Tips to deal with anxiety and board examinations

It has been seen that many examinees become nervous, lose their sleep and appetite during Board Examinations.

It happens because there is a lot of moral, psychological and competitive pressure on the students from their parents, elders, teachers and peers. Each one is in a race to secure high percentage and wants to do better than others, resulting in fear psychosis leading to examination phobia.

Ideally, examinations should not be taken in a competitive spirit. Ultimately it leads to frustration, losing morale, hypertension and in a few cases nervous breakdowns and even suicide.

What leads to such steps, is over-expectation, which puts students under more stress and strain, pressurising the students and making the students to study till late hours, past midnight and sometimes the whole night.

It is now universally acknowledged that our examination systems are defective. One cannot examine the worth of a child by just going through the written answer sheets. But till these examination systems are changed for the better, students have to bear the burden of written examinations as per the directives of the school Boards. I therefore suggest the following tips for students appearing for their annual examinations:

1. Try and overcome the fear of examinations.

2. Take examinations as routine class tests/unit tests.

3. Never brood over consequences.

4. Do not bother about the percentage to be achieved

5. Do not succumb to pressures from your elders and parents etc. Do whatever you feel is right.

6. Ensure that you get proper sleep and do not disrupt the routine.

7. Eat your food as per your habit but keep it light during examinations.

8. Take regular bath and do meditation for 10-15 minutes regularly.

9. Do not sit till late nights or for hours at a stretch.

10. Preferably get up early in the morning.

11. Drink adequate liquids, juice and water.

12. Change your clothes after bathing and look around for some green plants for a couple of minutes.

13. Lay more stress on your revision, unit, pre-board tests etc.

14. Always keep with you a rough notebook and a pen to write down important points.

15. Do not take up last minute revision before going in for appearing in Annual Examinations.

16. Before leaving, you must take light breakfast, curd and a glass of milk etc.

17. Reach the examination centre at least half an hour before the exam.

18. In order to avoid confusion, do not indulge in revision or gossip after reaching the centres.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE IN EXAMINATION HALL?

1. Sit comfortably with your head high.

2. You should be in high spirits and feel fresh.

3. Close your eyes for a minute and meditate.

4. Read your question paper at least twice before you start writing.

5. Do not hurry in attempting your paper, be cool.

6. Do not get confused if you do not know the answers to some portions of the question paper or if you do not understand a question.

7. First attempt those questions which you know well.

8. Preference to attempt should be given to questions carrying high marks.

9. Come back to questions you do not have answers or which are confusing latter.

10. Attempt these questions last of all. Do not waste your time on them.

11. Leave no questions unattempted.

12. Mostly in such type of questions, proper and careful reading is required with patience, it has been observed that such questions are within the reach of the students.

13. For any difficult word, one can ask invigilators or the Asstt Superintendents present in the examination hall.

14. Always put your serial numbers in order in your extra sheets used and tie it properly at the inner side of the last sheet of your main answer sheet.

15. Ensure that you write down properly on the column given on the main answer sheet the exact number of answer sheets used by you.

16. Ensure that you have written your roll numbers in words and figures properly (Recheck it too).

17. Plan out your question paper and devote time for revision.

18. It is commonly seen that while revising the answer sheets about 15-20% of the examinees do the correction themselves.

19. Always write proper question number on your answer sheets at relevant places.

20. Leave 3 – 4 lines after your first answer is over. Draw line in between before attempting another question.

21. Do not frequently go out of the examination hall.

22. Do not write anything on your question papers/do not even attempt rough work on it.

23. Do not bother about what others do in examination.

24. Do not show your answers or pass sheets or portion of it to your friends in the examination hall.

25. Attempt all parts of the questions as it is given in the order in question paper.

(The author is Director/ Principal, Guru Nanak Public School, New Delhi. Views are the author’s own)