EXPOSITORY ESSAY

CHALLENGES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS A STUDENT.

Life as a student is the most precious time in your life. You can make new friends, get
new knowledge, gain experience and join a lot of events during that time of life. You do not
have to worry about your own money, foods, property, loans and transports as everything is
prepared by your parents. Nevertheless, student life is not as easier as it seems. Students
face a great number of challenges at home, school and college. It is a normal thing if you
face a lot of challenges and responsibilities during your study life. What is meant by
challenge and responsibility? Challenge is something that needs great mental or physical
effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability. Responsibility is
something that it is your job or duty to deal with. Challenge and responsibility are linked to
each other. Hence, in order to get an excellent grade, you need to fulfil your responsibility
and overcome all the challenges.
One of the problems faced by students is homesickness. Naturally, almost all the
students who start their studies at a new place or school will face this problem. This is called
a transition phase. For example, a secondary school student will need some time to adapt to
the new environment at the school especially if they are staying in a boarding school
because the environment is totally different from the primary school. College students also
face this problem as they further their studies in the new places that are far from their
hometown. Homesickness can lead to low energy or low motivation, having difficulties with
school, unhappiness and lack of interest in new surroundings. It can also lead to a
depression that will cause a bigger problem. Someone who has a depression will not pay
attention in class because they have no motivation to study. As a result, they will get low
grades or results. Making new friends can help them to overcome homesickness. They can
share their feelings together because their friends probably having the same situation. Then,
they must involve in any activities that will be held. For example, they can join any clubs at
their new school or college. When they are getting busy, their homesickness will disappear
slowly. They also need to keep a good contact with their family members often. If all of these
suggestions are not working, then they need to get advice from their school counsellor. As a
student, you need to remember that studying is your responsibility no matter wherever the
place is.
Students also face problems with time management. Time management is the
process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities.
Studying at any level requires good time management especially when you entered the
college. You need to become more organised and disciplined with your daily routine as you

need to complete a burden of tasks in a short period of time. During your secondary school,
you just need to complete the activities that provided by your teacher by referring to the
textbooks. But, in college, you need to find additional sources for your notes other than the
notes given by the lecturers. Besides, you need to find materials for presentation,
assignments, answering tutorials questions, attending events or programs and joining cocurriculum activities. Sometimes, all of these tasks happened in the same period of time.
Usually, students end up having to stay up late into the night to finish their tasks. Lack of
sleep will cause another problem such as migraine, exhausted and drowsy. Studies show
that when a student is well rested, they will score better on a test. Therefore, it is students
responsibility to have a good time management to make sure all the tasks can be completed
on time and at the same time they can get a quality time of sleep.
Another problem faced by students is there are too many distractions such as social
media, friends, phone, television, video games and outings. Deputy Multimedia and
Communications Minister, Datuk Jailani Johari said, Malaysians spend an average of 12
hours daily talking on the phone and browsing the net. This shows that internet have a big
impacts in students life. If students use it wisely, they can get a lot of information that can
help them in studies. However, if they misused it, there are many disadvantages that will
happen. For example, if they use social media to chat, play video game or watching
pornography, it can distract their studies. There are also some students who like to watch
movies until late in the midnight. As a result, they will get sleepy in the class and cannot
concentrate on the study. In addition, there are students who love to go for outings. It is not a
wrong thing to relax ourselves by taking leisure, but if you often go for outings, it can affect
your studies. You will not have enough time to complete your homework. Hence, to
overcome these distractions, you must have a schedule so that you know your priority. If you
manage to remind yourselves that study is your main responsibility, you will not get
influenced by these bad distractions.
Lastly, social problem is one of the problems faced by the students. Examples of the
social problems in school are bullies, low student morale, smoking, vandalism, poor
academic performance and skipping classes. A research in Malaysia shows that 93.5% of
the students in secondary schools were being bullied indirectly, while 68.2% admitted that
they were being bullied directly. There are two types of bullying in school. It can be verbal
such as calling names, or gossiping about the victim and it can be physical such as hitting,
spitting, or shoving. Bullying is not only hurts the victims physically and emotionally, but it
also will affect the victims in studies. They might skip classes to avoid been bullied and this
action affects their academic performance. Another social problem is vandalism. Vandalism
is wilful or malicious damage or destruction of the property of another. Example of vandalism

in school involves destroying other people property, like benches, table, dustbins, toilet,
bicycles, windows and doors. It also involves drawing graffiti on walls, windows and
benches, which is hard to remove and costs a lot of money. As a result, students cannot
study in a condusive and comfortable surrounding as many of the facilities are destroyed. It
should be every students responsibility to take care of the schools facilities instead of
destroying them.
In a nutshell, students will face a lot of challenges throughout their life from primary
school to secondary school until they further their studies in college. These challenges can
transform themselves to be more responsible and perseverant in studies. Supports from
family, friends and teachers are vital for them to overcome all the challenges. However,
despite all of these challenges, school is the right place to create sweet and memorable
memories with friends.