MTU Best Graduating Student: Self-Competition, Not Pressure, Drove My 4.94 CGPA
Omolola Akinyemi, the overall best graduating student of Mountain Top University (MTU), Ogun State, has credited personal drive rather than external pressure for her 4.94 CGPA in Mathematics, saying a constant desire to outperform her previous semester kept her motivated throughout her degree.
Akinyemi said supportive lecturers also played a key role in her success, though the journey through Mathematics wasn't without difficulty. She described the shift from applied to pure Mathematics, particularly the move into analytical and abstract concepts in her final year, as one of the toughest parts of the programme.
Family support featured heavily in her account. Her mother, a farmer, and her father, a retired professor, were consistently encouraging rather than pressuring, she said. Her mother in particular held a strong stance against exam malpractice, telling her she would rather fund an extra year of study than have her caught cheating.
Akinyemi's father, a retired Computer Science professor who has lectured at Covenant University, Landmark University, Augustine University and Mountain Top University, added an extra layer of accountability once she began attending the same institution where he had served, at one point, as pioneer Dean of Postgraduate Studies. She said his support extended beyond his own discipline, connecting her with relevant experts whenever she faced challenges in Mathematics.
She is the third of four children, with two older sisters who studied Geology and Political Science respectively, and a younger brother currently studying Cyber Security. She said her family's shared belief in prioritising education, alongside a culture of high academic performance among her siblings, helped shape her own drive to excel.
Looking ahead, Akinyemi said she plans to pursue Actuarial Science or Pure and Applied Mathematics at postgraduate level, with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in South Africa currently her preferred destination. She said she does not intend to study further in Nigeria, the United States, or Canada.
On her study approach, she said she rarely used the library, describing herself as someone who studies more effectively with music or a movie playing in the background, and stops as soon as concentration fades rather than pushing through fatigue. She noted that of the five students in her Mathematics cohort, three including herself graduated with First Class honours, while the remaining two earned Second Class Upper degrees, attributing part of that outcome to group study sessions and the use of online resources, including AI tools, to work through difficult concepts.
On artificial intelligence, Akinyemi said tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek have some value in explaining mathematical concepts but should not be relied upon for solving problems, noting that she and her coursemates often received inconsistent answers when testing the same questions across different AI platforms. She stressed that mathematics requires original thinking that AI cannot fully replace.
She encouraged other students to adopt study methods suited to their own habits rather than following generic advice, and urged parents to support their children's choice of course rather than pushing them toward traditionally favoured fields like Medicine, Law or Engineering.
Akinyemi, 20, credited her secondary education at EPIC International Schools, Irewu, Ogun State, with nurturing her early interest in Mathematics through exposure to competitions such as the American Mathematics Competition, Mathematics Olympiads, and programmes including Cowbellpedia and Turkish Math.
Source: Interview by Grace Edema (summarized and rewritten).