By Mohammed Kamil Musab
She is a final year Psychology student minoring in Islamic Revealed Knowledge. She has been in the outstanding Dean’s list from the first semester until her final year. Obviously, her achievement had made many students envious of her.
When asked how she managed to be in the Dean’s list every semester, she said: “To me it was a blessing from Allah. I just did what I am capable of doing and leave the rest to Allah.”
What therefore are the secrets behind her outstanding performance?
Izzat binti Zaid, 22, shared three important secrets that kept her moving, in other words, that held her tight in the Dean’s list every semester.
According to Izzat, the first secret was the love she has for what she is doing. To be precise, the love and passion she has for all the subjects she is taking. It doesn’t matter anything to her when it comes to the difficulty of the subject or the toughness of the lecturer. She does all she can for the love of the subject and the lecturer.
“When you love someone you are willing to do anything for that person. You give your time to understand, commit yourself to spend time with that person and you want to be the best for that person. Same thing goes to study, if you decided to love what you are studying, you’ll love coming to class, be really interested and get excited to do your assignment. And try your best to understand the subject.”
“Studying becomes fun and you get excited each time you want to study. Probably the first thing is to keep a positive mindset and love the thing I am learning,” Izzat said.
To stay positive is very important; “your positivism on the subject and the lecturer is a highly deciding factor of what you get at the end of the semester.” She said being too selective when it comes to lecturers and subjects could affect your daily performance. And this will put pressure rather than fun.
“Whatever you learn in class, share them with your friends if they need your help. I remember during my presentation in class about Schizophrenia my lecturer complimented me saying that ‘I have too much energy during the presentation’. But I do my best wherever I can.”
Sharing the knowledge she has with others is the second secret that keeps Izzat up there. The more she shares the more it sticks to her brain, another powerful way to learn. As the adage goes, “sharing is caring” but to her, “sharing goes beyond caring”.
Respecting our parents is equally respecting our teachers. To some Islamic scholars, respecting teachers is of higher status than respecting parents but all deserve absolute attention. Hurting them arouses the anger of Allah, and it can be a curse to a child.
Izzat said: “The last one is to get blessings from both my parents and my lecturers. I don’t want to do things that would hurt my lecturers and my parents.”
Hurting lecturers can lead to the wrath of Allah, which in other ways can block all the senses from understanding and focusing. To avoid that, obeying and following the rules is ultimate to her. She believes that is a glue to her performance.
“In class, I wouldn’t be shy to ask questions and to answer questions because I want to learn as much as I can. I want to understand what is being taught and I want my lecturer to be happy that I am eager to learn. I asked prayers from my parents as well to pray for the best for me,” she emphasised.
The prayers of parents, according to prophet Muhammad (PBUH), are not rejected. Asking for their prayers is a way to succeed and that’s what Izzat has been doing.
“I like all my lecturers, all of them have different ways of teaching and they are all interesting, but those who relate the teaching to a real life setting are the best,” she remarked when asked about her favourite lecturer.
A single fall never keeps her on the ground, she believes in rising again to fight. Even though she has never failed in any subject, her lack of confidence once overruled her, but she fought back to the best.
She said: “The worst grade I have ever received is B-. Niche debate 2. I wasn’t really confident with my English at that time, so I usually keep quiet in class and let others speak. Other debaters are making me insecure, but I managed to overcome that. Got A for my other Niche Debate.”
“Workload does not determine your performance, but it does challenge yourself. The amount of credit hours you take every semester won’t justify your appearance in the Dean’s list, what describes your appearance is your hard work.”
Izzat said that his credit hours every semester vary. “I took 15.5 credit hour during the first semester, 18.5 during the second, 20.5 in third semester, 21.5 (the highest) in fourth semester, 18.5 during my third year and 12 credit hour this semester (7th semester). I challenged myself every semester to take more and more. But during my third year I didn’t do it because if not, I would have finished my study in three and a half years and I don’t want to. I want to stay in IIUM and study for as long as I can.”
On top of these high credit loads, she works as part a timer at Petrosains in KLCC to enable her to make ends meet. Yet, it never prevented her from appearing consecutively in the Dean’s list every single semester.
She wants to inspire others, she wants to give back to her society and most importantly to glorify her religion with her achievements.
“I want to be someone useful in the future. Someone who can contribute back to the society, someone who can be a good living example to others. I want to be that kind of person. Every time I imagine myself in the future, I want to be a person who can inspire others. Finally, one day, I could contribute to my religion and my people – being successful in my studies so I could do a lot more in the future.”
Currently, Izzat is in Turkey as an exchange student and she never failed to share her experience over there.
“It wasn’t easy for me because people here speak Turkish and the language is the biggest barrier. But I tried to learn Turkish, adapt with the surrounding, at the same time focus on my study.”
“I faced so many difficulties and I do feel stressed but I managed to overcome it and enjoy as much as I could. I learn not only in class, but outside the class as well. New culture, new language, new places and new people I meet here in Turkey. It was a very interesting experience for me and I love it here in Istanbul. Except that I miss Malaysian food so much and my family,” Izzat said.
As the going gets tougher, the toughest gets going. For Izzat, this is just a challenge rather than a barrier in pursuit of a dream.***