EXAMINATION PHOBIA

 

From Sampath's Desk:

  

EXAMINATION PHOBIA

 

Come examination times, school children who face final/board examinations for the first time are at the risk of being gripped with fear, phobia, and what not! The worst enemy is lack of confidence and the worst barrier is want of boldness. Negative, self-destructive and self-pitying thoughts will be disastrous for the naïve children.

 

Learning comprises listening, observing, understanding, grasping, absorbing, assimilating, remembering, recalling and last but nevertheless the least, applying the acquired inputs while writing examinations (LOUGAARRA).

 

Colin Powell said, “There are no secrets to success.  It is the result of preparation, hard-work and learning from failure(s)”.

 

Preparation is half-way to success. Notes-taking, reviewing it frequently, group studies, consulting reliable sources in your studies, frequent exercises on math/chemistry/physics formulae, trying to remember and repeating to yourself specifics, having a planner and strictly sticking to it are some useful tips and facilitative tools.

 

Think positive and be optimistic. Never forget that “Hard work never fails”.  Be focused, confident, sincere and dedicated while preparing and writing the examination. Download sample question papers and try answering mock tests often. Review your answers yourself and identify your strong and weak areas for remedial, wherever necessary. 

 

Don’t study for hours together continuously. Take breaks. Feeling yourself relaxed, taking light but energetic beverages to keep you in good stead, listening to music of your choice and deep breathing whenever you feel like bored or exhausted are essential.  Some may find muscle stretching techniques useful. If your stress button gets pressed hard, stretch as hard as you can, tensing the muscles in your arms and legs; then suddenly relax all of them. This will help relieve tension.

 

During the previous night, casually review the answer inputs which you must have been already well familiar with. Don’t try to absorb new and hard inputs at the last moment. It will only add to confusion. However, recalling and remembering names, dates, years, months, events, etc. will be a good practice.

 

Sleep normally during the previous night. Don’t attend exams with an empty stomach. Have some light healthy food. Don’t gatecrash to the examination hall/room. Be there well in advance. Don’t believe rumours. Don’t make any last minute discussion or consultation with peers about the gossip you had heard or learnt through the grapevine about any particular question(s) said to have leaked. Mostly they may be false and fake. That will throw you out of gear.

 

Time management is crucial while writing exams. On receiving the question paper on hand don’t get excited; just pause for a while. There may be a mix of easy, mediocre, and hard questions. Never mind. Write answers to questions which you consider as the easiest, easier and easy, in that order of preference. Finishing questions that are comfortable will embolden and infuse more self-confidence in you to try the other ones. Analytical skills will help you answer some hard questions.

 

Allocate time to each question based on marks.  Before attempting a question, recall the key points and then write which will help you to present your answers appropriately.  Don’t spend much time on questions the answers of which you are not sure about. 

 

If you are stuck midway while attempting a particular question, leave some space and proceed, so that you can write the right answer or part(s) of the answer whenever it strikes your mind. If you feel confused, take some water and pause off a while to refresh your memory. The right answer would come flooding your mind!

 

‘Guessing’ can only be the last resort if you are not sure of a correct answer for a hard question. It is better to guess and write an answer for that hard question rather than leaving compulsory question(s) unanswered if at all it came to that. Who knows, luck may favour you!

 

Try to complete your exam with at least 5-10 minutes to spare for a review and possible correction(s) of any material/substantial mistakes. 

 

Once examination on a particular subject is over, be sensitive not to discuss any of the answers written by you with anybody. Who knows whether what that person has written for a question is the right answer or not? Even if he is right and you are wrong, it will not help you undo what you have already written. It will only make you brood over the mistake and lose precious time for preparing for the next subject. It is okay to make a review of all the answers written for all the papers once the examinations of all papers are over. You are always welcome to learn from past mistakes.

 

However, you can’t afford to say:

 

“   They gave me questions which I don’t know;

     So I wrote answers which they don’t know;   “

R.SAMPATH                                                                          

26/2/2020