to read

Questions: Have you selected materials (books, handouts, articles, PPTs, etc.) you
wanted to read? What do I need to read?

Select the best texts (book, reference, material, etc.) for your reading. To start
with, you need to know what you are looking for. You can then examine the
contents page or ask friends, classmates, senior students, and your teachers about
a book or handout to be sure that the book or the handout is worth reading,
appropriate, and complete on the topic you want to understand, this will help you
not to waste your precious time on reading useless junks.

2.2.2 Developing the attitude of “I CAN DO IT.”

Further developing the “I CAN DO IT” attitude is a fifty percent (50%) job done.
Knowing the right book to read is the most important thing, which is a book that
makes you effective. This is why you need to talk to your senior students or
teachers. Of course, everyone knows what to read in a university because books
or handouts are already given. But nowadays, many pupils doubt their potential
if they try “something” and fail. Then, they conclude that they do not have the
potential.

They say, “I am not made for this,” and this is not for me, and they develop the
attitude that they can’t do it because their enemies tell them, “You are not a good
reader,” Punching their confidence right in the face.

I used to be one of those students; as a first-year student in the first-semester mid-

exam, I scored very low compared to my friends despite my effort to read almost
every time. Then, I started to doubt my potential. Later, I concluded that I can’t
do this. This attitude of low self-efficiency hurt me a lot. After this, even though
I had what to read, I couldn't start reading it. Because I thought that I couldn't
finish it, I got depressed and lost interest in reading before I even began. At that
time, I already accepted the diagnosis of “I am dumb,” my dorm mates started a
rumor about me, saying he would fail. But in the second semester, I developed a
schedule that fit my Potential, and my best friend encouraged me and boosted my
confidence that I could do it with a little more effort.

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I started taking a nap before studying. When I began studying with my best
friends, I shared the best books and detailed handouts on the topics I needed to
understand. I got a conducive environment to study and regained my confidence.
Then, the sense of "I can't attitude" left me for good, and all my grades improved.
The behavioral changes and my achievements were so impressive that my dorm
mates who were saying that "he would fail" couldn't believe it, and I asked
myself, “Is this me?” I thought I didn't have the potential. Where did I bring this
from? Nothing magical happened, and I didn't create new potential. The truth is
that I effectively used the potential I already had with the help of my friends. I
developed the attitude "I can do it" to improve my performance in the second
semester. I did that by fighting and gaining back my confidence again. I was also
able to set my attitude to I can do it. Then, I understood that no one should doubt
their potential. The question is, how are we using our potential? You can examine
whether you are effectively using your potential or not. If not, you can ask
yourself, am I in the right direction to reach and use my full potential? But do not
ever doubt whether you have potential or not. If you do so, you will end up with
the sense of "I can't do it" and gain nothing from this.

Effective use of your potential can mean asking for help from your best friends
when you are facing difficulty understanding some concepts. Wisdom is
recognizing your weaknesses and accepting support from people who can and are
willing to help you. This makes a big difference in your academic life.

The differences in academic performance/achievement between students are not

due to the differences in their potential. Still, it is due to the difference in the
effective use of their potential.

Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary significantly in their abilities.

They vary in their desires to reach their potential. – John Maxwell

Academically successful and unsuccessful students do not vary significantly in

their potential. They only differ in how they use their potential.

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Most of the students doubt their potential when…

1. They lose their identity(forgetting their responsibility as a student), and

losing your identity leads to less effective use of Potential. You are a
student. Don’t forget that. You are not a tourist. You are not in the
university for a vacation. You did not come to the university to run after
girls or boys but to acquire knowledge and get your degree. Be a
student! And don’t forget your priorities and responsibilities.

2. You are forgetting the right reason/motive for studying or going to the
library. Wrong motives lead to less effective use of potential. Your
motivation to go to the library is to study, not to dress up like the next
top model and make others look at you. If you are a student, you should
go to the library to study, not attract people. Doing these instead of
getting dressed in a comfortable dress for study leads to ineffective use
of potential, which is selling(exchanging) your potential. No doubt why
you feel like you don’t have potential and you are bad at your academic
life. Because you are trading(selling) your potential for trivial
activities( like attraction), if you remember the story of Samson from
the bible, he sold his potential to a beautiful lady.

3. You are trying to reap what you didn't sow. If you did study well, don’t
expect good grades. Expectations with hard work in studying bring
confidence, but expectations without hard work lead to doubt of your
potential when bad results/grades come.

4. Having space for laziness: sometimes, an unproductive day is your body

telling you that you need time off, but most of the time, it’s just you
being lazy and giving space for laziness.

In your day-to-day study, if you don’t push yourself to read more and
stop reading only when you feel like it, even though you are not lazy,
you have a place for laziness.

5. Trying to be perfect may lead to not listening to your body when it tells
you to rest. This can make you burn out.

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Can you come back from doubting your potential?

Yes, by renewing your potential.

How do you renew your potential?

1. Everyone has the potential to improve. Humans have the potential for self-
growth, self-development, and self-actualization (50). First, you need to
understand your potential. Because you can’t use what you don’t
understand and you can’t improve it. Stop selling the potential you already
have. Once you know your potential, create a conducive environment for
your potential to function at its fullest.

2. By removing the masking effects of lying, pretending, or cheating on

exams. Be yourself and face challenges even if you fail; the right
experiences will strengthen you and give you the confidence to face the
next challenges independently. However, cheating on exams may help you
pass today’s exam but makes you dependent on others in your academic
life.

3. Forget your past; you may be someone who used to doubt your potential
or score very low grades compared to your classmates and not happy about
it. You must know that it is a past and nothing more than that and can't
affect your future. But if you contemplate much about what happened in
the past and dwell on it, you are creating a good chance that you will repeat
it. You cannot change your yesterday. Forget your past and focus on what
you can change tomorrow.

4. Be your future; your identity should be your great future, not your past or
present difficult circumstances that pronounce "you can’t.” Being your
future means working with what you have instead of worrying about what
you lost. Not letting your past mistakes define your life is being your future.

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2.2.3. Prepared ahead (plan):

Schedule your time appropriately: you must allocate sufficient time to each
subject you have to study.

Manage your time correctly. You should have a personal timetable. The daily
study could be divided into three periods per day. Subjects should be arranged in
terms of relative importance.

Morning Afternoon Evening / Night

8 AM -12 PM 1-6 PM 7 PM-12 AM

activities activities activities

The program of study should be planned in such a way as to include all activities,
such as studying and extracurricular activities, in the study timetable.

The best study timetable covers detailed planning and goal setting, which will be
discussed in the intervention part of this book.

2.2.4, Overcoming Procrastination

Question: Now or later?

As you can see now is the mirror image of Won! =victory!

When you act now, you have just won your first battle.

A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.

George s. Patton.

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Academic procrastination can be defined as the tendency to delay intended

academic tasks, even though this may result in negative consequences (51,52).
The estimated prevalence concerning severe procrastination varies between 27%
and 60% for academic tasks such as writing term papers, studying for exams, or
reading weekly assignments (cited by 53). Other Empirical studies illustrated
that up to 70% of students procrastinate on a regular basis (cited by 54).
Procrastination is detrimental to individuals’ health, well-being, and
achievements. As such, it is vital to refine our knowledge of procrastination
interventions (55). A meta-analysis (van Eerde, W., & Klingsieck, K. B. 2018)
distinguished four types of intervention for procrastination: 1) self-regulation,
including time management and emotion regulation training;

2) Cognitive behavioral therapy; 3) other therapeutic approaches such as

paradoxical interventions, coherence therapy, and acceptance and commitment
therapy; and 4) new developments in the realm of concentrating on individuals’
strengths and resources (55).

Self-regulation encompassed the management of all internal (e.g., attention,

vigilance, emotion, motivation, and volition) and external resources (e.g., work
environment, social support, and time) when moving towards a goal (55).

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) aim is increased psychological

flexibility, the ability to choose actions based on one’s values even while
experiencing unwanted or unpleasant private events, thoughts, and feelings.
Helping students identify and connect with what is personally meaningful to them
is critical in utilizing ACT to overcome procrastination. Camille L. Scent & Susan
R. Boes (2014), in a study of Acceptance and Commitment Training: A Brief
Intervention to reduce procrastination among College Students, found that every
participant who attended both workshops and completed the follow-up measures
demonstrated an increase in psychological flexibility and a majority said they had
experienced a decrease in procrastination behaviors.

The intervention workshop taught a three-step process for responding to

procrastinating behavior: (a) insert a mindful pause, (b) accept and defuse, and
(c) choose to act. The first step was designed to help participants recognize
procrastination as a means of avoiding unwanted thoughts and feelings. The
second step was intended to expand the repertory of behaviors possible in the
presence of such experiences. The final step increased participants’ conscious
connection with their long-term values and goals in order to generate motivation

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for values-consistent action. I recommend reading the whole article(49) for a

complete understanding and implementation of the therapy.

2.2.5, Defeating Excuses

Questions: why won't you read?

Find reasons to study! Defeat excuses.

Whenever excuses come to your mind not to Study, whatever the reason is,
remember that it is a trap. Please don’t fall for it. Excuses are a defense
mechanism of Losers.

2.2.6. Avoiding Distractions, Disturbances

Question: where are you reading/studying?

Places where you study, either the library or dorm, the room, and the chairs you
sit on, all should work for you to concentrate. And the time you study must be
when you can avoid destruction as much as possible, including those Facebook
and telegram notifications from your cell phone.

It would be best to experiment with the noise level around you. You may find out
that a quiet library is best, or you may prefer to play some music.

2.2.7. Understand When to Study

Question: what is your ideal time for studying?

You need to understand when you get weak and strong. Every day is a day to
study. As a student, there is no time in a day not to study, but sometimes you feel
so tired within a day that you can’t study. Don’t struggle too much then; Some
people find out that they work best in the morning, some in the afternoon, and
others find the evening as their ideal time.

What is your ideal time to study? Since the perfect study time varies from person
to person, you must find your ideal and tune your study schedules to that.

2.2.8. Have a rest before getting to study

Question: from where do you go to study?

Please don’t go to the library to study after wandering here and there the whole
day.

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Don’t go to the library to study from mentally and physically exhausting

activities.

Go to the library from/after taking a rest. Go to the library after you rest your
mind and body. Most medical students I know nap in the afternoon to be energetic
and relaxed for the evening study. You get natural, refreshing energy from
sleeping. Sleep is crucial for brain function, memory formation, and learning.

Make up your mind. It would be best to make your body work with your mind;
free your mind. To receive something and hold it, your hands must be free first.
In the same manner, your mind must be free to comprehend and retain what you
study.

Free your mind from girlfriend/ boyfriend drama and the “I can’t” attitude.

Free your mind from all disturbing thoughts, if you can, before you start studying.

A free, rested/stable mind is an ideal state of mind to study.

2.2.9, Student Mindset

Question: how passionate are you about your study?

Study as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow. - Gandhi

The willingness to be a real student and a strong passion for learning create a
thirst for reading and a good study appetite. This enthusiasm makes you study for
an extended period and dig into complex concepts despite exhaustion. You will
stay longer with the challenge until you solve it. Staying longer with the challenge
of complex concepts is the key. As Albert Einstein says, “It’s not that I’m so
smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Where does the motivation to study and stay longer with complex concepts come
from?

1, Willingness: physical and emotional readiness to study

2. To stay longer with complex concepts, use boosters and stimulants to remain
energized while studying for an extended period.

Students use different stimulants when they desire to study for a long time. The
commonest is coffee; chat is also used but illegal on the university campus.

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I have never used khat(Catha edulis) and do not recommend it to anyone. Because
I have never seen students who used khat and become successful in the long run.
In a study conducted at jimma university, a larger proportion of medical students
who had chewed khat (69.2%), smoked cigarettes (80%), drank alcohol (69.2%),
and used ganja/shisha (84.2%), these students were found to have a higher rate of
common mental disorders (CMD)(56). Many studies done at different level of
education, starting from primary school students up to university graduate
students, both in our country and abroad, shows that substance use (smoking, khat
chewing, drinking alcohol) associated with skipping school, in turn, became a
barrier to optimal learning and leads to poor academic performance(57-59).

Unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drug usage, etc., negatively affect

students’ academic performance, and so should be discouraged among
students(26).

Many campus students, however, insist on using it for its short-term benefit. They
seemed to be doing well at the time, but after all, it is a drug that can lead to
complicated addictions. Smart people learn from others’ mistakes, but fools learn
from their own mistakes. Caffeine is a popular and legal stimulant. You can find
it on campus; it can enhance performance if used properly. But sometimes, we
take too much caffeine to boost ourselves. For instance, drinking too many cups
of coffee may turn you into a shaky, restless mess in no shape to sit and study.
This happened to my mentee. So, be conscious of the stimulants you use.

For healthy adults, the FDA has cited 400 milligrams of caffeine a day (about
four or five cups of coffee) as an amount not generally associated with dangerous,
adverse effects. However, there is wide variation in how sensitive people are to
the effects of caffeine and how fast they metabolize it (60).

3. use a technique like Pomodoro

In the 1980s, Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro Technique in college to

keep his mind focused on his studies(61).

Here is how it can be done: list all the topics you need to read/study and estimate
how many Pomodoro (25-minute segments) it will take to complete them, then
Start your timer and work on the most important topic. When the timer goes off,
take a three- to five-minute break. Walk away from your work area, get a cup of
coffee, and gaze out the window. If you have finished the task, check it off and
move on to the next one.

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2.2.10, A little bit every day

It’s usually better to study a little bit every day, rather than spending the whole
day at the weekend working frantically. It would be best if you regularly read
from day one continuously.

For the exam scheduled after one week, study one hour every day throughout the
week until the exam time; instead of reading 24 hours without rest before the
exam day, Studying little by little every day may reduce anxiety a day before and
during the exam. And studying and preparing for exams will not feel like moving
a mountain. This is a practical way of making studying easy. Preparing ahead
helps you remember what you read and gives you time for revision before the
exam day.

The first time you read something, it is generally stored in your short-term
memory, where it can be forgotten easily. If you read regularly and continuously,
the information will be transferred to your long-term memory and can be accessed
during the exam. Reading regularly and constantly defines the motive for our
study, whether we read for knowledge or exams.

There is no time limit if you read for knowledge/deep understanding. Every day
is a day to acquire knowledge and grow mentally. Schedule ahead and take one
step at a time every day.

Underpinning academically excellent students is a good studying schedule and

well-invested time.

All those who study for exams do is scan a day before the exam. That is what
education means for them, but it is much more than that. Learning is limited to
passing the exam. Sometimes, the Curriculum leads us to cram a day before the
exam. Cramming the night before the exam makes studying feel like moving a
mountain.

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2.2.11, Switching between study materials

When you face difficulty understanding while reading from textbooks, switch to
lecture videos that may explain easily.

If you still face difficulties watching lecture videos, try to get to classmates who
can practically help on the topic you wanted to study but found difficult.

People tend to comprehend what they see and hear than what they read. And they
remember practical sessions better than videos. When we were in preclinical year
one, and most of my classmates used this technique, we read the textbook first,
and when we faced a complex concept, we turned to Dr. Naajib's lecture video.

2.2.12 Having studied a specific topic, doing the following will help you easily
remember what you have read.

1. Doing previous years’ exam questions if you have them,

2. If you can’t find the previous year's exam, create one yourself or ask your
senior students if they remember any difficult questions from last year’s exam.
Questioning activities produced higher overall recall than just studying (62).

3. Teach what you have understood to your friends or learn from them. Doing this
will ensure you know what you have just read. The way to learn from your peers
(or teaching them) is by explaining what you read in your own words and
simplifying it with examples.

If you can’t explain it simply, you didn’t understand it well enough.

- Albert Einstein

Working with others can also be a motivating factor. Because when everyone is
doing the same reading, there’s a sense of unity, and you gain energy and
encouragement from others in the group.

Tips for meaningful university life:

2. make sure that you have a study buddy

Thinking for other students who need help and can’t study by themselves,
encouraging them to study, and simplifying complex concepts while studying
with them is the key to maximizing your potential.

Your potential is limited to your thinking boundary,

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If you think only for yourself, your thinking boundary and potential are restricted
to you. But, if you think beyond yourself, your thinking boundary progresses
further than you, so your potential will be maximized

To sum up, academic success mainly depends on your study habits. Study habit
is an action such as reading, taking notes, and holding study groups, which the
students perform regularly and habitually to accomplish learning(63).

Slavin (2009) noted that study habits may be effective or ineffective. According
to him, effective/good study habits positively affect academic performance, while
ineffective/bad study habits lead to academic failure (64). Good study habits
include studying in a quiet place, studying daily, turning off devices that interfere
with study (such as TV and mobile phones), taking notes of important content,
having regular rests and breaks, listening to soft music, studying based on own
learning style, and prioritizing the complex contents(65).

Some of the worst study habits include procrastination, evading the study,
studying in inappropriate conditions, and using loud sounds of music and
television during studying (32).

The top ten study habits of highly effective medical students are managing their
time effectively, getting rid of interruptions from (phone, family, and friends) that
disrupt their daily work, using goal-setting to determine their most important
activities, their daily study hours ranging between 3–4 hours per day, they study
alone for knowledge retention of medical information, learn from multiple
sources and invest in technology with high efficiency, they contribute to the
teaching of their peers, they study the main lecture slides with notes when no
exam is coming, and they study lecture slides with notes and previous exam
questions when preparing for upcoming exams; finally, they maintained
motivation for self-gratification and fulfillment of their family dreams(33).

2.3. Study Techniques/ Methods

There is no one-size-fits-all; this means the best technique for me may not work
for you. Or you could use multiple methods at the same time. No matter what,
apply whatever works for you.

Tips on some effective study techniques…

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SQ3R Method

This technique was introduced by Francis P. Robinson in 1946

S = SURVEY
Q = QUESTION
3R = READ, RECALL, and REVIEW
Survey: A glance look at the text.

Survey reading is often referred to as skim-reading or scanning. Once you have

identified a relevant text, like a chapter in a book, you should scan the first few
sentences of each paragraph to gain an overall impression of the subject areas it
covers.

In survey-read, you are not aiming to gain a complete understanding of the notes
or topics raised in the text. It is simply a way of determining what the text is
about.

It is about getting the general gist of what you are about to read.

Question:

What do I know about the topic that I just surveyed?

What should I have to know? What is expected from me? What should I have to
understand after reading this topic? You must formulate questions about what
you want to gain from this reading. Your reading must have objectives.

Read:

I used to jump directly to the reading step. When you do this, you don’t know
what you encounter and fail to be focused and use your time effectively.

When you directly jump to reading without reading objectives and questions, you
will get confused because you cannot be sure whether your reading served its
purpose.

This reading step is about trying to talk with each word, sentence, and paragraph
of the text. There is no need to be in a hurry. Here, the point is about your
understanding of the concepts.

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You may need to slow down your reading speed and read the passages several
times until you fully understand. Sometimes, even when you slow your reading
down, it may be necessary to read passages several times to understand what the
text says entirely. Yes, repeat it one thousand times until you get it right; keep
repeating until your reading objective and questions are answered.

Recall:

Close the text and try to remember and say or write what you have just read. It
would be best to retrieve what you have studied from your memory. You can
discuss what you read with your friends (classmates) and share information.

Review:

Quiz yourself. Then go and check where you get correct and wrong. Reread where
you are wrong, find out why you got it wrong, and know the correct answer.
Students who use SQ3R strategies retain more information, as demonstrated by
higher achievement on course exams(66).

The SOAR Study Method

SOAR is an acronym for the plan’s four steps: Selection, Organization,

Association, and Regulation. (Kiewra, 2005, 2009) cited in (67).

Students employ effective strategies to select and record complete notes during
the selection component.

During the organization component, students employ effective strategies to

construct graphic organizers such as hierarchies, sequences, and matrices that
showcase relationships among the noted ideas.

Students employ effective strategies to build associations that reveal meaningful

relationships among ideas during the association component.

During the regulation component, students employ effective strategies to monitor

their understanding through self-testing.

Considering the effectiveness of this technique, studies have claimed that students
who used the SOAR system outperformed those who used the SQ3R system and
learned 20 % more relationships, 14 % more facts, and 13 % more concepts.
Results were attributed to SOAR’s cognitive processing advantages over SQ3R
(68).

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PQ4R

It is a study technique developed by Thomas E.L. and Robinson H.A (1972)

P = PREVIEW

Q = QUESTION

4R=READING, REFLECT, RECITE, and REVIEW

Preview:

Read the header, titles, subheadings, and highlighted and bold points to get an
idea of the subject matter.

Question:

Ask yourself questions related to the topic…

Reading:

Read through the material,

Reflect:

Think of how and where the theories you read can be applied.

How would I convert the topic I just learned into a conversation with my
classmates and teachers and the questions they ask me about the subject?

Recite:

Discuss it with classmates or write down the main points.

Review:

Rereading about the points you need more confidence in for a complete
understanding.

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2.3.4 The Rosemary (L):-

This is another helpful reading/study method most suitable for studying large and
complex materials.

R:- Repetition: you read the material repeatedly, re-read as many times as you
can to make it completely familiar, and get used to the words inside the material
or topic(s) treated.

O=Over-Learning, the repetitive reading, and re-reading repeatedly, will produce

over-learning of the material to the extent that if you forget any part, that part will
be minimal.

S= Summarization: - For effective study habits, let your summary be short and
straight to the point.

E= Enumeration: - This is a follow-up to the last step; linearly enumerate the

major points, the most important issues coming first. You can write them down
so that you will remember.

M=Mnemonics: Devise mnemonics for essential ideas, principles, concepts,

formulae, etc. This will help you immediately recall and reutilization of such
ideas, formulas, etc.

A = Application: - Apply the material learned to your personal life and daily

R = Revision:- Revise all you have done up to this stage. Give yourself thorough
revision, bringing everything learned to memory.

Y= Yes:- I know it now! I can apply it to any situation in my life to impact my

world.

You can now use the

(L) L Means linkage: This means you link the materials you read to practical daily
living to enable you to internalize the facts—utilization of such ideas, formulas,
etc. (69).

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Exam week study

The few weeks leading up to exams require a special concentrated effort, and the
truth is that you have to push yourself a little bit more than before. You have to
use all of your reserved energy, more study time, and less sleeping time. More
textbooks, less Facebook, more libraries, less BegTera

In the exam week, despite your best effort, sometimes you feel like you don’t
know as much as expected from you. Due to exam stress, you may feel
underprepared but don’t lose sight of the wealth of information you have at the
disposal that you accumulated throughout the semester. You already know a lot.
But, when in doubt about aspects of a topic during exam week, begin your
preparation with what you already know and work towards what you’re unsure
about.

On exam day, feeling nervous and tense is normal. Just keep yourself healthy
and eat healthy. My friends and I have a habit of skipping café on exam day and
eating simply digestible foods so that we do not feel discomfort on the exam.
Don’t struggle to get new information, but be sure you remember well what you
have been reading. Test-takers may experience varying degrees of anxiety on
exam day, which is common and can be productive. However, some test-takers
can experience panic and fear that distracts their concentration and exam
performance (70).

Anxiety may be defined as a subjective feeling of apprehension or dread about

the present or the future accompanied by several autonomic signs and somatic
symptoms such as palpitations, sweating, and tremors. When this condition
manifests during the examination period, it is called exam or test anxiety (71, 72).

Four main areas of reported stress can contribute to exam anxiety, including
lifestyle issues, lack of required information, studying style, and psychological
factors (cited by 73). The examination system, lack of time management, and
extensive course load were the major contributing factors to anxiety related to the
examination (74). Additional Potential Triggers of Test Anxiety include
Perfectionist tendencies and unrealistic expectations, Poor study and test-taking
skills, Past poor test performance, Peer comparisons and pressures including
achievement levels of classmates, Low self-esteem and confidence levels,
Negative attributions and self-statements and criticism, Lack of motivation and
procrastination, Family-related expectations to excel, Teacher- and school-
related pressures concerning the use of high-stakes testing to assess school and
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teaching effectiveness, Distracting testing environments, Ineffective instruction

(cited by 75).

Anxiety affects not only someone’s body but also his/her thoughts and behaviors.
Therefore, there are three parts to anxiety: physical symptoms (how the body
responds), thoughts/affective (what they say to themself), and behaviors (what
they do or their actions), for example, thoughts like, “What if I forget what I read
during the examination?”; behaviors like finding an excuse to escape it;
symptoms like stomach ache, cold, sweat, and heart racing (76). Possible
Symptoms Associated With Test Anxiety may also include physical symptoms
like Sweaty palms, Unexplained headache or stomachache, Nausea, Shaking
body parts, Difficulty sleeping, eating, or using the toilet before tests, behavioral
symptoms like Cheating on tests, Feigning illness and being absent on testing
days, Difficulties with concentration, attention, and memory that interfere with
the following:

• Reading and understanding test directions and items

• Retrieving words, facts, and concepts

• Organizing thoughts and answers and affective symptoms like Having

pessimistic expectations (e.g., “I’m going to fail this test”) (cited by 75).

Many researchers suggest that a little worry is suitable for students because it
keeps them task-oriented (73). researchers found that test anxiety can trigger
students to change examination answers from incorrect to correct 55% of the time
(77). However, excessive worry, on the other hand, can be very debilitating.
Powell (2004) identified test anxiety as contributing to 72 medical students’
failure on a licensure examination and interfering with the results if not managed
appropriately( 73, 78).

Two categories of interventions were identified by Quinn, B. L., & Peters, A.

(2017) following a review of the seven included sources: (a) environmental
adjustments and (b) student behavior modifications (79).

Environmental Adjustments. Several environmental adjustments can reduce test

anxiety in students, specifically targeting those triggering environmental events.
Student Behavior Modification. Guiding students to change thought processes
can reduce test anxiety; Biofeedback relaxation techniques help reduce test
anxiety. These techniques can include self-guided interventions, such as muscle
relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing (79).
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No matter what study techniques you use, you have to know that reading in
university is a question of becoming an effective and efficient reader, which
means reading with a purpose and being clear about what ideas you’re looking
for. So when you get ready for reading, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why am I reading this? What do I want to get from this reading?

2. What do the topics and notes you are about to read suggest?

3. How does this reading (specifically this topic) contribute to your academic
achievement? And fit in with this week’s lecture(s) or recent guidance from your
teacher.

You have to check whether your reading has served its purpose well or not:

1. After a thorough reading, you should be able to take notes. Take notes that
reflect the purpose of your reading, and do not copy all the text. Paraphrase the
key points in your own words.

2. You should be confident that you have understood the text sufficiently to use
your own examples and explain them to your friends.

3. Reward yourself for concentrated work by taking a short break every hour or
two: get yourself a gift. Take Care of yourself. You cannot study effectively if
you don’t look after yourself. Nobody can work well if they are ill or not eating
properly. Get some positive reinforcement…

2.4 Note-Taking:

What is note-taking?

How do you know the important points to avoid copy-pasting the whole text?

How to listen and take notes at the same time in class and ward (Bedside or round)

Note-taking is short condensations of source material generated by writing them

down while simultaneously listening, studying, or observing (80).

Note-taking cannot be equated to simply copying what is heard, observed, or

thought. If you can’t explain it in your own terms, you did not understand it well
enough because there is a big difference between quoting a book verbatim and
note-taking.

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You must bring the main points together and simplify them with your own
examples.

In the days when I didn't take notes in the ward during bedside presentations or
rounds, even in class, I thought I could remember the important things that the
teachers said, but I have never remembered any. It is wrong for students to think
they can remember all the points the teachers taught without taking notes. That is
why an old Chinese proverb says the faintest ink is more powerful than the
strongest memory. The process of recording notes boosts attention during the
lesson compared to simply listening to or reading the lesson without note-taking
(Kiewra, 1987, 1988). Cited by (67).

More specifically, note-taking serves two distinct functions for students:

external storage and cognitive encoding(81).

External storage function, according to this view, notes have the purpose of
serving as an external memory device, and according to the Encoding function,
during note taking, ideas are re-encoded mentally in a form that is easier for
students to think about, apply, and remember.

Note-taking is essential as it increases students’ attention during lessons and

enables coding the things taught during lessons into long-term memory. It
improves students’ comprehension skills since it attracts students’ attention to
the material that is read or listened to (82, 83).

So, keep taking notes even if it takes time. Don’t jot down everything but essential
points only. Revise your notes and rearrange them immediately as soon as
possible after class.

It has been pointed out that college students need to take notes effectively in order
to succeed in their academic endeavors (84). However, since note-taking is about
understanding what one is listening to or reading, encoding such information, and
recording it in written form under time constraints, it requires specific skills and
techniques in order to do it successfully. It is understood that only a few students
get the knack of basic note-taking (83). In our country, a study conducted in
Aksum indicated that of the total study participants, 36.4% have poor note-taking
skills, and only 9.1% have good (85).

Several researchers and educators advocate that note-taking should be taught

(84). Creating awareness about the benefits of note-taking and training students
about different techniques has considerably impacted students’ learning behavior
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and improved information recall (84,85). However, Systematic note-taking

instruction seems to be almost non-existing, and very few students are taught even
basic note-taking skills (84, 86).

Researchers have suggested several effective techniques, many of which will be

reviewed and explained here (84).

First, you must know that no one size fits all; this means the best technique for
me may not work for you. Or you could use multiple methods at the same time.
Apply whatever works for you. In fact, despite the importance of note-taking,
some students even prefer not to take notes, and they still perform well. That is
how they roll.

The following are important note-taking skills and techniques for you to use
accordingly.

Using abbreviation procedures mainly consists of using meaningful symbols

and shortened words.

Syntax transformation Some of the most common realizations of this technique

are the application of a telegraphic writing style and the use of some substitutive
methods, such as iconic symbols (like arrows, slashes, and asterisks),
mathematical signs (like +, =, x), and alphabetic or numerical characters.

Wise and effective use of space to organize notes may help show relationships
between different pieces of information.

Finally, use the non-traditional formatting of notes listed below.

1. Cornell system of note-taking

2. Mind map
3. The outlining method
4. Hints method
5. Charting method

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Cornell System of Note-Taking

It is a note-taking system devised in the 1950s by Walter Pauk, an education

professor at Cornell University. It has three parts: notes, cues, and summaries.

Source: https://www.oxfordlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Note-Taking-Cornell-
Method-1024x614.png

Mind Map( concept maps)

If you are a visual learner, a mind map is an ideal technique for you.

source: https://www.oxfordlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Note-Taking-Mapping-Method-
1024x615.png

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How to do this?

Write the main topic at the center of a blank page. From there, you can write
subtopics and key points and connect them directly to the central concept(main
subject). Other related ideas will continue to branch out like a tree. We can take
the stem as the main topic and the branches and leaves as subtopics and key
points.
A mind map’s structure is related to how our brains store and retrieve information.
It enables you to see the big picture by communicating the hierarchy and
relationship between concepts and ideas.

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The outlining method

A linear format of text production. The most often used method,

Source: https://www.oxfordlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Note-Taking-Outlining-
Method-1-1024x615.png

Hints method

You create a small piece of practical information that helps you retrieve the entire
concept during the revision study. Your pc password hint can be an excellent
example of this.

The advantage of this condensed note-taking technique is that it saves your time
and space as you will only write shortened forms of words and sentences. The
enormous advantage is that it helps you enhance your brain retrieval practice,
which is one of the important factors during exams.

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Charting method

The charting method is a powerful note-taking method for organizing information

that can be divided into clear categories.
Here’s how to take notes with the charting method:
Identify the topics and categories
Create a new chart
Insert the topic, subtopics, and categories into the chart
Fill in the empty chart with notes
Review and recite the information in the chart(87).

From: https://www.oxfordlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Note-Taking-Charting-Method-
1024x615.png

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2.5 Make your note attractive and inviting to read again.

Color-coding your notes helps you prioritize the most important idea. Warm
Colors (red and yellow) increase engagement and interaction with the reading
materials. It also increases attention and elicits excitement.

Red: for topics

Yellow: for important information
Purple: for questions
Don’t color everything red and yellow; that is childish. Use it for important points
only.

How do you know important points when taking notes during class lessons
or reading a book?
When taking notes, students should pay special attention to material written on
the blackboard, speakers´ repetitions, phrases given emphasis through changes in
pitch, body language, time spent talking about the same topic, the material
presented in list form, enumerations, definitions and questions(81). Also, paying
attention to “macro-textual planning indicators“ (like firstly, secondly, in
conclusion, etc.)(86). Learners should also focus on introductory and concluding
phrases and transitions, which indicate how the lecture is structured and
organized(88).

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2.6 Academic life test (self-assessment)

This questionnaire will help you look at some of your academic skills and give
you a general idea of how you view your abilities. The Study Skills Assessment
Questionnaire is divided into seven sections(89).

Section 1: Time Management and Procrastination

Use the scale below to indicate how often each statement applies to you:

1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Usually 4 = Always

• I arrive at classes and other meetings on time.

• I devote sufficient study time to each of my courses.

• I schedule definite times and outline specific goals for my study time.

• I prepare a “to-do” list daily.

• I avoid activities that tend to interfere with my planned schedule.

• I use prime time when I am most alert for study.

• At the beginning of the term, I make up daily activities and study schedules.

• I begin major course assignments well in advance.

Total

Total > 28

Your consistent application of good time management skills is helping you in

your academic work. The self-help resources can serve as a review for you.

Total 21 - 28

You are using many of the recommended time management strategies. However,
you can improve.

Total 20 or less you could benefit from strengthening your time management
skills.

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Section 2: Concentration and Memory

Use the scale below to indicate how often each statement applies to you:

1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Usually 4 = Always

• I have the “study-place habit,” that is, merely being at a certain place at a certain
time means time to study.

• I study in a place free from auditory and visual distractions.

• I find that I can concentrate - giving undivided attention to the task for at least
20 minutes.

• I am confident with the level of concentration I can maintain.

• I have an accurate understanding of the material I wish to remember.

• I learn with the intention of remembering.

• I practice the materials I am learning by reciting out loud.

• I recall readily those things which I have studied.

Total

Total > 28

Your level of concentration and memory skills are helping you in your academic
work. The self-help resources can serve as a review for you.
Total 21 - 28

You have moderately good strategies for concentration and memory. You may
need to identify additional strategies to improve your skills in this area.

Total 20 or less

You can benefit from strengthening your ability to concentrate and to remember
or retain information.

Section 3: Study Aids and Note-Taking

Use the scale below to indicate how often each statement applies to you:

1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Usually 4 = Always

• While taking notes, I think about how I will use them later.

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• I understand the lecture and classroom discussion while I am taking notes.

• I organize my notes in some meaningful manner (such as in outline format).

• I review and edit my notes systematically.

• I take notes on supplementary reading materials.

• I have a system for marking textbooks.

• When reading, I mark or underline parts I think are important.

• I write notes in the book while I read.

Total

Total > 28

Your use of study aids and good note-taking skills are helping you in your
academic work. The self-help resources can serve as a review for you.

Total 21 - 28

You have developed some moderately good note-taking skills. However, you
may need to be more consistent in applying those skills.

Total 20 or less
You definitely need to obtain additional skills. You will benefit from
strengthening your use of study aids and note-taking strategies.

Section 4: Test Strategies and Test Anxiety

Use the scale below to indicate how often each statement applies to you:

1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Usually 4 = Always

• I try to find out what the exam will cover and how the exam is to be graded.

• I feel confident that I am prepared for the exam.

• I try to imagine possible test questions during my preparation for an exam.

• I take time to understand the exam questions before starting to answer.

• I follow directions carefully when taking an exam.

• I usually get a good night’s rest before a scheduled exam.

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• I am calmly able to recall what I know during an exam.

• I understand the structure of different types of tests and am able to prepare for
each type.

Total

Total > 28

You have developed good test-taking strategies and are able to employ useful
coping skills when needed to minimize the effects of test anxiety.

Total 21 - 28

You are pretty good at taking tests. However, you may want to revisit some of
your strategies. You can improve in this area by exploring the self-help resources
available.

Total 20 or less
You will benefit from strengthening your test-taking strategies. I encourage and
recommend using the self-help resources contact address listed below.

Section 5: Organizing and Processing Information

Use the scale below to indicate how often each statement applies to you:

1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Usually 4 = Always

• When reading, I can distinguish readily between important and unimportant

points.

• I break assignments into manageable parts.

• I maintain a critical attitude during my study - thinking before accepting or
rejecting.

• I relate material learned in one course to materials from other courses.

• I try to organize facts systematically.

• I use questions to better organize and understand the material I am studying.

• I try to find the best method to do a given job.

• I solve a problem by focusing on its main point.

Total
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Total > 28
Your skills in this area reflect good use of the strategies required to organize and
process information to enhance your learning effectively.
Total 21 - 28
You may need to use better strategies for your particular learning style. You can
improve in this area by exploring the self-help resources available.
Total 20 or less
You will benefit from increasing your awareness of your best learning style and
applying the strategies that different learning tasks require. I encourage and
recommend that you make use of the self-help resources contact address listed
below.
Section 6: Motivation and Attitude

Use the scale below to indicate how often each statement applies to you:

1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Usually 4 = Always

• I sit near the front of the class if possible.

• I am alert in classes.

• I ask the instructor questions when clarification is needed.

• I volunteer answers to questions posed by instructors in the class.

• I participate in meaningful class discussions.

• I attend class regularly.

• I take the initiative in group activities.

• I use a study method that helps me develop an interest in the material to be

studied.

Total

Total > 28

Your academic behaviors indicate a positive attitude about taking responsibility

for maintaining motivation to succeed academically. The self-help resources can
serve as a review for you.

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Total 21 - 28

Your score reflects a moderately good use of strategies to sustain motivation and
responsibility for your academic success. You can improve in this area by
exploring the self-help resources available.

Total 20 or less

It would be best to focus on increasing your awareness of how your confidence,

academic behavior, and attitude affect your learning motivation. I encourage and
recommend that you make use of the contact address listed below for advice.

Section 7: Reading and Selecting the Main Idea

Use the scale below to indicate how often each statement applies to you:
1 = Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Usually 4 = Always
• I survey each chapter before I begin reading.

• I follow the writer’s organization to increase meaning.

• I review reading material several times during a semester.

• When learning a unit of material, I summarize it in my own words.

• I am comfortable with my reading rate.

• I look up parts I don’t understand.

• I am satisfied with my reading ability.

• I focus on the main point while reading.

Total

Total > 28
You have developed good reading strategies. The self-help resources can serve
as a review for you.

Total 21 - 28

You’re probably using the recommended reading strategies only some of the
time.

The self-help resource will help you improve your reading and comprehension
strategies.

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Total 20 or less

Reading is an essential skill for learning. You may need to identify additional
strategies to improve in this area. I encourage and recommend that you use the
resource contact address listed below(86).

2.7 Contact addresses

1, Dr. Abraham Gebeyehu

Phone number: 0910295220

Email: abrahamgebeyehu002gmail.com

2, Counseling Psychologist's contact

Bethlehem Medhin +251931558397

Email: [email protected]

3. Dr. Biniyam Tehelku (Psychiatrist)

Email:[email protected]

Phone number=0908068285

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Part 3: Social life

3.1 What is social life?

Where do you categorize yourself? Sociable or not sociable

If I try to put myself in a category of sociable or unsociable, I am inclined toward
the friendly type. Humans are essentially a social species, as demonstrated by the
fact that in everyday life, people continuously interact to achieve goals or
exchange states of mind (90, 91). But what does being social/Sociable mean?
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines "Social" as "relating to or involving
activities in which people spend time talking or doing enjoyable things with each
other.” The ability to socialize can be affected by people's personalities, like
whether they are introverts or extroverts.

Introverted people are shy: quiet people who do not find it easy to talk to others,
whereas extroverted people are friendly and like being with and talking to others.
As mentioned earlier, I am inclined toward the sociable category because I was
raised in a socially wealthy society. This has a significant role in my current
being.

I believe our society’s way of life has influenced us to be sociable, as we have

grown in a culture where social practices such as Eder, Ekub, and informal social
institutions tied us to live together. Also, most of us have come from an
environment where neighbors invite each other during holidays and ceremonies
like graduation and weddings.

In another dimension, our society usually has many children in the house; as
EDHS (2019) indicates, the average household size in Ethiopia is 4.7 persons(92).
So, this family size factor will influence any child who has grown up in a large
family. We can mention many things that affect our sociability, but many other
factors could make a person less friendly or introverted. Despite my sociable
background, it took work to interact with people on the campus at first arrival.
Moving around the campus was difficult because I needed more information
about the location of the registration office, cafeteria, and even my dorm at first.
After many struggles, I met with my dorm mates for the first time and found that
everybody was trying to play cool. No one could start a conversation; even if it
started, there was a sense of awkwardness. However, our shyness and silence
gradually disappeared after a couple of days, and we became funny, chatty
friends.
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We started sharing information about our hometown, entrance exam results, our
first site love from our freshmen classmates, etc. Weeks later, we started to go to
the cafe and class together. And after class, sometimes we began to have a walk
on the campus. There is a day that I always remember; we were walking around
the campus after class as usual. One of our dorm mates from Adama City led us
in front, and the rest of us were following unconsciously, chatting. Unknowingly,
he took us to the girls' dorm room area, which is not allowed for boys to enter.
The girls shouted at us, and we ran away at Usain Bolt’s speed. I always
remember that day we almost laughed the whole day looking at the scary facial
expressions on each other faces.

A person’s social life consists of the various bonds they form with others, such
as family, friends, members of their community, and strangers. It can be measured
by the duration and quality of the social interactions they have on a regular basis,
both in person and online(90). It doesn't necessarily mean spending time with
many people but sharing time to interact with others is fun and informative.
Usually, people argue that they could learn and enjoy reading books rather than
interacting with other People. I agree that reading books is informative and
enjoyable, but books themselves have drawbacks in conveying knowledge and
information. Books are written by a person or group of people who try to share
their perspective, and their view will be understood by the reader’s perspective
or understanding potential. So, the writer and the reader have a gap in
understanding. This gap will be narrowed down through discussion and reasoning
via dialogue. Even great thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and others are dialectical
philosophers, which means they try to examine and discuss opposing ideas to find
the truth.

The other point is that there are many unpredictable events at which time we will
be vulnerable and unable to stand events by ourselves. This is common in
university students' day-to-day lives as we live in a new and vulnerable
environment. We need people on our side in such moments. During these times,
friends make us feel alive by showing us the other part of life. Worth mentioning
here is that as human beings, we are created to constantly interact and love each
other because the essence of our soul is not to hate but to love. As Leo Tolstoy
observed, “Hell is the suffering of being unable to love.”

Especially while we intend to achieve big things in life, we must know how to
live with people. I believe knowing how to live with people is an art and wisdom
in itself, as people are the ultimate and most difficult beings to understand. So,
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those who can live harmoniously with others have incredible insight into life. As
a 6th-year medical student, I spent much of my time studying; I also try to read
other "nonacademic" books ( though I believe there is no nonacademic reading in
universities, as universities’ main aim is to universalize our thoughts). I usually
have good times with my friends besides studying and reading. I go to church
sometimes; I discuss my thoughts and what I read with my friends and classmates.

In our day-to-day lives, we need people to connect and love each other. Despite
this, there are times when we agonize over the mere presence of our beloved
friends, let alone others. As a second-year medical student, I faced one of the
most challenging situations in my life. It was a time at which all our batch students
were preparing for a Preclinical year one final exam, and I had been experiencing
an eye ache inflicted by allergic conjunctivitis. Despite this, I tried my best to
study but couldn't even look at any light-emitting gadgets, as every reading
material was on my tablet. So, I convinced myself to detach myself from the
studying environment so that the exam time tension wouldn’t torture my psyche.

I tried to stay at my dorm for a while, but it was boring, as there wasn't anything
I could do to get busy with. Also, it was painful to hear my dorm mate discuss a
subject matter I hadn’t been studying after they came from libraries. To your
surprise, I couldn't even watch movies, as my allergy is light-sensitive. Then I
went to pool houses and spent my time playing pool and relaxing my mind; then
my fellow senior students at the pool houses started to wonder about my situation
and advise me. They used to say, “What got into you, men? Your exam is next
week, and you are playing pool all day? Do you intend to fail, brother? You got
to go to the library and study….” My friends would also call and used to advise
me to read.

At that time, I understood everyone was advising me with a genuine intention of

helping me. Still, these words and advice were painful for me, as nobody could
understand my psychological agony. The people’s comments were much more
painful than my physical pain, but as time and patience are the greatest warriors
in life, everything has passed for good, and we are here. As time passed, I started
to know myself more, which helped me socialize with the right people. So the
message here is, "It is not being introvert or extrovert that matters most but how
and when we implement these personality traits without affecting our social and
personal life as being sociable will be the most agonizing thing in your difficult
situation like this.”

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Generally, life is full of adventures, and the experience of life could make you
happy or frustrated; it could disappoint you or make you feel alive, but it is what
life is and defines what life is. This whole adventure will only be complete with
others.

It has been said that we are social beings. As university students, we are a family
staying on the same campus, living in the same house, and sleeping in the same
room. For students, social interaction is the key to survival when they’re away
from their parents for the first time,” according to the Vocal Media website.
Going out and making new friends is an experience everyone should have in
college (94).

While there are 20000 or more students on campus, 2,000 in the department, 90
in class, and at least five up to 10 in the same dorm room, some students feel
incredibly lonely. Become a victim of major depression disorder and leave the
campus not because of a lack of academic competence but because they lack a
supportive social milieu. Students with poor social support were 4.3 times at
higher risk of developing Low self-esteem, AOR=4.3 (95% CI, 1.9-9.8) (22)—
and mental distress, which affects their academic performance too.

source: https://images.app.goo.gl/YxbLXxyQjGYM1vHz9

A wide range of activities can be done in the dorm room, class, and campus
(mentioned in previous parts of the book) that can improve your social life and
make you good friends, improving your academic life.

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Friends are a natural and effective antidote for loneliness, and the secret to having
this natural and effective antidote is hidden behind this sentence: “You can’t get
what you can’t give.” If you don’t create and give a friendly personality, do not
expect to have a friend.

3.2 Developing Friendly Personality:

Create a friendly personality to have a friend who will be with you throughout all
your time on campus and even more.

Here are some traits of a friendly personality on a university campus:

1. Think Win / Win

A victory for your friend is your victory, too. Practice and live win-win in
friendship.

2. Don't be a fault finder

Do not criticize and complain about each and everything.

3. Smile and Develop a Sense of Humor

Never undermine the power of smile and humor. It is like a magnet that
attracts friends.

Kefitfitu fitu!

4. Do to others what you want to be done for you.

Reciprocity
We are sharing what we have with your dorm mates.
Put Positive Interpretation on Other People's behavior, opinions, and points
of view.

5. Be a Good Listener

Listen, and try to understand people because you can’t know them unless you
listen.

Be Understanding and Caring. Listening is the first sign of Understanding and

Caring.

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Please encourage them to talk about how their days went and what interests
them. Let them talk about what is inside them, not what is around them.

A good listener feels the pain of his friend.

6. Be Enthusiastic about the relation

Show that you need friendship and that you are genuinely interested. Show
sincere appreciation and how grateful you are for the friendship.

7. Exercise compromising

It starts as an argument over a mistake and gets to a full-blown conflict and

fight. The physical and emotional losses follow. That is painful and even
sometimes continues for a lifetime. But some can stop the impact of conflict
from continuing for a lifetime by forgiving each other. Forgiving is not easy;
it is compromising after loss. That is why some even say forgiving is an
attribute of a strong person. I completely agree with this idea, but as much as
I want you to be strong, I want you to be smart.
Smart people compromise; forgiving is to heal the wound the fight has already
created and make its pain short-term. But, compromising inhibits the damage
or the physical and emotional loss not to happen. For a long time, forgiving
has been worshipped, but here is what I am trying to tell you. Smart people
compromise. This means smart people compromise when they see an issue
that can raise conflict. They compromise as much as humanly possible to
avoid conflicts because, in friendship, when you forgive, the wound may heal,
but the scar stays. But if you compromise, there will be no wounds or scars.
You know the famous adage in the world of health that says disease
prevention is better than cure; in the same manner, conflict prevention is better
than conflict treatment with forgiveness.
Compromising is preventing. Forgiving is treating.

8. Never call a friend by their full name; find a simple and sweet way to call them.

Be informal as much as possible. Please don’t call your friends by their full
names (like in ID). Use nicknames.

Abenezer = Abeny

Bethlehem = Betisho

Abubakar = Abuky

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9. Make them feel important and needed when they are around you.

Many psychiatrists agree that the most profound urge in human nature is “the
desire to be important.” So you have to be the person where your friends can
satisfy their most profound urge.

10. Do fun things together, not bad things

Do good things together like studying together and playing football after
that. Don’t cooperate with others in doing bad things just because they are
friends. If what your friends share with you is maybe drinking alcohol or a
secret place where they chew khat, that is not fun or a good thing to do with
friends. This is a bad influence on you, which may change who you are as a
student.

Peer pressure is invisible and has a strong influence on individual behavior. It is

a double-edged sword, which may be able to influence you both positively and
negatively (95). “Peer pressure is positive when someone encourages or supports
you to do something good. e.g., participating in sports, joining clubs, trying new
foods, doing volunteer work, getting good grades, showing respect, meeting new
people, doing the right thing, being honest, being responsible" and “Peer Pressure
is negative when someone tries to get another person to do something they know
is not right. e.g., taking drugs, committing suicide, being racist/bullying, having
sex when you are not ready, shoplifting, vandalizing property, drinking underage,
cheating, ditching school” (Morrison, Kalin, & Morrison 2004) cited by (96).

The positive side of peer pressure among college students is mainly manifested
in the fierce competition in the learning process and will help them improve their
performance. Negative peer pressure may influence students in various ways, like
skipping classes, stealing, cheating, using drugs or alcohol, or becoming involved
in risky behaviors (95,97). This pressure may be expressed openly ("Oh, come on
— it's just one beer, and everyone else is having one") or more indirectly —
simply making beer available at a party, for instance(96).

Specially I have seen how urban students influence rural students in how they
dress, walk, and even talk. I have noticed those from rural areas trying to speak
like those from urban areas.

The majority of adolescents with substance abuse problems began using drugs or
alcohol as a result of peer pressure (97). Similarly, more than one-sixth of high
school and university students smoke cigarettes in Ethiopia.
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This higher cigarette-smoking proportion of students was influenced by peer

pressure (98). Try to influence this kind of friend positively, but if you can't,
according to a study by (Poonam Dhull and Rajesh D. Beniwal 2017), Walking
away from such Peer Pressure is a safe way to act for your own good (96).

The following solutions would help teenagers reduce their pressure(96).

• Understanding your values and beliefs

• Have Self-confidence

• Choose your friends wisely- It's great to have friends with values similar to
yours who will back you up when you don't want to do something.

• Be your own best friend.

• Evaluate friendships and find new friends.

Talk to a trusted adult- If you continue to face peer pressure and find it difficult
to handle, talk to someone you trust. Don't feel guilty if you've made a mistake or
two. Talking to a parent, teacher, or school counselor can help you feel much
better and prepare you for the next time you face peer pressure. Don’t make
excuses – say precisely how you think. Paying attention to your feelings and
beliefs about what is right or wrong is a Cool way to avoid peer pressure - If
someone pressurizes you to do anything that’s not up to you and not right or
suitable for you, you have the full right to resist or refuse. You have the right to
say no without giving any reason to him/her, and the best thing is to walk away
from the situation to avoid such pressure. Below are some easy steps with the
help of which you can avoid this peer pressure and be calm and relaxed.

1. Look at the person.

2. Take a breath first

3. Find the words

4. Think it through

5. Use a calm, assertive voice tone.

6. Ask what we could do instead.

7. Say clearly that you do not want to engage in inappropriate behaviors.

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8. Request more time to think about your peer’s demands.

9. Come up with an exit plan.

10. Be confident in saying ‘No’

11. Avoid situations where bad choices are more common.

12. Identify your core values and beliefs.

13. Define your future goals.

14. walk away if feeling uncomfortable (96).

Some studies have categorized ways to reduce peer pressure into Internal and
External Methods (95).

The internal approach focuses on addressing the adverse effects of stress through
self-awareness, value-building, and level of stress resistance. Giving adolescents
an adequate and objective understanding and knowledge of peer pressure can
empower them to overcome it.

The external approach addresses the negative effects of stress mainly through the
external influence on stress and mindfulness. E.g., Exercising and listening to
music (95).

Here are Friends (A-Z) activities you can do, and it is a fact that as
much as good friends are out there, there are bad friends too.
Accepts you as you are Never judges
Believes in you Offers support
Calls you just to say HI Picks you up
Doesn’t give up on you Quiets your fears
Envisions the whole of you Raises your spirits
Forgives your mistakes Says nice things about you
Gives unconditionally Tells you the truth
Helps you Understands you
Invites you over Values you
Just be with you Walks beside you
Keeps you close at heart X-plain things you don’t understand
Loves you for who you are Yells when you won’t listen &
Makes a difference in your life Zaps you back to reality
Source: https://www.appleseeds.org/ABC-Friendship.htm

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Friends are gifts. True friends are not just those whom we get gifts from. They
are the REAL gifts from which we get happiness and unload our burdens.

We can level them based on the intimacy we achieved, as a best and other. So I
want to tell you what makes all kinds of friendships grow healthy and become
better. I grouped my friends based on what I share with them, and that limits the
number in all forms of my relationship. What you share means what you feed
your relationship for the friendship to grow and be healthy. What you talk about
and share in any relationship is like a nutrient for the relationship to grow and be
strong. But in all types of relations, what you talk about and share is different.
What you talk about and share in a sibling relationship is different from what you
share and talk about as a boyfriend and girlfriend. So, as university students, what
we share must be healthy and appropriate to have a thriving social life.

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3.3 What are the principles of successful social life?

Interpersonal skills

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how
to get along with people."
~ Theodore Roosevelt
Interpersonal skills are those essential skills involved in dealing with and
relating to other people, mainly on a one-to-one basis (99)
Interpersonal Skills (IPS) are the life skills we use daily to communicate and
interact with others individually and in groups (100).
Components of Interpersonal Skills and its Core Characteristics (99, 100):
Verbal Communication: What we say and how we say it.
Non-Verbal Communication: What we communicate without words.
Listening Skills: How we interpret both the verbal and non-verbal messages
others send.
Negotiation: Working with others to find a mutually agreeable outcome.
Cooperative Attitude – the willingness to offer and accept input
Problem Solving: Working with others to identify, define, and solve problems.
Collaborative Skills – the capability to jointly complete tasks with others
Decision Making: Exploring and analyzing options to make sound decisions.
Leadership – recognition by peers as someone to follow
Assertiveness: Communicating our values, ideas, beliefs, opinions, needs and
wants freely.
Social Influence: an ability to persuade others
Social Empathy: an awareness and concern for others
Social Connection: a skill for meaningfully relating to others
Exercise for Interpersonal Skills Development. We will implement it in the
life skill training program.

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Effective communication skills

"There are three basic skills that students need to thrive in a knowledge
economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to
communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate."
~ Dr. Tony Wagner

Communication is the art and process of creating and sharing ideas.

Communication skills are the tools that we use to remove the barriers to
effective communication (101).
Effective communication depends on the richness of those ideas and the use of
communication skills to convey a message so that receivers understand both
emotions and intentions.
In daily life, students are expected to converse with their classmates, teachers,
and so on.
Asking your teacher questions, having fun with classmates, participating in
dorm room Shenanigans, and playing a simple game to pass our time can lead to
conflict unless we develop effective communication skills.
We say one thing, the other person hears something else, and
misunderstandings, frustration, and conflicts ensue.
Elements of Face-to-Face Communication (101):
Our tone of voice accounts for about 35-40 percent of our messages.
Body language: Over half of the message that we are sending to others is non-
verbal.
Word: The third communication element is verbal communication. Believe it or
not, it is the least impactful element in face-to-face communication.
According to WHO, effective communication is when verbal and non-verbal
communication is the same: difficulties arise when words contradict our
nonverbal behavior (41).

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8 Tips to Effective Communication Skills (102):

Empathy
Students need to develop empathy and understand what the other person is
thinking and feeling. When students see that their viewpoint isn’t the only one,
they become better listeners and speak more respectfully to others.
Learning Conversation Skills
All the activities in the world won’t help students develop skills they don’t
have. It’s important to model how to have a productive conversation—video,
where professional actors model examples and non-examples of communication
skills.
Listening and Speaking Procedures
Dr. Allen Mendler of Edutopia suggests “identify conversation procedures that
include appropriate non-verbal behavior.
Respectful Vocabulary
Respectful alternatives for heated conversations. Remind students that COLD
(passive) or HOT (blowing up) often worsens matters. The best solution is to be
cool. For example, telling someone, ‘You’re stupid’ may have a more
inflammatory effect than ‘I disagree with you.’
Pausing
Pause, think, and ask questions. This will help students to begin to see another’s
viewpoint and slow them down a bit to listen more effectively. Ask questions
such as ‘So, do you mean?’ or ‘Why?’
Practice Speaking and Listening in Natural Settings
While effective communication is vital in the classroom, it is helpful in all areas
of students’ lives. Practice Speaking and Listening in Natural Settings to raise
confidence for different situations.
Introspection
Students can begin to learn where their feelings and thoughts come from. It is a
skill that may take some work, but understanding themselves is just as
important in communication as understanding those around them.
Turn-taking
Learning to take turns is one of the most basic building blocks of a good
conversation.
Games and Activities to develop effective communication skills will be
implemented in the life skill training program.

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Empathy

Empathy is an experiential way of grasping another's emotional state (103). In

the previous part, we have seen that university students can undergo complex
emotional states, for which they need a friend who can empathize with them.
You are putting yourself in other people's shoes!
The act of empathy is unteachable. However, modeling compassion and
allowing empathy can facilitate empathy. Likewise, helping students identify
any negative, fragmenting behaviors such as prejudice, self-preoccupation,
excessive nervous talking, poor listening and poor assertiveness skills, and low
self-esteem will assist students in taking responsibility to change these
behaviors that block empathy and interfere with healing (104).

Empathic communication steps

1. First of all, validate the feelings, the depth and truthfulness of their
feeling.
With words like “I can only imagine what you are feeling right now,”
most people would feel the same, and it is natural to feel sad, angry, and
depressed.
2. Apologize for the feelings/ emotions.
With words like “I am sorry you are feeling sad.” Feeling this way is
hard; I am sorry this happened to you.
3. Now you can ask what happened. What makes them feel that way?
Let them explain the root causes of the emotions. Still, do not judge
whether the reason is legitimate or not. First, try to take them out of the
bad feelings with an emotion-focused coping mechanism.
4. Once they are out of the intense emotion, you can try to address the root
Causes.
Empathy exercise: Naming and labeling emotions to empathize with your
fellow students; we will implement them in the life skill training program.

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3.3.1, Be fruitful

Successful social life is not just what rich people or people with doctorate degrees
have.

Successful means being fruitful, so a successful life is not just a life that wealthy
people and a person with a good education live. Uneducated farmers can lead a
thriving social life, and poor men living on the street can live a successful social
life.

Successful social life is about living a fruitful life.

What do we mean by a fruitful life?

When we talk about fruit, what comes to our mind is plants like apples, mangoes,
oranges, etc. So let me explain this by taking a plant that bears fruits and which
doesn’t.

Source,https://images.app.goo.gl/hY1GErHJPaVFtiuG6
https://images.app.goo.gl/maz7vprDokDGK5687

An apple tree that brings forth its fruits is thriving because it gets all it needs.
When I say all it needs, I mean what it needs to grow: water, protection from
damage, fertile soil, etc. It does not do for itself; it is given to it by the people who
will eat its fruit so that it will be even more fruitful.

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On the other hand, a tree that bears no Fruit is unsuccessful because it does not
get what it needs, and people will cut it off (end its life) and use it for fire and
others, so it is not Fruitful (successful).

I don’t know why one is fruitful and the other is not. Whatever the reason behind
it, it is not correct. Because I know this, it is their nature for any tree to bear its
fruit.

When I say their nature, I mean an apple tree that is fully grown does not need
education on seven ways to produce apple fruit and a billion dollars to buy what
it needs to produce apple fruit. Being an apple tree (plant) itself is enough. In the
same manner, this principle works in a human life of success (fruitfulness). The
uneducated person who does not have academically high achievement and who
does not know the seven scientific ways to be successful and the poor man who
doesn't have a million dollars to make the connection to get what he needs can
have a thriving social life by being fruitful.

Its fruit for a mango tree is mango, and drinks are made from it. For an apple tree
it is an apple.

What are the fruits of human beings?

Love, kindness, and goodness

Laughter, joy, happiness

Peace, patience, respect for other

Faithfulness, honesty, integrity

The list goes on; again, I don’t know why some are fruitful and others are not,
whatever the reason behind it is not right. Because I think it is our nature for
human Being to be fruitful. When I say it is our nature, I mean we do not need
scientific education to love to be kind, and we do not need to have money to be
patient and faithful. Being human is enough.

3.3.2 Don't be selfish

Here is a big truth. I have never seen or heard a plant eat the fruit it produces.
That is true for human beings, too. That means we do not just eat our fruit for
ourselves. If you did, it is wrong, selfishness and greediness.

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Whatever you call it, you are not successful. It means it is not right to just love
yourself, and you can’t be kind to yourself only.

I challenge you to bear the fruit of love, kindness, goodness, joy, laughter, peace,
and faithfulness. Then you will be successful because you will get all you need.

When I say all you need as a human being, It is what you need to grow and be
more fruitful. Whether it’s food, shelter, or even money that you do not give to
yourself, it is from people who will eat your fruit.

True success is not just measured by what you gain but also by what you give.

Now, how can it work in this world of individualism?

Let’s imagine an individual, just one person. Put him/her on an island with which
no other people can share its fruit. I do not know for how long he/she can survive.
An adage in our community says, " Sticks that burn together will cook a meal.
But a single stick will die no matter how much it burns.

So, it is wrong if you think success is what you get by being alone. Those fruits
of human beings, love, joy, and laughter… are all meant to be shared. Let others
eat your fruit and be successful.

At last, you may ask me why plants have to produce fruit in the first place so that
another person may eat.

What is in it for the plant? Other than getting protection, water, and fertile soil to
produce more fruit?

Fruitfulness is mandatory to be successful; why? To answer these questions, we

need to know what fruit is.

In everyday language, fruit usually means a sweaty and edible plant's fleshy
structure (part). So, we think we are just taking from them, eating them for our
benefit rather than for a single use for the plant. But this belief will be changed
when we understand the botanic definition of fruit.

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Botany is a branch of natural science that studies plants. It defines fruit as the
seed-bearing structure (part) in plants. Seed means for plants; it is their offspring,
a way of reproducing itself.

Fruits are how plants disseminate their seeds. Edible fruit, in particular, has
propagated with the movements of humans and animals. This helps that plant take
over the world by its seed planted far away (carried away and deposited) at a
distance from the parent.

The same is true for human beings. When you are fruitful and let others eat your
fruit of love, kindness, goodness, joy, laughter, and so on, you are not just giving;
in your fruit that other people eat, there is a seed planted in those people. Seed
means for human beings; it is their personality and legacy.

Being fruitful is a means by which your seeds takes over the world and plant your
personality and legacy in all human being who eat your fruits. Being successful
means no more or less than this.

A farmer planted an apple tree and doesn't expect it to bear mango fruit. So, if
you sow hatred and greediness, don’t expect love and kindness to be your fruits
because whatever you planted is what you reap. So please start to plant your fruit
of love, kindness, honesty, and laughter.

This is not an ideal principle or unachievable work. But it may take time to
practice it in your life fully.

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Here is my proof test for the practicality of the principle. My role models have
practiced this principle, planted their seeds (personality, legacy) in all human
beings, and become influential worldwide and successful.

She let us eat her fruit of love, kindness, goodness, peace, and generosity. Born
in Albania on 26 August 1910, Mother Teresa of Calcutta(Kolkata) at the
time of her death, the missionaries of charity through which she shared her fruits,
had over 4000 sisters and an associated brotherhood of 300 members operating
610 missions in 123 countries
including Ethiopia. For her
work in 1979, Teresa received
the Nobel Peace Prize and
many other recognition and
awards. This is fruitfulness
(success).

He shares his fruits of laughter, joy, and peace. Born in Ethiopia, Master
Belachew Girma, after losing all he had: money, family, health (HIV +ve), and
natural disasters, destroyed
all properties he owned from
bank loans. While many
people, and he, waited on the
date of his funeral, even
thinking of ending his own
life. He starts sharing his
fruits of laughter and joy.
Now, he has built the first
school of laughter in Africa.
He is traveling all over the world and healing those who are sick, sad, and
depressed with his fruits, regardless of their age, sex, and nationality. Now, he is
a world laughter master and won the impossibility challenge award. This is
fruitfulness (success) (105).

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Individuals Fruits

1. Nelson Mandella Peace, unity, forgiveness

2. Fill in your name here. And your fruits here

I wanted to say this when I wrote this message. I could have been more fruitful. I
have a lot to work on and a long way to go. So, let’s start the journey together
because success is a journey, not instantaneous. A successful person is he/she
who has all he/she needs to accomplish the journey, including patience.

You may not have all you need at the start of the journey. But you get it by sharing
your fruits. As an old African adage says, walk with people if you want to go far.

Let me conclude my message by encouraging you to start the journey by applying

this principle and be fruitful. Share your fruits of love, kindness, goodness,
laughter, and joy with your close friends, family, dorm mates, and classmates.
Your teachers must see and eat your fruit of respect.

In the university, share your fruit of respect with the university workers, starting
from the cleaners, café tickers, and security.

3.4 Meaning, Values, and Consequences of Fruits

How do we define those fruits, and what value do we give them?

1. Love…

One kilogram of apple fruit equals two hundred (200) birr last time I remember,
but there is no standard price for love… it means one gram of love you share with
people is priceless. That is why we call those loving people just sweet because no
price or reward equates to their act other than loving back.

Nowadays, some people even ask if there is such a thing called true love. Because
they didn't experience it or find it, not because it doesn't exist, but because they
didn't try to be the one to share it, some people search for love in others when
they can be the source of love themselves.

I don't dare to define love, and neither should anyone, but we can say it is a divine
gift for humanity.

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2. Happiness…

Yes, you can be happy and make others too.

It doesn’t take much to be happy, but be thankful for what you have. Then, you
are the most optimistic person in the world despite what is happening around you.

Love what you have, and see the good in the bad. That is the eyes of a wise person.
It looks so difficult, in fact, impossible to see good in the bad at the moment when
everything goes wrong. But that is wrong; seeing a spark of light in a dark room
is easier than trying to see it in a bright room.

See the best in the worst. When it comes to the value of happiness, it is something
that you can't buy with money.

3. Kindness…

Let me give you a chance to define kindness, what value you give for it, and how
you exercise it in your life. Evaluate yourself.

The Motive

Whether you take the right way or a shortcut, you may become successful.
Remember, success is being fruitful, not others. For some, their motive to be
fruitful is to get what they need and be successful. If you take this way and believe
that the consequence of being fruitful is to get success, you will not settle down
because the consequences are unpredictable and will put you in demand of the
consequences than being fruitful. This leads you to take a shortcut.

Just bearing fruit is what is expected from you; that is your success. But if your
reason (motive) for bearing fruit is to achieve its consequences and deceive others
that you’re sweet and lovely, it is wrong.

Our fruits are abilities and natural capacities that can affect and transfer to every
spectrum of our lives. There isn’t a single facet of our experience that these fruits
won’t be helpful.

Life’s fruits aren't just for “special people.” They’re a life fruit. Everyone has a
life. So, everyone has fruits. And the fruits help us communicate and relate to
others. Where once, we may have lost our patience and initiated an argument, we
reach instead for understanding and tolerance.

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Once, we may have teamed with hatred, started a war, and become enemies; now,
we go for love, peace, and friendship instead.

Where once, we may have become greedy and selfish and made others sad, we
reach instead for kindness, generosity, making others happy, and creating
laughter.

Isn't it challenging to develop this habit?

Let me be honest, as honesty is one of the fruits. It may be difficult because our
world has become a land where people plant more seeds of hate, selfishness,
greed, and lies. It will cost a lot, but the benefits are more, so it is worth trying.

Core Principles

1. Success is fruitfulness.

2. Fruits of human beings are love, kindness, goodness, laughter, joy, patience,
peace…

3. It is the inborn nature of human beings to bear fruit of love, kindness…

4. As human beings, we may not be perfect, but by sharing our fruits, we make
each other close to perfect.

5. Life fruits are meant to be shared.

6. True success is measured by what you gain and what you give and share.

7. Success is a journey, and a successful person is he/she who has all he/she needs
to accomplish the journey. You may not have all you need at the start of the
journey, but you get it by sharing your fruits.

8. No matter who you are, the potential to become successful is 100%.

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3.5 Be aware of things that Destroy Effective Social life and Friendship

1. Gossip

“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds
discuss people” - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Gossip is discussing people negatively. And definitely, it leads to conflicts at any

level of a relationship. So, in which group are you?

1. Great minds

2. Average minds

3. Small minds

Have gossiping ever destroyed your social life in the past? The solution is to stop
being small-minded.

https://www.dreamstime.com/upset-teen-black-girl-friends-gossiping-
background-upset-teen-african-girl-multiracial-friends-gossiping-laughing-
image195076020

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2. Low communication skills

While having fun, a word gets out of line, and someone is offended. Mocking and
roasting each other is one way of having fun, often leading to conflict. Boys, we
all know that is our thing. While there is nothing wrong with that, words do hurt.
Let’s put a limit to our mocking words.

3. Boys over girlfriend and girls over boyfriend

Well, when it comes to a relationship, despite it being undeniably important for

human beings, for university students, it is like "the chicken-egg dilemma." There
must be conclusive evidence of whether students should go for it or stay away
from it. According to Lucas & Curpuz (2007), “quality personal relationships that
provide stability, trust, and caring such as romantic relationships can increase
learners’ sense of belonging, self-respect, and self-acceptance, and provide a
positive climate for learning” and thus increase academic performance. Cited by
(106). on the other hand, the results of multivariate analyses indicate that being
in a romantic relationship while in college is significantly associated with class
absences; specifically, logistic regression models show that participation in a
romantic relationship more than doubles the odds of failing to attend three or
more class meetings per course in a semester(107). students became more focused
on their romantic relationships since they spent more time with their partners than
studying. The students in a relationship have faced the challenge of balancing
their academic and romantic time (106). I wish we all had Romeo and Juliet’s
love life, but that is true only in Hollywood movies, not in university.

We are good at getting into a relationship, but when it comes to managing and
sustaining it, I do not know; very few last long and solemn. Having to seek
support from a significant one is a common internal urge for students, particularly
first-year students. However, maintaining a relationship is always a challenging
lesson for students (108).

No one has the ability or right to stop you from having a relationship or push you
to have a relationship without your interest. Even your parents can’t because most
students won’t share a word about their romantic relationship with their parents.

When suggesting whether students should have a romantic relationship while

studying, the study done among Cambodian University students indicates that
respondents saying ‘No’ slightly outweighed those saying ‘Yes.’ Therefore, it
cannot clearly be determined whether it is a good or a bad idea to have a romantic

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relationship while studying. Nevertheless, since positive and negative effects are
stated, students may consider them and make decisions wisely(109).

So when it comes to whether to have a romantic relationship or not, the choice is

yours. If you think you are mature enough to manage it well, go for it; may God
be with you, but if you feel that it distracts you from your priorities and you think
you are not ready for the emotional roller coaster that student in a relationship
have, good for you stay safe, there is a time for everything.

Here is how you may check whether you are ready and mature enough to be in a
relationship: write down the pros and cons of being in a relationship and evaluate
how it would affect your life by giving one point for each reason under pros and
cons. final add up the result of each group and whichever has a great value will
be your choice. Be honest with yourself. You are not doing this for anyone but
yourself, so write the pros and cons here and evaluate its effect on your life.

PROS CONS

1, 1,

2, 2,

3. 3,

4. Dorm room challenges

4-6 students living in a single room, many things can raise tension that may lead
to conflict.

Light: some students want the light off while sleeping, but others may want it on.

Sound: the sound of doors and lockers opening and closing while others are
sleeping disturbs.

Some students are early morning type; for others, early morning is their sweet
sleep time, so they want a quiet and peaceful room but get annoyed by those early
morning type roommates. Privacy differs from what you can get easier when
living with more than six students in a single room.

These and many other activities can destroy effective social life unless the great
fruit of patience and compromise is developed.

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5. Ethnic, religious, and political opinion differences

The social life of university students is a victim of ethnic politics in our country.

3.6 Social life test (self-assessment)

The Social Life Assessment Questionnaire is divided into three parts.

Part 1: Assessing Your Level of Social Support

Having people in your life to provide support, advice, and companionship is

integral to managing stress and emotions and promoting general wellness. To
determine whether your social network provides you with what you need, check
whether each of the following statements is true or false for you.

True False

_______ 1. If I needed an emergency loan of 1000 birr, there is someone I could

ask for it.

_______ 2. There is someone who takes pride in my accomplishments and/or

praises me.

_______ 3. I often meet up or talk by phone/Skype with family or friends.

_______ 4. Many people I know have a positive impression of me.

_______ 5. If I wanted to study with someone, I would have a hard time finding
someone to study with me

_______ 6. I feel there’s no one with whom I could share my most private worries
and fears.

_______ 7. Most of my friends are more successful in making changes in their

lives than I am.

_______ 8. I would have difficulty finding someone to accompany me on a fun

day trip.

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Scoring: Add up the number of true answers for questions 1-4 and the number of
false answers for questions 5-8. You should have enough support in many
situations if your score is four or higher. You may need to build up your social
network if your score is three or lower. I encourage and recommend using the
self-help resources contact address listed below.

Source:https://www.google.com/url?q=https://caps.ucsc.edu/resources/social-support-self-
assessment.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwinoZOgu8r5AhVrh_0HHUasCwMQFnoECAoQAg&usg=AO
vVaw2afLjGsSzISAfAhcXk4ft_

Part 2: Assessing Your Level of Social Support with Classmates and dorm mates

True False

_______ 1. I have actively sought out students whose ethnic, political opinion,
and religious background differs from mine to be my friend.

_______ 2. I have intimate classmates, and I don’t feel ashamed to ask them for
any kind of help.

________ 3. My friendship interactions with my dorm mates are superficial

________ 4. I find it challenging to live with dorm mates with different behaviors

________ 5. I participate in the campus students club and other student

organizations

________ 6. I feel a sense of belonging at the student union of my campus

________ 7. I have difficulties giving a warm greeting to fellow students in class

________ 8. I find it difficult to say sorry or thank you to classmates and dorm
mates.

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The OSSS-3 consists of three items assessing the level of social support. (110)

Oslo 1: How many people are so close to you that you can count on them if you
have significant personal problems?

1‘none’
2‘1–2’
3‘3–5’
4‘5+’
Oslo 2: How much interest and concern do people show in what you do?

1‘none’
2‘little’
3‘uncertain’
4‘some’
5‘a lot’
Oslo 3: How easy is it to get practical help from classmates or dorm mates if you
should need it?

1‘very difficult’
2‘difficult’
3‘possible’
4‘easy’
5‘very easy’
The OSSS-3 sum score can be operationalized into three broad categories of
social support.

12–14 Strong social support

9–11 Moderate social support
3–8 poor social support (I encourage and recommend that you make use of the
self-help resources contact address listed below.

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Part 4: Personal Life

4.1 Personal Life Disciplines

Personal life refers to personal time to build character and discipline that reflects
in your social and academic life.

These are characteristics we all need to have personally and prioritize in our
university life journey. It is more than techniques that make your social and
academic life effective; it defines what success is for you and leads you to
accomplish your life’s purpose. You are as close as your self-discipline to your
goal. The more you discipline yourself, the closer you’re to your dreams to come
true. The more you discipline yourself, the closer you are to your goal.

In this part, we will discuss some of the students' personal life disciplines to help
them realize their dreams, like purpose steps, time management, planning, and
What to do with their degree after graduation.

A student’s personal life inevitably affects what is going on in his/her academic

activities. According to Nwodo (2007), some of the things in students' personal
lives that affect academic achievement include:

Lack of maturity and discipline: some students are not disciplined and lack
good organizational skills due to lack of maturity/experience. They often fall
under the negative pressure of their peers rather than using their discretion. Some
students usually feel compelled to follow others in their social activities instead
of attending to their studies. However, students should never forget why they are
in the university and ensure that their decisions and actions align with their grand
purpose.

Lack of passion: Successful students work out of passion, know what they want
to do, and recognize the importance and the benefit it will bring them. Without
passion, studying becomes a chore, not a method for achieving clearly defined
goals.

Lack of Vision: This may make them take programs of study without a clear
career goal or objectives. In essence, they choose the wrong course of study or
career (26).

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4.2 Purpose steps

The purpose is a map.

In a city called life, the purpose is a map that guides your journey. In life, purpose
gives you a sense of direction and points toward a destination. Purpose
coordinates all our thinking and actions. Having a compass point(direction) in life
is essential to reach your goals.

Imagine a tourist visiting a city without a compass point or map guide. Imagine a
marathon runner athlete running without knowing the finishing line(destination).
No matter how fast he/she runs, there is no finishing, victory, or satisfaction.

Life without purpose is like a marathon runner who doesn't know where the
finishing line is. In the same manner, university life without a specific purpose
and goal to accomplish is a waste of time.

Staying for four to seven years in university is about more than just taking
different courses and barely passing the exams, then getting your degree,
returning home, and waiting for the government to hire you or get placed in an
office through nepotism. If life’s map (purpose) is well discovered, it has more
meaning. However, finding and understanding the map of life may be demanding.

I struggled to understand my purpose; it took me much time, but it was not

impossible. Eventually, I learned my purpose in life by passing through different
steps, which I call purpose steps.

Purpose steps

1. Observe

2. Desire/Passion

3. Have a role model

4. Vision

5. Purpose

6. Potential

7. Success

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Students must follow these steps to have a clear map during their university stay
to connect their education to their life purpose.

1. Observe

An active observer takes action whenever they encounter a problem, such as

unclear or unanswered questions.

Be an active observer. Don’t be a passive observer who reacts to unanswered

questions: “This is for smart people to answer it, or this is for rich people to do
something about it with their money or take it as government responsible.” Look,
explore, feel, and experience, then ask what and why. I am sure there are many
unanswered questions in your textbook that science or your community haven't
found the correct answer for by observing and asking why you will connect your
education to your life purpose.

If it wasn’t for the question, ‘Why did the fruit not fall upward?’ Gravity would
still be a mystery. This is how Isaac Newton formulated the gravitational theory
in 1666 after watching an apple fall and asking why the apple fell straight down
rather than sideways or upward. Go start observing…

2. Desire/ Passion

Desire can be defined as a strong feeling or wish to have or do something.

Observing creates desire.

When you desired, you have done it in your heart…

I am not talking about wishful thinking/delusion. There is a difference between

university students’ (adults’) desires and fantasies. Fantasy (wishful thinking) is
an idea with no basis in reality, and it is just a delusion. Observation-driven desire
is reality-based, and It's what you see, hear, and experience.

Fantasy (wishful thinking) Adult desires

1. Does not develop in to vision 1. Must develop in to vision
2. Motivated just to have fun 2. Motivated to solve problems

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This adult’s desire itself can be right or wrong.

Right Wrong
1. Motivated by solving problems 1. Motivated by solving one’s
of one’s self and others problems only at the cost of others
2. Helps you grow mentally and 2. Does not help you grow mentally
socially and socially

Observing the fruit falling to the ground creates a desire to know why.

Do you have an observation that created a desire in your life or field of study?

If you have the right desire, try to see if there is anyone who is doing what you
desire in real life. Search for a role model to learn from or a mentor.

3. Have a mentor/ role model

Everybody can desire, but everyone may need the right role model or mentor to
realize his desire.

Every successful person may not be a model to you. Specifically, your role model
is someone (who is doing in life what you are doing in your heart) who lives what
you desire to be.

Modeling does not mean worshipping or idolizing successful people and trying
to be the exact copy of the model.

The Right modeling refers to learning from your role model's life journey. Learn
about their lives, from their first day to where they are today. What it cost to get
there, what obstacles they had to pass to get where they are today, and what
motivated them not to give up. Once you learn these from your role model, it will
help you to be ready to pay what it costs to be successful. You will also be
prepared ahead to avoid being overwhelmed by similar challenges. It will help
you to be determined to overcome the obstacles to reach your target.

Can you find such a role model? Or do you have one?

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Choosing the suitable model…. It is better if it is someone who knows you and
you can communicate with at a personal level if possible.

Learning from your mentor/ role model’s life helps you have experience of eighty
years or more while you’re eighteen and builds confidence and attitude of I can!

Once you know “what it takes,” you will be prepared to overcome the obstacles
and start doing what you desire.

4. Vision

Now, it is time to see and feel the result of your work because you have already
seen and felt the obstacles of your work journey from the experience of your role
model or mentor. You may face new and unique challenges in your path.
However, you will be able to see your destination.

Can you do that?

Your vision is your mental picture of what your real life should be, and vision
creates a purpose, a purpose of living your vision. Share your vision with others
who may have a similar vision. Together, you may make a perfect and complete
picture.

When you visualize, your brain chemistry changes as if you are actually
experiencing it, filling you with joy, energy, and purpose. Can you do that? If you
can see the invisible, you can do the impossible, and that is vision.

5. Purpose

Having a mental picture of what your life, work, and future should look like
doesn't just fill you with joy and energy but also creates a purpose of changing
that from a mental picture to an actual one ( to materialize).

The purpose is a map. When you get your purpose, it makes you analyze problems
from the perspective of your purpose, not just circumstances. Your life will not
be troubled with trial and error because your purpose will be your measurement
standard and help you invest your time in valuable things only.

Those who don’t know their purpose may think that everything is meaningless
and waste their time trying everything which will take them nowhere.

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Having the same objectives and motives(purpose) will make it easy to work with
others to reach your destination, which will be of much support. The purpose is
what creates harmony, unity, and potential.

6. Potential

Potential is given to all people to accomplish their purpose. So, your purpose is
the way to exploit your untapped potential to achieve success. Purpose creates
external and internal potential. The external potential is the ability that comes
from the alliance (connection) with the people with whom you share your vision
and purpose. The internal potential is the inner capacity that starts shining and
growing when you understand your purpose.

This is one of the reasons you need to know your purpose to increase your
potential and not waste your potential on something it is not created to
accomplish. A potential invested in what it is not designed to accomplish is
wasted, and a potential invested in the purpose it is created to achieve is a success.

7, Success

Success is a potential invested in a purpose that it is created to achieve. Success

is more than winning; sometimes, you must lose to achieve your purpose. Serving
the purpose with your potential is a success.

Success is a journey using the map of life (purpose).

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Time Management and Planning

Time is a resource of life. Many give this resource different values and meanings.
Some say “time is gold”; some say it is even more, but we all can agree that it is
a precious resource.

For a university student, effective time management is our top priority: spending
it on study. The electricity we use is measured by voltage (watt); in the same
manner, our life meaning and value are measured by time. Meaningless time (the
time you spend without doing something productive) is a meaningless and
valueless life. So, time is a resource by which our life is measured. The big
difference is that electricity doesn't count if we do not use it, but time constantly
counts down whether we use it or not.

This tells us that one of the principles of time is all or none. Because you either
use it or waste it. Spend it meaningfully or not. You can’t save time and use it
later. Later, it is already late. Even though it seems that it is there, it has already
passed. Because you can’t store this resource, and when it passes, it takes all its
fortunes and goes for good. The proper use of voltage (watt) of electricity can
make machinery start functioning and change a dark room into a bright one.
Properly using this resource (time) can make your potential start working and
change the darkened life into a bright one.

Time is a resource of life but not the source of life. God is the source; this God-
given life is measured and limited by time.

Meaning and value of time to illustrate more

1. Cellphone

I don’t think that there is a university student who doesn't know what a cell phone
is. Nowadays, students are known for spending much of their time on their
phones, talking with friends and family members, or surfing the internet, mainly
to the level that it distracts them from doing more important things. Our cell
phones have become our friends, and we are addicted to them.

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We all love our phones, and if we were grounded for one day not to use our cell
phones, some of us might go crazy. This is why I want to use this metaphor
because all of us can relate to it. But I want to start with this question: do you
know how your phone works to provide “what you need” to talk to friends, use
the internet, and download files? In our country, a one-minute voice phone call
used to cost almost one birr. And downloading a 4 MB file costs 1 birr. When
you pick up the phone and dial a few digits. You are instantly connected to that
person; how long you were connected is counted in money (birr).

Once you are connected, whether you talk or not. The phone counts the duration
you were connected and charges you with the equivalent money.

I do not know how much one minute in life is.

One minute in life is =?

Like cell phones, I wish we had a standard and known value so that we would be
cautious about how we use our time. But even though the value is known, it is
different for everyone.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, Ask a student who repeated a grade.
To realize the value of nine months, ask a mother who gave birth to a stillbirth.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature
baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask the person born on Pagume 6.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just escaped an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MICROSECOND, ask an athlete who lost his world
record in the Olympics.
Original author: anonymous
Your ' life phone ' is dialed from the day you were born and on. It is connected
and counting down. Convert it to what it costs and charge yourself with it.
Whether you use it or not, it is already counting down. And remember that, unlike
your phone, which you can recharge, the bank of life is not rechargeable.

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I do not know how much is left in our life account; I bet there is not much. So
please know that you and I have to use this resource wisely to make our lives on
campus and beyond meaningful.

2. When?

It’s not just what you know how to do;

It’s what you know when to do.
A farmer with all he/she needs to grow their crop but not knowing when to farm
will never be effective in agriculture. Knowing when a farming season, which is
a period of the year during which growing conditions are most favorable for the
cultivation of crops, is vital to being successful as a farmer.

So, knowing the value of time makes it clear that proper time management is also
a pillar for any work to be effective.

What is time management?

Time management is knowing the meaning and value of time for achieving your
goal.

It is not just about doing things fast or slow but about knowing when. For a
farmer, time management means understanding when a period is most favorable
for the cultivation of crops.

How can a farmer listen to time and know the “WHEN”?

Can time speak?

Yes, especially in our country, farmers do their work by listening to time through
temperature, moisture, rainfall, and other conditions that are needed for their
work. Now, when farmers have an insight into farming seasons and know when
they can better manage their farm production, this is what time management is
for a farmer. Similarly, university students must learn their periods (time) of when
to study.

As a farmer listens to time, knows his season, and does his farming work,
Students should also listen to time to understand when and what to study,
including how to harvest the fruits of education.

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3. Focus

Focusing is the key to making sure you reach your target.

We all know what a microscope is (micro=small, scoping=looking) and its

function, or at least we know that it is an object used to visualize what can't be
seen with our naked eye because of its small size. Using a microscope for the first
time in the histology lab as a pre-clinical year one medical student, I realized
something. No matter how much the microscope can magnify (enlarge) the size
of objects, we can’t understand or even know what we are looking at unless it is
focused. Unless you are focused on life, no matter how many big (important)
things you are doing, you can’t comprehend it. As a student, time management
means focusing on your education/study.

You can only comprehend life when you are focused.

It is not about your physical presence; it is where your attention is. As a student,
I urge you to focus on your study.

For a student, nothing is more important than focusing on study. Hence, time
management for students means knowing what to focus on. Yet, knowing what
to focus on and acting accordingly is challenging.

What holds us from focusing?

1. Fear

In his book You Can Win, Shiv Khera states that fear is false evidence appearing
real, which leads to focusing on the wrong things.

2. Focusing on the wrong things

Destructions, Challenges, and problems that we face come out of our day-to-day
life. Some of them are what we created by getting along with the wrong kind of
friends, premature opposite-sex relationships, etc.; we focused so much on the
problems and forgot our priorities.

Focus on your dream, not your nightmares. Focus on your goal, not the problem.
Please do not focus on conditions and limitations because they steal your mind,
time, and energy.

For students, Focus means, in simple terms, making your mind pay attention to
your study and spending more time and energy on your goal.

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The Centre of your thought process should be about your dream and what can
positively affect your life.

4. Plan:

Planning is predicting and preparing for the future (tomorrow).

By planning, I mean developing strategies for doing your activities and which
way you will take before the journey. If you have planned what you will do and
how to do it in the coming two weeks and stick to it, it looks like you already
know what your tomorrow is. It would be the same if you did it for a year or a
decade. Planning is shaping your time and life. Like physical exercise builds your
body shapes, Planning shapes Your life, and don’t let problems shape your life.
Don’t let luck shape your tomorrow. If you are in good shape, running for miles
is not difficult. But it isn't easy if you are not in the right shape. If you have a
good plan, different activities will not be difficult.

Planning is being prepared. Nothing is too difficult if you are prepared enough.
Even if it is Challenging, it is not unachievable. Underpinning any timely work
is a good plan (good preparation). Preparation is getting ready. Are you ready
mentally and physically to embrace tomorrow? An athlete who wants to win a
competition passes through a series of training ahead. You prepare to welcome
tomorrow by planning. Students prepare for exams by studying ahead. For
students, effective time management means planning their studies.

As a matter of fact, the problem with many students is not about having a plan or
not but sticking to it.

How to stick to your plan?

1. Having a complete plan means planning plus strategies that help you overcome
reasons to quit.

Having a complete plan is the key to sticking to it.

Sticking to your plans means overcoming the reasons to quit. Reasons to quit can
be fear, failures, or temporary setbacks… When you have a complete plan, even
if you fail, you know how to shake off the dust, get up, and continue with it.

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2. Forget your past

You are not condemned to bear the weight of yesterday. Decreasing your weight
load is the right way to run fast. Forgetting your past is a load reduction to run
fast and efficiently toward your future. Forgive and forget your terrible past and
embrace tomorrow with a changed and new mind.

3. be your future

If you are to be a Medical Doctor, live and think like one: read, study, and be
disciplined. If you are not being your future today, tomorrow will not be in your
favor. Stop thinking about what you lost today and start working with what you
left with, which is your future.

One thing that we all human beings have in common is “making mistakes.”

A drop of poison in a glass of water is a mistake; drinking that water is letting a

mistake affect you. Not seeking medical attention is a suicidal attempt.

Failing today is a mistake, but living in the past, failure is letting it affect your
tomorrow. If all humans were not full of mistakes, our planet wouldn’t be in such
a mess; making mistakes is to be human. Even your superheroes are full of
mistakes; we as human beings are the sum of our mistakes and good deeds. We
are the sum of our right and wrong acts. Not just our mistake-free life makes us
who we are today; our discipline, character, and behavior are the result of both
our right and wrong deeds and what we learned from them. But letting the
consequences of your mistake (wrong deeds) destroy your life is just like
committing a suicidal attempt. If you did not study for the exam as a student, it’s
a mistake; if you are hiding in your addiction instead of facing your challenges
and getting out of it, it’s a mistake. If you think asking others for help is for weak
people, it’s a mistake. If you are poisoned and did not seek medical attention, the
literal term for this is a suicidal attempt. In the same manner, if you make a
mistake and get into a problem and do not ask for help to correct or change, it is
just like committing a suicidal attempt. Let’s not attempt suicide. Get help and
change.

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4.3 What will I do with my degree?

What will my life look like after I graduate and leave the university?

What will I do with my straight-A grades?

I have been in a university for the past seven years, and all these times, everything
that I needed was provided for me by my mom; when I needed some pocket
money, she was there for me. SHE WAS THERE when I needed money to copy
handouts and other academic activities. For the majority of university students,
indeed, someone is there to provide for their needs. Despite being poor or rich,
families offer what is needed for their children. Even poor ones sacrifice all they
have to deliver without reservation out of love for their children. Many hope their
educated son or daughter will secure a high-paying job(salary) and solve their
financial and other problems.

Nowadays, the problem is that things are different from the good old times when
all university graduate students get hired at government offices immediately upon
graduation. The government needs more jobs for many reasons, including a very
high number of graduates per year compared to the rate of new job creation.

Following graduation, if you think you will follow the good old fashion of waiting
for the government to hire you, there is a good chance that you will end up jobless.
I am not sharing this to scare you. Still, following graduation, many students
embark on a slew of additional commitments and expectations in the "real world,"
which provide many opportunities for improvement and progress regarding job
advancement and mental well-being. Activities and decisions made during this
period can shape the rest of a graduate student’s life. For many young adults, this
phase is fraught with uncertainty and anxiety as they deal with the pressures of
creating/finding jobs, financial responsibilities, shifting social networks, and all
the other transitions that come with transitioning from college to the workforce.
But most students go through college without a fragment of this thought in their
minds. You must start thinking if you don’t want to be a woman who can’t help
her family and look at her husband’s hand for day-to-day life. You have to wake
up if you don’t want to be a man who can’t support his low-income family who
taught you out of their limitation. You must know what you will do with your
university education and where it can take you.

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What will I do with my degree or straight-A grades?

The right teachers may teach you how to score an A; getting a good grade is good,
but you need more because no one can teach you everything. A university
education is not just about classroom grades. Students must go out and gather
knowledge through his/her own efforts, connect classroom
information/knowledge to the real world, and apply it to solve real-life problems.
What is given to you in class can help you little, yet what you learn through your
effort can change your life. You have to relate and connect classroom education
to the real world.

Students can score A grades, become highly effective in class, and have a degree,
but the problem is how to make those grades and degrees applicable to their
personal lives in creating jobs after graduation.

How do you connect knowledge acquired in the classroom to real-world life

problems?

What are the secrets of those who change their theoretical knowledge to practice?

1. learning the theories is the beginning

You must understand the theoretical aspect well and set it in your mind. To do
this, you have to read and study with passion.

2, Research

It is a bridge between theoretical knowledge and its practices. Thinking one step
ahead before stepping into the real world, search and research what you can do in
the real world with your theoretical knowledge and know what the real world
wants you to do. Gather the necessary information that helps you see the gap in
the real world so that you can fill it with your knowledge.

What is research In terms of turning your theoretical knowledge into practical

knowledge?

In this case, I am not asking you to do formal research; if you can, it’s okay, but
when I say do research, it can be just asking a simple question and trying to find
answers.

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Eg1. If you are a journalism student

How does media impact a country's political, economic, and social development?
If you get answers to that, you go to the following question: are currently existing
Media playing their role? If not, your connection is to apply your classroom
knowledge to solve a community problem and get a job. If yes, how to improve
is the next step.

3, entrepreneur mindset

An insight and foresight to recognize unmet demands and needs of the

community and take that as an opportunity to develop new products and services
that meet the requirement.

The community’s demand warms up the engine of innovation and creativity

within the entrepreneur’s minds of students. Ingenuity is born out of unfulfilled
needs.

With risk-taking and going the unknown extra mile where no one has ever been,
hardworking people with entrepreneurial mindsets come with new products and
services. An entrepreneurial mindset is the only way to survive for our new
university graduate students.

4. job creator’s formula

Formula 1,

Coming up with new products and services

Idea + Passion

Ideas flow into your mind when you connect your education to your life.

Passion keeps you moving in adversities until you reach your goal.

F1= I+P

To radically impact the world, you need not just an idea or technology but also
passion to keep going through good times and bad. Without passion, when you
hit tough times, you will not be able to fight through. By definition, a startup is
doing something that has never been done before, and you will be out of your
comfort zone; you hope to succeed, but you’ll fail frequently. Failed experiments
are part of the startup experience.

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You need to have a passion to fight those temporary setbacks and consider them
important lessons, just like Thomas Edison famously said, “I have not failed. I
just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

The Passion Checklist

In order to succeed, you need to gauge your passion and ensure that you have a
minimal level of “informed passion” before you embark on the entrepreneurial
journey. You can use the following questions to assess yourself and others
suited to your situation.

I understand that… Yes No

Founding a company/creating a job will be hard, and I still want to

do it.

It will be a lengthy process with humiliating failures along the way,

and I must learn from them and not take them personally

The pass to success is not an algorithm with sets of rules to follow.

I can only increase or decrease the odds of success, but I cannot
guarantee anything. Even if I achieve success, it is only temporary.

I will listen to others’ advice and recognize that it is up to me to

choose which advice to implement and how to implement it since
only I own the final results and accountability.

I cannot do it alone.

I will have to leave my comfort zone every day to grow and

continue to be successful.

I am doing this for more than the money. I believe in my cause and
my team.

soures:https://slideplayer.com/slide/14347651/89/images/4/Passion+Checklist+I+Understand+That
%3A+Yes.+No.+1.+Founding+a+startup+will+be+really%2C+really+hard+and+I+still+want+tdo+it.
.jpg

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Idea

Not a few of us may think we have an idea we can turn into a profit quickly. But
the truth is that coming up with an excellent business idea takes much work;
otherwise, everyone would start their own company. Thus, you must evaluate
your idea as you did above for passion.

One way to develop a business idea for a startup is to identify an unfilled yet
meaningful need to fix something for which some groups of people are willing to
pay money for a solution. In this case, you aim to satisfy an already defined
general market demand.

Another starting point for business can be based on a concept that is new to the
world and has the potential to create new market opportunities.

An entrepreneur that is an excellent example of this is Steve Jobs. Jobs was born
in 1955 and later given up for adoption. He owed his early exposure to design and
electronics to his father, a carpenter and mechanic who liked to rebuild cars.

While in high school, Steve Jobs called HP co-founder and president to ask for
parts for a school project; he got the parts he wanted and an internship at HP. This
may have laid the foundation for his future success in technology. Steve Jobs
once famously said, “If you don’t love it, you’re not having fun doing it; you
don’t really love it, you’re going to give up.” it is what has guided his career and
passion. He loved creating products, and when it came to design, he was a
perfectionist obsessed with elegance and simplicity.

This passion grew with him, and he set up a garage shop with a friend at the age
of twenty. Their product was the Apple computer, one of the earliest personal
computers in the 1970s. Apple One was followed by Apple Two and then the
Mac, continuously improving to meet the market demand and triumph in the
marketing challenges and competitions the product faced from the outset.

Steve Jobs was then faced with an internal struggle that led him to be fired from
his company. He would go on to pursue other ventures in which he made fortunes.
Without its visionary leader, Apple could not develop new products, compete in
the market, and start losing money. When Jobs returned to the company a decade
later, he quickly refocused Apple on producing breakthrough products, the iMac,
iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad, each one a world-class product with huge
customer demand.

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By creating innovative products, Steve Jobs was able to turn a company on the
brink of bankruptcy into the most valued company in the world by the time he
finally resigned.

Formula 2,

Improving the old products and services

It is knowing the limitations of old products (op) and integrating with updated
technologies (T).

Is there any simple, faster, and easy way of delivering the existing service?

F2= Op+T

There is always something to improve to meet insatiable human demands.

Uber is an excellent example of how existing services can be modified to create

a new market area. Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp came up with the idea of
an app that orders a ride with just a tap of a button after they had trouble hailing
a cab on a snowy evening. The idea led to the creation of Uber Technologies Inc.
in 2009. It initially launched its services in the United States in 2010 as a ride-
sharing platform that uses the ICT infrastructure that allows drivers to use the app
as independent contractors, using their own personal vehicles as taxis to transport
people. It has quickly expanded to over 63 countries and 700 cities globally and
continues to do so. It has also launched various services, including food delivery,
personal mobility, and freight services. The company is developed based on a
seemingly simple and convenient idea, and utilizing existing cars, drivers, and
network infrastructures is now worth over $78 billion.

Similar companies have followed the footsteps of Uber in the market, including
Taxiye, Ride, and Zayride, to mention a few that operate in our country. All of
these are modernizing the way society lives, providing solutions to a crucial
problem in society, creating livelihood for millions of employees, and making
profits in billions for the owners.

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Creative Thinking skills

Guide to the SCAMPER technique (111)

Developed by Robert Eberle (1971), SCAMPER is an acronym for a creative

problem-solving strategy that supports atypical solutions to problems and
generates new ideas for products or concepts. SCAMPER involves seven
potential methods for innovation: (1) substitute, (2) combine, (3) Adapt, (4)
modify, (5) put to another use, (6) Eliminate, (7) Rearrange.

Substitute

Think about substituting part of the product or process for something else.

Typical questions: What else instead? Who else instead? What other materials,
ingredients, processes, power, sounds, approaches, or forces might I substitute?
Which other place?

Combine

Think about combining two or more parts of the product or process to make
something new or to enhance synergy.

Typical questions: What mix, assortment, alloy, or ensemble might I blend? What
ideas, purposes, units, or appeals might I combine?

Adapt

Think about which parts of the product or process could be adapted or how you
might change the nature of the product or process.

Typical questions: Does the past offer a parallel? What else is like this? What
other idea does this suggest? What might I adapt for use as a solution? What might
I copy? Who might I emulate?

Magnify, Modify

Think about changing part or all of the product or process or distorting it in an

unusual way.

Typical questions: What other meaning, color, motion, sound, smell, form, or
shape might I adopt? What might I add?

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Put to Other Uses

Think of how you might put the product or process to another use or how you
might reuse something from somewhere else.

Typical questions: What new ways are there to use this? Might this be used in
other places? Which other people might I reach? To what other uses might this
be put if it is modified?

Eliminate

Consider what might happen if you eliminate parts of the product or process and
consider what you might do in that situation.

Typical questions: What might I understate? What might I eliminate? What might
I streamline? What might I make smaller, lower, shorter, or lighter?

Rearrange, Reverse

Think of what you might do if parts of the product or process worked in reverse
or were sequenced differently.
Typical questions: What might be rearranged? What other pattern, layout, or
sequence might I adopt? Can components be interchanged? Should I change pace
or schedule? Can positives and negatives be swapped? Could roles be reversed?

The findings of studies have revealed that SCAMPER training significantly

increased the creative thinking of students (112, 113).

Dr. Behailu is one of the extraordinary general practitioners who graduated from
Jimma University Medical Center; he didn't wait for the government to give him
a job like most general practitioners in our country.

He explored the unmet needs of the community regarding health service

provision, and he noticed that there is a lot of family suffering because they were
unable to give simple home health care like putting intranasal oxygen, nasogastric
tube feeding, pain management, and so on for their loved ones with end-stage
disease and on palliative care at home. To get this simple service, those families
suffered a lot both economically and while moving the patient in and out of the
hospital multiple times a day. On top of this, during the COVID-19 lockdown,

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there were movement restrictions, and those with end-stage disease and
Immunocompromised patients were at more risk of catching the disease and
developing a severe form of infection if they visited a hospital. Under this
circumstance, instead of waiting for the government, he started thinking of a way
to deliver those health services at a safe, easy, and cheap price. He came up with
the idea of the first medical application in our country called Helpers Home
Health Care. It can be found on the Google Play Store; any family can download
the application. Fill in the requested simple pieces of information like their
address, give them a call, and get the service at home without suffering.

Currently, he is serving more than thousands of Addis Ababa residents and plans
to move to the capital cities of regional states. With this, he gets more salary than
those general practitioners who work at the government hospital.

Creative thinking exercise, we will implement this in life skill training

program.

5. Overcoming the initial capital problem

Sometimes, it is not over with having a job-creating idea. The initial capital to
convert the idea into something practical will be the limitation for new university
graduate students. You may say this is hard, and you are right, but who said life
was easy? But even though you do not have money, I am sure you have what
money can’t buy passion, and Idea itself is more than money.

Here are some ways graduate students can overcome the initial capital problem

1. Government loan?

2, partnering with affluent investors

The following are a yes or no self-assessment to see how well you behave in terms
of personal life discipline in university; if you believe this self-assessment speaks
to you and convicts your heart, and you have one or more of the question happens
to be your struggles, please call or contact a team who can help you.

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4.4 Personal Life self- assessment

No. Items Yes No

1 I have specific goals/purposes for my future career / Job +1 -1
2 I have developed a strategic plan to achieve my goal +1 -1
3 I don't often think about my future. -1 +1
4 I know why I’m in university and what I want out of it. +1 -1
5 I make my ‘to-do’ list of tasks I need to accomplish each day/week +1 -1
6 I have an addiction that is affecting my personal life growth -1 +1
(Porn/alcohol/ chat, gambling/betting)
7 I can use what I learn in class in practice in my field of study to +1 -1
create a job when I graduate
8 I could see nothing in the future to be hopeful about -1 +1

If your score is ≤ 4 I encourage and recommend that you make use of the self-
help resources contact address listed below. Or participate in the life skills
training program.

Contact addresses

1, Dr. Abraham Gebeyehu

Phone number: 0910295220

Email: abrahamgebeyehu002gmail.com

2, Counseling Psychologist's contact

Bethlehem Medhin +251931558397

Email: [email protected]

3. Dr. Biniyam Tehelku (Psychiatrist)

Email:[email protected]

Phone number=0908068285

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Part 5: interventions

In this part, we will discuss an additional solution for the triad of university Life
challenges in addition to what we have already discussed in previous parts.
5. 1, Attribution intervention

Attribution theory is a field of social psychology that aims to explain how

individuals determine the causes of an event or behavior and the consequence of
such attribution on their subsequent behavior (114).

Most people taking college courses can do well; if they did not, they would not
have been admitted to college or advanced so far in their academic careers.
Attribution theory assumes that within this range of abilities, the explanation
people make for their performance is crucial (115).

Attribution will impact a person’s future behavior. If a person attributes a failure

to a lack of effort (internal, unstable cause), they may feel motivated to do better
next time as this cause can be changed (unstable) and depends on them (internal).
Conversely, someone attributing a failure to a lack of ability (internal, stable
cause) may feel depressed and demotivated, as this cause would be seen as more
difficult to modify (114).

To overcome these negative consequences, attribution change programs attempt

to replace maladaptive causal beliefs, such as low ability, with explanations that
are more temporary (unstable) and modifiable (controllable) by the student, such
as insufficient effort or inappropriate study strategies(116,117).

An attributional intervention was devised to help first-year college students who

were concerned about their academic performance. First-year students were given
information indicating that, on average, college students improve their grades
from the freshman to the upper-class years, plus they were shown videotaped
interviews of upper-level students who reported that their grade point averages
(GPA) had improved since their first year.

The results of the study were nothing less than dramatic. By giving first-year
students information indicating that academic problems during the first year are
temporary, they succeeded in (a) improving their performance on sample
Graduate Record Examination (GRE) items, (b) lowering the percentage of these

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students who left college, and (c) improving their GPA 1 year after the completion
of the study(118).

(Wilson and Linville, 1985) They Cried out replication of their work of 1982.
When the results of the three experiments were combined, the effects of the
attributional manipulation on grade improvement remained significant; the
difference in grade improvement for males in the treatment versus control
conditions was 0.41 GPA point (on a 4~point scale in which 4 ~ A, 3 -- B, etc.).
The difference in grade improvement for females in the treatment versus control
conditions was a more modest 0.13 GPA point(119).

Other studies have also shown that this attribution video manipulation
significantly increased the number of students (18 percent) who passed the final
examinations at the end of the first year relative to control students who did not
participate(120).

The study conducted at Jimma University to determine student-related

determinants of the first-semester academic status found that students who
attribute success/failure to external causes were more likely to fail than students
who attribute success/failure resided within themselves(11).

In trying to implement an attributional intervention in this part, we had some

senior Doctors share their experiences...

Dr. Kume is a Pediatric Ophthalmologist at Jimma Medical Center (JMC). As an

undergraduate medical student, she passed through many frustrating situations,
which many students similarly pass. Her strongest memory was her first Anatomy
class. Most of her classmates were confused and did not understand the teacher's
words. They were so frustrated that they forgot to attend the next class and went
to the library, only to find out later, when meeting a small group of her classmates
who attended, that there was a following period. Another one was during her first
clinical year (C-I). They had a horrible teacher who was hard on them. He would
ask them questions and mock them if they didn’t answer. They had to spend most
of their time in the library, fearing his mockery. But later, they were amazed
because most of her classmates scored A’s in his subject.

Dr. Kume has passed through many challenges during her campus life. Economic
level differences with her dorm mates were one of them. Some of her close friends
had families that would send them money whenever they wanted. So, they often
skip student cafes and go to restaurants outside campus for expensive meals. But

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Kume didn't have that kind of money, which made it difficult for her to be with
her dorm mates and keep the social bond. On top of this peer pressure, she also
sometimes faces gender-based challenges. Her friends have also been intimidated
by dumb boys on the campus and sometimes by locals. In trying to overcome
those challenges, kume made a difficult but necessary decision which is to
separate herself from her dormmates and schedule her day-to-day activities(going
to church in the morning, then to the cafe for breakfast and class, then after class
again to the cafeteria for lunch and then to the library. She gets to the dorm room
in the evening. This makes her avoid her friend’s influence over her and the
chance of being intimidated by dumb boys. The driving force for her to persist
through those university life challenges and attain the current success of being
one of the only nine Pediatric Ophthalmologists in our country is her positive
mentality (optimism) that everything happens for good ( mistreated by teachers,
for good, admired for good). She knows what she wants, and going through those
challenges is the only way to get what she wants.

Her advice for current University students is to think big and start small because
the sum of those small things will be a significant achievement one day. Listening
to your teachers’ and elders’ advice, focus on your goal, face your fear, and stop
blaming others for your failure. Most students tend to say I get it if they have an
excellent grade and say the teacher gives it if they have a bad grade. I'm afraid
that's not right; students should know that no one can hurt them or their grades if
they are hard-working, read smart, and obey their teachers. In the end, at your
graduation, you will see that all the pressure that your teachers put on you and
those times that they push you to your limits and you thought that was to hurt
you, is to bring out the best in you when the same teacher congratulates you for
your achievement.

Dr. Gersam is a General and pediatrics surgeon working at Jimma University

Medical Center. Looking at his current achievement, you may think his medical
school journey was flawless. But that is not true because, like most of us, he was
having doubts about his potential and choice of medical school through his
journey in medical school. Multiple times, he wanted to change his field of study
to less challenging departments like HO and Nursing. He needed help managing
his time due to the vast syllabus and the short time to study them. He tried to solve
this time management challenge by trial and error. One of them was finding the
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ideal time for him to study, which he later found out was late at night. This helped
him to avoid distractions and study while his mind was energetic. Planning ahead
also enabled him to use most of his time effectively. The encouragement that he
got from God's word and the prayers of his relatives helped him to stand still
despite the doubts and fear of failure. Now, he is one of only 25 people in his
field in our country. His advice for current and next University students to achieve
more success than he has now is for them to listen to their hearts ( not devils,
challenges, and circumstances), be visionary, and know the purpose of God in
their lives. Then you will be one in eight billion. Another piece of advice is related
to student-teacher interaction. Students need to know that the medical school
environment can be challenging when it comes to the teaching and learning
process. Since pedagogy is not a part of the medical curriculum, we can all agree
that there is a communication gap between students and teachers. Teaching and
learning are two-way communication, especially in the ward during the bedside
presentation and rounds. How the teachers ask questions, how students respond,
and teachers’ maturity, have a role in how they treat them. Because caring and
concerned teachers want to see their efforts bear fruits and expect their students
to perform well. If that is not the case, this may not be very pleasant to them. In
this circumstance, when they are angry, teachers may respond in different ways,
which students may interpret as a hostile and unfair approach, but the truth that
students need to know is that no teacher wants to hurt his pupils.

Interview with Dr. Elsah Tegene (MD, consultant Internist & Interventional
cardiologist, Associate Professor of Medicine)
Q&A
Q1, What are your unforgettable memories about University life experience?
A1=freshman, where everything is new, the senior students play you around. In
preclinical year one, we had to go at night for cadaver dissection. The” space-
time,” where we always study as the library usually closes at 9 pm. The white
coat ceremony gave me the first glimpse of what it feels like to be a medical
doctor—the dormitory at "The Pentagon" where you live with your batch as a
family.
Q2, What is your most difficult challenge as a university student?
A2=During my preclinical year, particularly year one, I had the challenge of
covering all subjects due to limited time. In addition, we didn’t have a physiology

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instructor for some time, and we had to learn all the chapters within a few months.
That was a real challenge as I had to endure several sleepless nights to cover the
subject.
Q3, Enduring through medical school challenges, you are now the most
accomplished doctor in your field of study. What keeps you motivated to persist
through those challenges?

A3= The love for my profession; I always say if I was not to become a medical
doctor, I couldn’t have been happy to study any other discipline. As I am living
my dream, I am very motivated to work under conditions of stress and challenge.
Q4: How do you compare the current University students' discipline to those of
your
time?
A4= The technology era has brought many opportunities for someone who wants
to pursue his /her dream to the fullest. During my medical school years, we didn’t
have the luxury of getting much of what we see now. For instance, to read a book
called Harrison, we must go to the library and wait hours for our turn. Once we
secure the book, we can only use it to return it after one hour. Sometimes we must
miss our lunch or dinner if we want to read more.
But today, all the required documents are available in soft copy, and students can
read without limit. In addition, there are good lecture videos to improve their
reading and skills. During my time as a medical student, the only source of skills
were our instructors and senior students.
Q5, What advice do you have for current university students for them to be
successful like you?
A5 = My advice for current students is to use the opportunity they get to the
fullest. They have to use their time for the things that matter the most. They
should be dedicated enough to pursue their dream. Restricting their social media
usage is vital as they are engaged in a lifesaving mission. They have to understand
that this time is worth investing in matters related to their profession.
Q6, most medical Students think their poor academic performance is due to the
subjective ways of assessment and unfair and hostile treatment by their teachers!
What advice do you give to a student with such a pejorative attribution which
leads to an exacerbation cycle of poor academic performance?

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A6= Everyone is responsible for his success or failure. The students need to set
realistic goals and commit themselves to accomplishing them.
Teachers/instructors are academic fathers, and they try to give whatever best is to
their students.

Dr. Mohammed Beshir becomes one of the most successful doctors in his field of
study as a pediatrician, Ass. Professor of pediatrics and child health, even though
his initial interest was in technology and engineering. He joined medical school
like most current medical students, including myself, who joined medicine
without sufficient information about the medical school life journey and its
challenges. Due to this, as a preclinical year one student, he struggled a lot trying
to memorize the vast syllabus of medicine. He needed help remembering the
origin and insertion of muscles in anatomy class and the structures of different
chemical molecules in biochemistry. On top of this misinformation, some of their
teachers told them that medical school is difficult, so most would not make it to
the end. Also, due to his poor social skills, he couldn't ask for any support from
his roommates because they were of different ethnic and religious backgrounds
and were not allowing him to enter their social circle. He also needed help to cope
with students from urban areas like Addis Ababa as he was from a rural area and
had a different discipline. This cost him a lot to the point of thinking of quitting
medicine. From being a troubled medical student to being one of the most
successful academicians in his field of study, Dr. Mohammed advises current
university students from his experience to be more successful in their academic,
social life, and future careers.

The study skills that helped him in his clinical years to score good grades was
that he shifted his study techniques from just memorizing what is written in a
book to interacting with patients first in the ward and then directed by signs and
symptoms of his patients he reads the book and relates the science to his patients'
findings. This helped him be interested, learn more from his patients, and
memorize more easily. Now, he shares this technique with his students during
bedside presentations and rounds by telling them that their first teacher is not him
but their patients who show them their signs and symptoms. And their book is not
just what someone wrote many years ago but patients. Students need to have
recreational and extracurricular activities to make their lives enjoyable.

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From social life experience, his heartfelt advice is for students to put aside their
ethnic, religious, and political differences and treat each other more like brothers
and sisters. Otherwise, we have seen the consequences of those narrow-minded
students segregating each other based on ethnic and religious differences and so
on to initiate conflict and make the university campus a hostile environment
rather than a learning center.

Students have to end this by thinking and acting like civilized and educated
people, being open-minded, and respecting and learning from others' cultures,
traditions, and languages, which can be an asset for them when encountering a
patient who speaks a different language. Dr. Mohammed is evidence for this.
Even though his mother tongue is not Afan Oromo, thanks to his open-
mindedness, he can now understand and treat patients who speak only Afan
Oromo without difficulties.

Dr. Mohammed's academic success and personality made him one of the few
physicians in our country to win many national and international awards. I
couldn't list all, but here are some (from the federal democratic Republic of
Ethiopia Ministry of Health for his contribution to developing a communication
manual on maternal and child health and from the Children’s Hospital of
Hannover Medical School Department of Pediatric Nephrology he acquired the
required skills to perform peritoneal dialysis). One of his accomplishments that
is worth mentioning here so that other physicians and current university graduate
students must learn from to create a job instead of waiting for the government to
hire them is that he has finished a blueprint of a private hospital that he is going
to build with more than fifty million birr from government loan with a proposal
showing a gap in health service provision and the demands. His Passion is to
fulfill community needs with his professional knowledge and create job
opportunities for more than one hundred and two People. This should be a goal
of medical doctors, expanding their scientific knowledge and continuing to serve
their community in the best way possible.

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5.2 Goal intervention

Life goals are the desired states that people seek to obtain, maintain, or
avoid(121).

As university students, we seek to obtain good academic performance and avoid

failure. The theory of goal setting states that there is a positive linear relationship
between a specific high goal and task performance. Thus, the idea makes explicit
that one particular lofty goal leads to even higher performance than urging people
to do their best(122).

The study examined whether an intensive, online, written, goal-setting program

for struggling students would positively affect academic achievement. Students
experiencing academic difficulty were recruited to participate in a randomized,
controlled intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2
intervention groups: Half completed the goal-setting program, and half completed
a control task with intervention-quality face validity. After four months, students
who completed the goal-setting intervention displayed significant improvements
in academic performance compared with the control group. The goal-setting
program is a quick, effective, and inexpensive intervention for struggling
undergraduate students(123).

Goals can be divided into long or short terms based on the duration it will take to
accomplish. As a university student, your long-term goals may last 4-7 years,
depending on your study department, because our long-term goals are mainly
about our career plan that we seek to obtain after graduation. Short-term goals
may last days or weeks because our short-term goals are the effective studying
we aim to obtain during exam week.

In part one of this book, we have seen what a long-term goal of university students
should look like. Now, let's look at how to set short-term goals.

SMART goals are written using the following guidelines (124).

1) Specific – define precisely what is being pursued.
2) Measurable – is there a number to track completion?
3) Attainable - can the goal be achieved?
4) Realistic – doable from a business perspective, and
5) Timely – can it be completed in a reasonable amount of time?

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SMART Goals Worksheet(125)

Goal:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________

Verify that your goal is SMART:

Specific:

What exactly will you accomplish?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________

Measurable:

How will you know when you have reached this goal?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________

Achievable:

Is achieving this goal realistic with effort and commitment? Do you have the
resources to accomplish this goal? If not, how will you get them?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________

Relevant:

Why is this goal significant to your life?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

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Timely:

When will this goal be achieved?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
___

This goal is important because:

The benefit of achieving this goal will be:

________________________________________________________________
___________________________________

Potential Obstacles

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

Potential solutions

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

Who are the people you will ask to help you?

________________________________________________________________
_________

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Specific Action Steps: What steps must be taken to achieve your goal
What?
_____________________

Expected Completion Date

_____________________

Completed
___________________

My example of a SMART goal…

Goal:

Effective studying of ovarian cancer

Specific:

What exactly will you accomplish? Epidemiology of ovarian cancer, risk factors,
pathogenesis, classification, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment of
ovarian cancer

Measurable:

How will you know when you have reached this goal?

While doing previous years’ exam questions when I scored≥ 70% and when I
could explain scientific concepts about ovarian cancer with knowledge and
confidence to my classmates.

Achievable:

Is achieving this goal realistic with effort and commitment? Do you have the
resources to accomplish this goal? If not, how will you get them? With effective
study technique and dedication, I will achieve this goal using William
Gynecology 4 edition, management protocol of ob-gyn JMC, and my teacher’s
handout, which are good resources.

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Relevant:

Why is this goal significant to your life? To have a good grade, studying ovarian
cancer is essential because there is a good chance that my oral examination will
be about ovarian cancer and a significant part of the written exam questions will
be about ovarian cancer.

Timely:

When will this goal be achieved?

Two weeks before the exam in 5 days

Potential Obstacles

1. encountering a concept that is difficult to understand

2. maybe get bored

3. Unplanned urgent class activities ( like makeup classes) will affect my private
study time.

Potential solutions

watch online lecture videos, or ask friends to explain it to me

study with my friend, and add additional study time to compensate

Expected Completion Date

Five days

Completed

in 7 days

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5. 3 Social facilitation and befriending intervention

Social facilitation is the term used to describe the finding that the mere presence
of other people enhances the predominant behavioral responses in that situation
(126,127). One of the mechanisms by which social facilitation works is a co-
action effect.

A co-action effect refers to a phenomenon whereby increased task performance

comes about by the mere presence of others doing the same task. The co-action
effect may come into operation if you work well in a library instead of at home,
where it is equally quiet (128).

I have benefited from this because there’s a sense of unity, and I gain energy and
encouragement from the supportive environment. Social facilitation interventions
also reduce loneliness. A randomized controlled study of a dedicated software
program(PRISM) featuring internet access, resource guides, and an email feature
intended to foster connectivity showed significantly decreased loneliness scores
post-intervention(129).

Your mere presence significantly impacts your fellow students’ academic

performance and general well-being. You can also take this to the next level by
applying befriending intervention for your dorm mates who are distressed or tense
from university life challenges.

Befriending is an emotionally supportive relationship in which one-to-one

companionship is provided on a regular basis by a volunteer. It is commonly and
increasingly offered by the voluntary sector for individuals with distressing
physical and mental conditions (130).

Studies have supported befriending for treating individuals with different

physical and mental health conditions (126, 127).

Study findings have highlighted key mechanisms by which befriending services

work to produce outcomes such as the alleviation of loneliness and social
isolation: 1) reciprocity, 2) empathy, 3) autonomy, and 4) privacy (131). You can
make a difference in your dorm mate’s life if you practice this.

Meaningful university life rule:

3. You are responsible for your dorm mates’ life conditions by the law of moral
principles.

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5.4 Extracurricular activities intervention

Extracurricular activities are academic or non-academic activities conducted

under the auspices of the school but occur outside of standard classroom time and
are not part of the curriculum. Additionally, extracurricular activities do not
involve a grade or academic credit, and participation is optional for the student
(132).

Extracurricular activities can be any sports activities like football or athletic

participation; it can be volunteering in a students club or community service,
playing musical instruments, drawing, finding a part-time job if possible, writing
poems, participating in religious activities, and finding your hobby, it can be your
extracurricular activity.

Many studies have indicated that extracurricular activities are of paramount

importance for students from high school to university level because students who
participate in extracurricular activities have reduced behavior problems(they are
better able to resist unsafe behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, gang
involvement, and criminal activities), positive social interactions and good
academic performance (133-136).

In one of the most challenging times of my university life journey, focusing on

extracurricular activities immensely helped me. It was during a time of political
unrest in our country, and the chaos was at its climax on the university campus in
the form of ethnic politics. Some politically motivated students were even
engaging in criminal activities like destroying the institution's properties,
breaking the windows of the library and classroom, and intimidating other
students to boycott classes and leave the campus. Under this circumstance, many
students were frustrated, afraid, and stressed out. For me and my roommates, we
enjoyed doing our extracurricular activities. I remember one of our roommates
had a guitar, and he used to sing for us. I also like comedy. So I used to tell them
a joke, acting like a stand-up comedian. On post-exam days, during challenging
and stressful periods, please share your talents and hobbies with your roommates
and entertain each other. This could be an excellent socializing method and can
reduce stress, which can improve your academic performance.

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5.6, stress intervention( coping strategies)

Coping refers to how an individual seeks to eliminate or reduce stressors in their

environment, alter their appraisal of the potential harmfulness of these stressors,
or minimize the extent of strain that they will experience as a result of these
stressors (O’Driscoll et al. 1996)cited by (137).

Coping strategies are generally categorized into two broad types: approach (also
called active) strategies and evasive (or disengagement) strategies (138).
Approach strategies are characterized by active coping, positive reframing,
planning, acceptance, seeking emotional support, and seeking informational
support. In contrast, evasive technique is characterized by denial, substance use,
venting, behavioral disengagement, self-distraction, and self-blame.

Based on this classification, there is a broad consensus that approach strategies

are related to good academic and psychological adjustment (139,140). Whereas
evasive strategies usually mean maladaptive consequences for the students (141).
Students consciously or unconsciously implement coping strategies when dealing
with the triad of university life challenges. The question is whether they're using
an approach or an evasive strategy. According to Brougham et al. (2009),
dysfunctional (evasive) coping strategies are more prevalent among today’s
college students (142).

Why or how do most students get into dysfunctional coping strategies like
substance and drug abuse?

To socialize under peer pressure (alcohol)

To boost studying energy ( khat)

For entertainment

Initially, this reason seems right to get away from academic and other university
life challenges or experiment with substance to see how it feels. In a social milieu,
you go out with your friends to drink and have fun. It creates a wonderful feeling.
In fact, chewing khat (Catha edulis) boosts energy when studying for long
periods, temporarily improving academic performance. I know this because I
used to know one of my classmates who is from Hararge. He chewed khat(Catha
edulis) while studying, and he stayed longer studying than most of us. This made
him effective to the level that he was a top scorer in our class in the anatomy
exam. He scored 148/150. But this didn't last long; gradually, he became

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dependent on khat and couldn't study if he didn't get khat. Sometimes due to lack
of money, when he didn't get khat, there would be no studying those days. This
happened frequently, and his academic performance went a downward spiral as
we finished first-year medical school. Like most addicted university students, to
feed his craving, he started to sell his trousers and later his cellphone and tablet
computer to buy khat. He started by chewing khat to help him study more; later,
because of tolerance, he couldn't have enough to get him high to study like before,
so he took other substances, too. By this time, it was not just his academic
performance affected; generally, he was not looking healthy. At this stage, he
tried to stop chewing khat and drinking alcohol. He tried to become clean multiple
times but returned to khat after 2 or 3 days. With all his effort, he couldn't defeat
the craving by himself. Finally, I heard from his dormmates that he couldn't finish
his second year preclinical as a medical student and quit. His fellow addicted
students who didn't quit like him stayed on the campus but repeated academic
years over and over. For them, university life is a long, dark journey. What should
have been over in six years took nine or more years because of academic failure
with shame and guilt as the junior students become their seniors and graduate
before them.

Another tragic story of an addicted student I heard was that of a third-year surgical
resident who ODed, and his body was found days later in his dorm room.

This shouldn't have happened if they knew effective coping strategies for
university life challenges. Even after they become addicted, they can become
clean and graduate like other students. If only they had someone who could
understand them, or if only they had a genuine place to go to for counseling.

The best approach in dealing with a student struggling with addiction as a parent,
friend, or counselor is to try to be in their shoes and understand their world. The
judgemental attitude of self-righteous people is why many addicted students are
suffering alone in silence instead of asking for help and shame and fear of what
others will say if they find that I am addicted.

Studies have listed the possible causes of stress among students (143, 144)
1. Stress from teachers: including teaching materials, teaching, and exercise
items.
2. Academics-The worry about academic performance can cause stress symptoms
such as anxiety, insomnia, or changes in your appetite and overall mood.
According to Morehouse State University, youth have poor study habits and cram

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last-minute studying the night before exams. The fear of exams and workload
creates stress among students. The first cause of stress among university students
is many assignments.
3. Finances – All young people feel stress about money! Most young people do
not have jobs, and the jobs that they do have don't pay as much as they would like
them to. They want to maintain the lifestyle and fulfill the demand for articles
like mobile, bikes, cars, etc. If they fail to satisfy the requirement, then it creates
stress. In the case of our country, most university students do not have enough
pocket money to buy themselves a coffee to boost energy while studying.
4. Relationships – Relationships are another significant aspect of stress. Everyone
wants to have friends, whether close friends or acquaintances. If a person finds
that making friends is a bit harder than he/ she had expected, stress is also present
here.
5. Peer stress: included academic competition, peer interferences, etc
6. Career- Job Stress is a chronic disease caused among the current youth that
negatively affects an individual`s performance and overall well-being of his body
and mind. High competition, inconsiderate work colleagues, and a lack of job
security are many causes of job stress. The students have a fear of not getting the
job opportunity in the competitive market.
7. Self-inflicted stress: self-expectation, interest in course selection, etc.
8. Time Management: Lack of time management also causes stress in youth,
whether secondary or tertiary. Balancing academics, peer activities, and home life
can be difficult. Toss in a part-time job, and the challenge increases.
When I say stress, it means Overstress; when the individual adjustment ability is
outstripped by environmental demand, overstress is produced.

Here is a standard self-assessment questionnaire to know whether you are stressed

or not

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5.7 Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) Self-assessment

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a classic stress assessment instrument(145).

For each question, choose from the following alternatives:

0 - never 1 - almost never 2 - sometimes 3 - fairly often 4 - very often

________ l. In the last month, how often have you been upset because of
something that happened unexpectedly?

________2. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to
control the important things in your life?

________3. In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed?

________4. In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your
ability to handle your personal problems?

________5. In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going
your way?
________6. In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope
with all the things that you had to do?
________7. In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations
in your life?

________8. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of
things?

________9. In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things
that happened that were outside of your control?

________10. In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling
up so high that you could not overcome them?

Figuring Your PSS Score

You can determine your PSS score by following these directions:
• First, reverse your scores for questions 4, 5, 7, and 8. On these 4 questions,
change the scores like this:
0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 = 1, 4 = 0.

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• Now add up your scores for each item to get a total. My total score is
___________.

• Individual scores on the PSS can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores
indicating higher perceived stress.

► Scores ranging from 0-13 would be considered low stress.

► Scores ranging from 14-26 would be considered moderate stress.

► Scores ranging from 27-40 would be considered high perceived stress

If your score is greater than 25 (146). and you feel highly stressed and need help,
please get in touch with the address listed below and talk confidentially to one of
our councilors.

Stress coping exercise, we will implement this in life skill training program.

TIPS FOR MANAGING STRESS

Positive thinking: When feeling too much stress, be aware of your thoughts. Are
these thoughts making you feel worse? If so, then replace them with more positive
thoughts.
Time management: Divide big tasks into small ones and tackle them one at a time.
Plan and pace yourself so you aren’t late or in a terrible rush
Get enough rest: Take a break from stressful situations, take time out to relax, or
do recreational activities.
Form healthy relationships: Talk over your troubles with someone you trust.
Share your feelings/problems with parents/teacher/trusted classmates.
Read self-help books
Watch fun movies with friends
Do exercise: Take a walk or Run,
Eat a healthy diet high in fruit and vegetables and Drink plenty of water

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Coping with Emotions

Emotion is any mental experience with high intensity and high hedonic content
(pleasure/displeasure) (147). There are a lot of external or internal challenges that
can make university students feel sad, angry, fearful, joyful, and other kinds of
emotions.
E.g., fear of failing an exam, happy or sad, depending on your exam result.
If those emotions are not dealt with properly, it may lead to a decision you will
regret later. They are dropping out of school and using drugs and alcohol to cope
with those emotions.
There are two main coping styles: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused
coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) cited by (148).
You find out that you failed your mid-term exam, and you feel so sad,
Emotion-focused coping: Doing simple exercises and cleaning your dorm room
as a way to help you feel better so you can think about the situation more clearly,
spend time with your classmates, and have fun doing your hobbies instead of
sitting there and anticipating the worst outcome that you are going to repeat the
academic year.
Problem-focused coping: Ask your teacher or classmates how to study effectively
so that you can improve your academic performance. Develop a clear plan that
will help you do better.

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