My name is Dr Kato, and whenever I reflect on my academic journey, I sometimes struggle to believe how dramatically my life transformed. There was a time when I was one of the students who performed poorly in class.
In some examinations, I would even find myself at the very bottom of the results, making me question whether I was truly capable of achieving great things academically.
When I entered medical school, I understood that I had taken on one of the most challenging courses. Studying medicine required long hours of reading, focus, discipline and determination. However, despite putting in effort, my performance during the early stages was far from what I had hoped for.
I attended lectures and made an effort to follow what the lecturers were teaching, but whenever examinations came around, my marks were frequently much lower than I had expected. Watching other students score better than me gradually affected my confidence and made me doubt my own abilities.
There were moments when I would sit in class and ask myself whether choosing medicine had been a mistake. I would watch some of my classmates confidently answer questions while I struggled to understand and keep up with the discussions taking place around me.
My academic struggles also became embarrassing for me. I hated seeing my name appearing close to the bottom of examination results, particularly because I had a strong desire to become a doctor and knew how important succeeding in medical school was to me.
At some point, I began convincing myself that perhaps I would only manage to complete medical school with an ordinary degree after years of struggling. I had almost accepted the idea that becoming one of the top-performing students was simply not something that was meant for me.
However, something eventually changed in the way I viewed both my education and my future.
I realised that I could not keep using the same approach to studying and expect my results to suddenly become different. I therefore became more deliberate about identifying the subjects and areas where I was struggling, while also making serious changes to my study habits.
I also began seeking advice from people who had performed well academically. Rather than feeling ashamed of the areas where I was weak, I started asking questions, seeking guidance and finding better ways of understanding subjects that I previously found difficult. During this period, I was also.To read more, tap here
