Mapule Phathela dreams of having the professional and academic designations of CIMA, MBA as well as CA(SA) behind her name before she turns 35. At 31-years-old, she is well on her way to achieving this goal.
In 2021 she was awarded the CIMA (ACMA) and CGMA designations and also completed her MBA in 2020. She joined the Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young in 2018, working as a senior associate before registering for the PGDA and passing it in 2022.
Clearly ambitious, Mapule is now preparing to write her board exams to qualify as a chartered accountant CA(SA).
But listing Mapule’s achievements in this way does not do justice to her story of struggle and perseverance. In reality, her academic journey was not always filled with excellent results and great outcomes.
Mapule experienced personal tragedy with deaths in her family as well as academic setbacks. She dealt with insecurities and moments of feeling defeated. But she also made use of a few key study techniques that helped her stay focused when the going got tough. Here are her top tips for study success:
1. Have a timetable – for everything
Mapule has found it invaluable to keep a detailed time schedule. She says:
It may seem like admin, but if you take it seriously, it will have a big impact on your ability to get through the work and be prepared for tests.
She describes the giant desk calendar she kept while studying, where she would write down everything she had to do every day, even scheduling in breaks.
Educators say that a timetable and study plan help students manage themselves more effectively, which assists them in being more clear-minded, productive, and achieving more. It decreases stress as students feel in control of the work load and are less likely to be overwhelmed.
2. Reward yourself
Psychologists say giving yourself rewards for small achievements, like managing your study load for the week or completing an assignment, can be a great motivational tool. Each reward provides the brain with small hits of dopamine, the feel-good chemical, creating positive emotions and making you want more of it.
“Behaviours that are rewarded are likely to be repeated in the future,” explains Elliot Berkman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon in a research paper.
Mapule says she would tell herself if she’d achieved a certain task or study module by Friday, then she could take three hours off on Saturday to treat herself to a massage, for instance.
But if she did not manage the goal, she would not be able to claim the reward for herself – and she kept herself to it. This proved to be a very effective motivational tool for her.
3. Reach out to others
The PGDA was hard, in some ways harder than the MBA, and I often doubted myself and if I could do it. Then I would post something on social media about how I was struggling and other people would reach out and that really helped.
She also leaned on her family for support and booked counselling sessions with Terri-Leigh Ryklief, the Student Support & Development Advisor from Milpark Education, the institution where she was studying. Mapule found these sessions particularly empowering.
I never realised how much I was affected by the deaths in my family. First my brother, and then my aunts and grandmother, too. I struggled with the reason for these deaths. But I started to see that if I achieved things, it could be for them. That helped to keep me going.
Terri-Leigh says that increased self-awareness leads students to manage stress better, which has a huge impact on their academic success.
For students it is often not so much what they know, but how they feel that can determine the outcome of an exam.
4. Keep a journal
One of the techniques that Terri-Leigh shared with Mapule was to begin each day by writing down her thoughts and focusing on what she wanted to achieve each day. She found this very helpful.
It really helped to get my mindset right from the moment I got up and this would put me in the correct frame of mind to study that day.
There is much evidence that writing down your thoughts every day is a powerful tool for stress management as well as for dealing with emotional pain and trauma. It is even said to have physical benefits, helping people improve health markers.
Key here is the idea of expressing emotions and letting go of negative feelings like doubt, fear, and distress.
5. Don’t aim for perfection
During the PGDA, Mapule found herself battling with time management, especially in tests. She would spend too much time on individual questions, trying to answer one section perfectly, then not having enough time for other questions.
I learned at the beginning of each paper to plan how much time I was permitted for each question, so that I would move on, even if I hadn’t finished that particular question.
She had to train herself to think of passing the tests – not achieving perfection for each answer. “That changed everything,” she says.
Currently working towards passing her board exams to qualify as a chartered accountant, this is the last big career goal Mapule wants to achieve. After that, she’d like to apply her skills toward consulting with firms and helping small business owners and entrepreneurs grow and boost the economy.
"Empowering others to improve their financial expertise is my real passion – that’s what really drives me."
