Examination Time- time for performance!- March 2012

Examination Time- time for performance!

There is too much of hullabaloo about examinations. For students who are regular and enjoy studies it is a time to express themselves and perform.  For students who are otherwise irregular and lazy around the year it is a time to sweat it out literally. It is not easy to fail, I always tell my young students. You have attended class for a whole year and you have studied the subjects for the whole year around and you have also appeared for small little class tests and unit tests, then where is the cause for anxiety of failure. The idea is to relax and to appear happily for the exams. The causes for worry could be two- one, is if you have a learning problem and do not understand a specific subject, like I had a fear for mathematics. People can have specific phobia’s –fear of snakes or spiders or heights or subjects! In such a case one has to work hard to overcome that fear factor and take it as a challenge. The second reason for exam fear could be the need to achieve marks more than your capability. The pressure to stand first or score 90% and above, could be self imposed or externally imposed pressure by parents, and if you do not have the capacity to do so, you will land up with exam fear.

Performance anxiety is a universal natural emotion- even the mighty like Lata Mangeshkar or Sachin Tendulkar will experience it. The idea is to use the anxiety to focus on the task on hand and motivate oneself for the challenge. People who succumb to it are the sufferers. So friends, use the anxiety to inspire yourself to work hard, set your eyes on a clear achievable goal and go and achieve it. Relax the anxiety, think positive and keep optimistic about the results. You will achieve your targets.