During college days, there is a special day attributed to reward academic excellence: Prize Giving Day. This day has always been special to me for many reasons i) to obtain the first prize ii) to enjoy the cultural show in the MGI auditorium iii) to return home and proudly show to parents the new prize being added to the collection.

Let’s do a flashback a bit………

Primary School days:

Std 3 to Std 5 : I came either first or second or exequo in General Subjects (Maths, French, English, E.V.S)

Std 3 to Std 6: Hindi –  came mostly first in my class or sometimes exequo with a girl classmate or she would came first and me second.

Secondary College days:

Form 3: First -Computer Studies

Form 4:First – Computer Studies

Form 5: Second – Computer Studies, Special Prize to the contribution to the Computing Dept.

Lower 6: First – Economics, Computing, Certificate of Excellence for contribution in the MGI college website

Upper 6: First – Computing, AS Hindi Laureate

University days

Well, at university level, its different. Some academics put emphasis on obtaining the “First Class” degree Grade in order to have a  chance to obtain a scholarship.

Interestingly, here is what our Software Engineering lecturer noted from his years of experience at the University:

1:1 Degree student: Either end up becoming a Lecturer or doing Research in Labs abroad

2:1 Degree student: Average Programmer

2:2 Degree student: Brillant Programmers (Surprisingly)

3rd Class students: Good Businessmen.

(NB: the lecturer “requested” for a study to confirm the above hypothesis of him)

In one of the interesting module I am studying, there is the tradition of awarding excellence reward to the student who comes first.

Whats your personal opinion on rewarding excellence, do you think this is an effective motivating factor?