Why You Must Avoid Carryovers At All Cost As An Undergraduate

Carry overs in the university system is normal; it basically means a student has an unfinished business. A student can only carry over a course when he or she scores 39 downward in both C.A and exam (over 100).


Carry overs are not in all cases a real reflection of how intelligent or not intelligent a student is, rather it's a reflection of how unserious, unsmart (if that word exist), unchecked and uninterested a student is.

I have seen highly intelligent students have numerous carry overs and relatively dull students pass through without carry overs. Such is life, that's why a coin is two sided. Carry over can also be a result of unfortunate and unlucky incidents, such as missing scripts, lecturer's attitude towards marking your script, or even a student's handwriting (that's right).

I have once been a victim of an unlucky situation. I was not around Kogi State when an assignment worth 20 marks was been submitted, when I heard about it I quickly rushed back to school from Lagos to get mine submitted. Unluckily for me, the lecturer in charge of the course is very strict and sent me out of his office. I thought to myself," I still have 80 marks to fight for so why panic".

This lecturer is the kind that barely comes to class, but he gave us a material to read ahead of his exam. For most part of Monday evenings we'll wait in class expecting him to come to class but he never does. On the day I decided I wasn't going to wait in class for him, he showed up in class and seeing how scanty the class was he decided to conduct test with the little number of students in class.

The test was for 20 marks and I missed it, making it 40 marks missed already which ruled me out of contention to score an A. Words can't describe how devastated I was during this period, my worst fear of carrying over a course is lurking around me. I tried bottling my sadness and fear until the lecturer announced that marks will deducted for every undotted Is and uncrossed Ts in his exam, he was basically asking for a perfectly written error free exam which looked impossible under the sort of pressure we were in.

I prayed to God about the situation, focused a little bit more on that course than the others, did a whole lot of library work and research and when the exam came around I completely smashed it, narrowly escaping a carryover (which many of my mates had) that would have completely changed the dynamics of my academics.

Am still grateful to God till today, who knows what it might have been....

Reasons why you must completely avoid carry overs:

-It brings you down;
A) Academically: having carry-over means you have F (0) in that course. It’s bad, it’s really bad. Having an E(2) or a D(4) is far better than having a carryover. It means you just scored 0 after studying a course for a semester and it will definitely reflect on your result.

B) Psychologically: having a carryover affects the psyche of a student. It’s that evil. You don't feel whole again, you won't feel yourself among your peers anymore; you'll feel devastated, less intelligent, less smart and so on. Carry overs inflict serious psychological damage on the bearer. It brings your thinking and psyche to the lowest minimum.

C) Physically: keeping tabs with your main courses is physically tasking enough, add carry overs to that and you'll barely sleep at night. You have to meet up with the time table of your main courses, then meet up with the schedule of your carry over courses, that's so physically demanding, it’s almost like punishment.

-It's hard to recover: even though its technically possible to recover from the evils of carry overs and get your academics back on track, it's extremely difficult and take so much determination and hard work.

-The odds aren't favourable: the odds of you graduating with a great result or a good result shifts every time you carry over a course. Imagine doing a carry-over course in place of an easy to pass elective course...

-It leads to self-esteem issues: when you are writing a carryover paper with guys that are below you, it’s a hard hit on your esteem and confidence level. You certainly won't be the most confident person on campus, in fact you'll be the least confident, if you're not then its either you're shameless, delusional, dull or completely out of touch.

-It’s a bad experience all together: the demanding schedule, the insult by lecturers, the embarrassment of writing a carry-over exam with your "juniors"...it’s a bad experience all together.

How To Avoid A Carry Over:

-Never joke with your Continuous Assessment C.A

-Always be around class and get adequately informed

-Serious studying: studying isn't every one's bread and butter, not everyone enjoys reading and reading, it’s not sweet at all, but you got to do it. That's the way. Use the library to research helpful information as much as you can.

-Do your calculations: your GPA and stuffs

-Always add to what you know

-Always do the conventional first: do what's required of you in test or an exam first, and then spice it up with the result of your research to the lecturers delight.

-Be strong physically and psychologically: in KSU only the strong will survive

-Use your time and work with schedule


-And finally and most importantly...Pray to your God...