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FEATURE: A lesson for Mathematics’ students
After taking the Mathematics examination, a new Mathematics teacher called two of his students and asked them a question:
“How much did you work for the Maths examination during the two holidays?”
Student 1 replied:
“Sir, I worked very hard during the two holidays. I studied continuously, and slept for barely three hours. I studied throughout last night till ten minutes before I left my house today to come for the examination. I was also going through the various difficult problems while on my way to school. When I reached the school I did not waste my time talking with my class fellows, I revised the difficult questions as much as I could, before the examination started.”
Student 2 replied:
“Sir, tomorrow is my sister’s wedding. My house is full of guests these days. Despite my exams everyone wants me to participate very actively in all the activities, which is why I could not give much time to Mathematics, hardly one or two hours in the whole two holidays. Last night we went for my sister’s Mehndi. It was 2:45am when we came back. I was tired and wanted to take some rest, but the majority of the guests were interested in watching a movie. They did not let me sleep. I hardly slept for an hour and I was tired while doing the paper. I am tired still.”
When the teacher evaluated and marked the answer scripts of those students, he found their results quite surprising.
Student 1, who had worked very hard, got 51 per cent marks. Her script was very untidy with a lot of cutting and over-writing.
Student 2, who could not study because of her sister’s wedding ceremony, got 97 per cent marks. Her script was neat and clean with no over-writing. She cut some of her wrong steps very clearly so that the teacher did not have any difficulty distinguishing between the steps which were to be checked and those which were not.
On the day of the result he called both the students once again. Taking them in confidence that he was engaged in research, he asked them to answer his questions honestly, so as to help him in his work. He asked Student 2:
“Considering your lack of preparation in the two days before the examination, how would you account for your result? Also how would you compare your present result with those in the past?”
Student 2 replied:
“Sir, I said that I could not work for the two holidays just before the mathematics examination. That does not mean that I did not work for the whole session. I know that the understanding of Mathematics helps us to understand other subjects. Therefore, it is my regular habit to complete my Mathematics homework on the same day twice before going to bed, first in a rough copy and the second time in a fair copy so that my fair copy may remain neat and clean. I keep my revision in circulation, which is why I am able to recall properly all the previously taught topics. This habit often helps me to understand the current topic as most of the time the current topic is based on previous knowledge. I give one and half an hour, sometimes even more, daily to Mathematics at home. It means, that including the five Mathematics classes of forty minutes each in school, on an average, I am giving more than fourteen hours a week i.e. 56 hours in a month to this subject.
As far as my previous results are concerned, I was very weak in Mathematics just one and a half year ago. I used to get around 25 per cent marks and I used to think that it is a very difficult subject and I simply could not do it at all. I used to pretend that I did not care about this subject but actually in my heart I was extremely worried about the red mark that would grace my report card. Fortunately last year my Mathematics teacher made me realize that even I am quite capable of doing better in Mathematics. He told me that if I work properly I might be one of the top ranking students in the class. He made it clear that this would not be possible in a day or two but my continuous working towards it can make it possible. He convinced me to start working for Mathematics. I started to work, just because he asked me to, as I was even then convinced, that I couldn’t do Mathematics.
As a result of starting work on Mathematics, I obtained 58 per cent marks for the first time in my life. I was so happy. There was no red mark in my report card. I thanked God. I started to work hard for a better result. In the next examination I got 68 per cent. My teacher continuously encouraged me to work hard. I kept on working hard for this examination. I did not only finish the whole syllabus but also revised it more than three times a week before the examination. I did not keep any topic for the examination gap holidays. This is why in spite of my sister’s wedding ceremony just ahead of the Mathematics examination I was able to get 97 per cent marks.
After this, the teacher asked Student 1:
“You worked very hard during the two days before the examination. How would you explain your result? And how does this result compare with previous ones?” Student 1 replied:
“Sir, I remember that on the first and second day of the session I could not come to school because I was ill. At that time the teacher taught us some basic preliminaries of Mathematics, which were very important and would help understand the topics of the current session. I did not care as I thought I already knew these topics very well. Very soon, just after three or four days, I realized that I had forgotten almost all of the things which the teacher taught in the first two days as I was unable to complete any of the current topic question because each question required competence in those topics. At the end of the week I had five days class work as well as homework to do, whereas the other students had only one day’s work.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Pakistan won the quarter-final in the World Cup. I spent the whole of my weekend watching the semi-final and final matches as Pakistan had also won the semi-final. When I came back to school next week I was blank again. I hardly got 30 to 35 per cent of the teacher’s explanation but was totally unable to complete any question. I started hiding from my teacher. I was very successful in making lame excuses about my incomplete work and unsatisfactory performance to my teacher. I kept on thinking that I would complete my work as soon as possible but I was not trying to do so until the examinations began. On Friday, we had the Islamiat paper. The next paper was of Mathematics on Monday. I was terribly disheartened about my Mathematics result. I thought that I had lost time and it would be very difficult to save myself from the red mark in the Mathematics column. The Islamiat paper was in my hand. I was reading it unconsciously. I saw the translation of a Quranic verse in the paper. It said: “One should never be despair of Allah’s mercy.”
Suddenly I got an idea. I promised God that I would not commit this blunder again, and I prayed that He would save me from the red mark. I decided to work extremely hard. I was determined, with a hundred per cent hope in the blessing of God. I worked really hard in those two days.
Sir, today in front of you I admit that I was successful in convincing my parents as well as my teacher by means of making fake excuses but I failed to convince myself. I could not still convince myself. In fact I made a big mistake. I should have shared this problem with my teacher on the very same day. I thank God who saved me from the consequences of my mistake. At least I am happy that by means of this experience I have learnt a lesson.”
With the permission of the two students the Mathematics teacher narrated this story in the first class of the new session without disclosing the names of the students. After that the teacher asked the whole class what lesson they learnt from the story. Can you guess what the answer was?
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