Exam Phobic to Exam Phile
The strictest of all teacher …‘Exams makes its students shake in their chairs with fear, bite their nails in anxiety and undergo days and even months of endless mental torture If someone would ask us to describe the worst part of our school or college lives, I bet every one of us would answer unanimously and instantaneously…exams. Even the apparently more studious students buried themselves further into their fat books and were off on their mission to stand out from the rest of their classmates. I guess the electricity supplying companies minted tons and tons of money during the examination period while students burnt their midnight oil, crammed into their notes and mugged up incoherent formulas, theorems and descriptive answers which they aimed to copy-paste from their overflowing brains into the blank exam sheet adorning it with their days and months of hard work.The fear of exams or exam-phobia as psychologists called it induces a number of psycho-somatic symptoms on the students. Psycho-somatic symptoms are those that bear physical signs coupled with emotional fatigue and mental stress, for instance, insomnia, having nightmares, feelings of anger, lack of concentration, loss of appetite, palpitation, an increase in heart rate, dryness in the throat, difficulty in breathing and sweating. Some students even complain of experiencing physical pain like headaches and abdominal pain and even diarrhoea.
A wise man quoted once, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” Indeed examinations are a tough nut to crack and given to the meritocratic and marks oriented society that we are thriving in, incessant stress is laid on getting high grades all the time. This subjects the student to a lot of stress.
But there is a solution to every problem and a dawn to every dusk. The following tips will help you transform from an Exam Phobic to Exam Phile:
1.Small is big: Tackling the problem in bits and pieces makes it more accessible than dealing it in one single go. The same rule applies when it comes to examinations too. Divide the study material into smaller portions and sections so it becomes easier for the brain to study, assimilate and remember what it has studied
2.Mind-it: Experts working and researching in the area of neurology and brain studies have discovered amazing techniques that help one tap into the vast reserves of the capacities that our brains have and the wonders it can create for us. Our brain is divided into two hemispheres. The left side deals with the logical capacities while the right side is the more creative one. Experts have cited Mind-mapping to be the next big thing. Mind-mapping helps one to remembers things in a much more organised and effective way
3.Mnemonic Pen: Another amazing tool to stretch one’s ability to recall and remember vast information. You can associate number to keywords of the points you need to recall. For example: One can be associated with sun, two with shoe, three with tree, four with door, five with hive (bee-hive), six with vicks, seven with heaven, eight with gate, nine with shrine and ten with den. These images can be associated with the points that need to be remembered
4.Take Care: Look after yourself first. Sleep well, eat right and keep your cool. Taking undue stress or worrying too much will cause more harm than good. Practice Yoga, meditation and some relaxation exercises. Go ahead and take the exams head on and rock it.
