On Little Things

A friend asked our lecturer during class last week about the marks breakdown for the course we are doing. In case any of you is not familiar with this, here is a quick guide; every course that we are doing in each session consists of different kind of assessments and exams, each of which offers different marks. These marks will eventually be totalled up to determine how we perform in the course. The problem is, we are not exactly sure how these marks are distributed for this course that we are doing since our lecturer just randomly handed us assignments without first making it clear how many of those assignments there would be for the duration of the course, and how much are they worth individually. The lecturer replied to the question by saying that he actually had not set it up yet, and he would try to come out with it this week.

So when class started this week, the first thing that my friend did was ask the lecturer again if he has sorted the problem out. You would notice the sense of urgency in my friend’s voice had you been in the class. In fact, everyone in the class was eager to get the response from our lecturer, hoping to clear things up before we all head to our final exam next week.

You see, I have nothing against everyone in the class for wanting so desperately to know this marks breakdown. I myself find it pleasing knowing what fraction will the final exam that I am going to sit for bring to my total marks. Nevertheless, I honestly do not see where the importance of this breakdown lies in, and I figure I would still be perfectly fine even if I am deprived of the knowledge of it. So you know that this short assignment is worth five percent, that lab report will give you 20 percent while your final exam will carry 40 percent. What does it tell you? Will you put in less effort in getting that short assignment done since it is worth a little? Will you then work harder on the lab report, and double that effort for the final exam? I do not know about you, but the way I see it, no matter how little the importance of a task is to you, you ought to strive hard and give your best shot at completing it. The fact that something is worth merely five percent out of the total hundred does not make it any less significant does it? When it is worth five percent, make every effort to grab that full five percent offered the same way you make the effort to get forty out of forty for the next task. Ignoring that little five percent would not get you to a total mark of a hundred no matter how hard you focus on the next ninety five. If you are not willing to work hard enough to earn a dollar, how then would you expect to get a thousand? Little things do count. The problem with our world today is too many of these little things are taken for granted. Many of them require little effort to do but have the potential to bring a great impact to life. If everyone starts to realize about this and strive to get that little five percent, what a different place we can turn our world into.

Going back to what I said earlier, of course some amongst us want to know about this breakdown simply because that allows them to work out early on the certain minimum marks they will need to get for the remaining assessments to ensure that they stay above a certain qualification level, or to avoid failure. In this case, I can accept that this breakdown plays an important role. Still, let us try not to underestimate the value of that short assignment, and give our best at getting that little five percent.