THE COMMON STAGES OF AN ACADEMIC HEARTBREAK
Our editor pen's down familiar patterns students go through when dealing with academic heartbreaks and counter solutions to along
If you are not subscribed to the LASULife Newsletter, click the button below so you don't miss out on any of our publications. Our Editors will be writing about LASUSU Politics and more.
We interrupt our steady flow of LASUSU politics to bring your attention back to everyone’s primary goal here at LASU - our academics.
Exam results are finally out. Some students are celebrating, some are in denial, and the rest ? Well, they’re currently refreshing their student portal, hoping for a miracle.
Lasu students dealing with an academic heartbreak, of not meeting their desired target and being shocked by outcome of their results, go through some series of unhealthy, emotional delulu.
It’s become so common among students that by now, you should be able to guess some familiar patterns before even getting to the end of this article. These stages of academic heartbreak are far from beneficial as it leaves some students feeling stuck and losing the motivation to go further or do better, and sometimes it blinds you from seeing the actual solution to what the problem could be.
What are these unfamiliar patterns, if you haven’t guessed some already…
The Shock & Denial
Results are out, and you? You’re refreshing your portal every five seconds because, clearly, there must be a technical error somewhere. Maybe LASU’s system is glitching. Maybe it's the ICT guy. Maybe… just maybe… this isn’t real.
IT IS YOUR RESULT, LEAVE THE PORTAL ACHALUGO!!!
Although if you are 99% sure, there could be an error somewhere, you can always meet your lecturers to request access to the marksheet to confirm your scores. But if after exhausting these options, and your 3, 2 or 1 is still very evident to be yours, you have to body the L like a champ. Don’t wallow in the denial phase, which could end up demotivating you. It’s much safer to accept the minor setback and channel that anger as a fuel to do better.
The Blame Game
You’re done refreshing the portal. Reality is setting in. It is truly your result. But can you blame yourself? Of course not.
For fresher’s, you’re new to the system. You’re confused, overwhelmed, and of course, it’s not your fault. Your low grades? Blame the boy or girl you started dating. They distracted you. Or maybe it’s your faculty excos—why did they organize so many orientations instead of giving you time to read? No, wait—it’s your parents’ fault for not getting you a hostel. Or maybe, just maybe, it's the girl who sneezed during class distracting when the lecturer was dictating an important point.
Now, as an advanced fresher, nothing is really new. So, who do you blame this time? MTN, for increasing data prices—you use ChatGPT to study, after all. Or maybe the lecturers, because clearly, they hate your set (even though you don't even know half of them). Maybe it’s the social director, for keeping his manifesto promise and giving you events that you happily attended but now regret.
To the semi—finalists, who do you blame? Lecturers. Obviously. Even though you never even attended classes, but that’s not the point OR maybe the HOCs for not being active.
Now, the finalists. No strength to blame anybody again. At this point, you don’t even care. You’re hustling, stacking your CV, regretting all the time you spent on Aluta, MSSN, faculty politics, or partying. Your CGPA? You don’t want to talk about it.
But if we are being honest, the only person really fit to be condemned to blame-jail, is you. It would be you for not meeting your academic target, for not planning out your time as you should, and probably again for not getting your priorities right. Let’s be honest, in the university we are all adults, and you should be responsible for YOU. Life has begun and you can’t keep playing the blame game when things don’t go your way, you own up to your mistakes instead.
Fake Motivation Phase
"I can do better!"
"Next semester, I will take my academics seriously!"
"No distractions, no events, no relationships—ONLY MY BOOKS!"
You start downloading study apps, learn all the study techniques you can find on YouTube. You set new study timetables that you’ll never follow. You even buy a new study note. LMAO, you’re feeling like a new scholar. The next Aminat Yusuf.
And yet a new semester would come, and you would still abandon your newly found resources. For you to be properly, motivated you need to have the right conviction, what are your academic targets, do you truly believe you can achieve the targets, YOU set. We can’t all be scholar Aminat and receive N10 million from Governor Sanwo-Olu, but we can all be top class graduates if we set the mind to it.
Always remember, your intentions without actions, lead to NOTHING. Never forget the universal law, For every action, there is a follow-up reaction. To make changes you must first be committed to doing better and acting better.
Plans for La Cram, La Pour next time.
Exam period comes again. All your "I will start reading early" plans? Gone.
Now, it's back to:
"What's the course title?" "Who has course outline?" "Una dey go night class? Make I follow abeg."
You try to memorize an entire semester a night to the exam. You drink energy drinks and coffee to read. Yes, undeniably, it does work for some people, if it’s not working for you, its better you fix up and change your pattern, there are more to night classes than collecting the fine girl's number😌.
Read to understand, rather than cram. Cos no amount of cramming is helping you beat those applied questions that’s waaayyy beyond your notes and assignment. Understanding is key. Don't rinse and repeat failing strategies.
If you’re a student in this cycle, going through the emotional heartbreak of an unsatisfying result, please break away from this cycle and embrace the possible solutions instead. The cycle won’t save you!
Nobody's saying school isn’t hard. But at some point, you have to ask yourself: Are you genuinely trying?
Half of your academic struggle isn’t even spiritual. It’s not your village people. It’s not even your lecturers (okay, maybe that one wicked one, but still). It’s you. You see your friends reading but you say, "Scholar, I want to be like you" When? The night before the exam? Under pressure? With fear??
Choosing to be unserious is cool until your result reminds you that's the joke is on you.
Lasuites, are you actually trying harder next semester?
📝: Kuti Aishat, Editor, LASULife Newsletter ✈️
Thank-you for reading the LASU Life Newsletter. If you enjoy our publication share it with your friends and don’t forget to subscribe. You can also follow LASU Life on Instagram and Twitter.