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THIS is not a mission impossible. Instead it is the smartest and joyous thing to do. It helps you to define yourself and work to become respected, recognised and relevant globally!
Your O/A-level results and yourself
You could have been fortunate to get the result you planned. Or unfortunate to get a bad result and you despaired. Your future looks bleak and your confidence was affected. You find it difficult to think of where you can find a silver lining. Take note disappointment, just like excitement must be managed. In either situation exercise due care or ensure you apply appropriate existential therapy. Enshrined in this approach is the belief in the individual’s (that is in your) capacity to become healthy and fully functional, to rise above self through self-consciousness and self-reflection. You can achieve this if you concentrate on what is happening to you in the present, accepting that what happens in life is partly your responsibility and influenced by your decisions. As you do this avoid alienating or isolating or estranging or withdrawing yourself from other people — these could be your teachers, family members, classmates, churchmates, associates etecetera. Isolating yourself can cause you to become less effective. You start feeling as if the whole world is crumbling on you. You start feeling that no one is close or in touch or can meaningfully share a feeling — life with you. My exhortation is: move on, pick yourself up. Don’t be enslaved by your past. After all you don’t owe the world or anyone a living. Take advantage of our free career counselling sessions.
School grades are not the key to success!
If you didn’t get the result you needed, you still have lots of other options. Maybe you will find something even better to study or do. Make every attempt to put your current circumstances into proper perspective. After all, your results might feel like a big deal right now, but they are just letters and numbers. They are, not at all, representative of your character, personality or worth. Never, at all, fall in the trap of comparing yourself to others. Remember they may have different resources! Find great comfort in the reality that your results do not dictate how successful or otherwise you are going to be in future. I don’t mean to demean Valedictorians but if we were to go by the school reports some people wouldn’t be where they are now! Why? Maybe the theoretical nature of school studies was antithetical to their own way of thinking. Valedictorians are those learners who score highest marks or grades in school all the time hence are often asked to give Valedictorian speeches. Some of the most successful people in the world have gone on to have amazing careers in business and public life after having less than stellar runs in academia. It is said that most world-famous leaders were lousy students. Literature tells us that Al Gore, John McCain, George Bush were mediocre performers in school. Donny Zanger founder and CEO of All Week Walls, a New York-based pressurised wall company shared that it is untrue that success in school is a measure of future accomplishment. He cautioned that we should not look at your grades, your in-class test scores or your teachers’ opinions. He added that you should not focus on your learning disabilities or your inability to remember dates and numbers. Instead, make sure you have the drive, the creativity, motivation, passion and ability to pull up your sleeves and get to work. This explains why ‘‘D’’ or ‘‘C’ or even ‘‘U’’ grades students end up being the most successful in many areas of human endeavours.
Recover from the trauma of exam results
Whether you wrote your O/A-level exams in recent years or several years back I instruct you to recover from the trauma of the devastating results. Psychologist Stephen Joseph advised that the education system might have had a very narrow interpretation of your abilities and skills. Equally, examiners may have failed to untap your real abilities and skills. Furthermore, you may have studied subjects which couldn’t really have been your first choice and become on a path in life which isn’t or wasn’t really your own. So instead of allowing yourself to be crunched by exam results take it as an opportunity to redirect your life and follow your passion. Consider alternative pathway courses.
Stand your ground
Stay in your lane or at least get back to your lane by saying to yourself: this is me; this is what I want, this is the direction I want to go in and resist the pressures of other people. Be advised, this doesn’t happen overnight. But let your career goals be your own. Do what you love and love what you do. Find out what is meaningful to you and which activities put you in a state of flow. That should give you a clue about what you should be doing in your life. This is the best panacea to futureproofing yourself.
Even with 3 O-level passes — proceed to A- level or consider alternative pathway courses.
Planning is purposive. It is not about what or how you say something. It is muchly about what, how, when and why you do what is right to do. Planning must be resolutely smart. Recover your missed subjects while you walk ahead. Just make a tough decision and move on to A-level with whatever subjects or symbols you have at O-level. Make the hard choice of retaking your outstanding O-level subjects while you are doing A-level. With our coaching you will enjoy the double feat achievement. Its doable. Yes, more hard working is needed and what’s unusual about that? It makes you hungrier for success and achievement. Be part of the journey. We walk with you with loving care because we value your success. Trust us for that!
This article is prepared and presented in the interest of providing free career guidance and counselling to all people who value education and training as a critical cornerstone to success in life. Trust Academy invites all people, with or without O-levels as well as degree holders who have a dilemma or are unsure of what career path to pursue to visit their offices on 3rd Floor, Haddon and Sly building, corner Fife Street and 8th Avenue for FREE career guidance. Alternatively, WhatsApp Herbert 0773616665.
derick.khumalo