Exam stress is emerging as a major concern across the country as students unable to cope with pressure often take extreme steps. As role models, parents and teachers must help students handle stress effectively
Examination stress is a peculiar phenomenon, a temporal and sensory experience perceived in peculiar situations by the focused group through the senses rather than by thought or intuition that defies socio-psychological descriptions and explanations. Yet it torments the students, particularly the younger ones. All examinations, for many, turn out to be stressful. The stress is acuter in unknown environs, viz., the board exams which the students often identify with the unpredictable factors.
Interestingly, it does not relate to one’s level or extent of preparedness. Those who are less prepared or ill-prepared experience it for the obvious reasons, but the well-prepared and toppers too are stressed for the apprehension of the little bit they might have skipped or how much they can really recall while writing their answers. Some feel stressed for securing enough marks to clear the exams while others are anxious about their scope of excelling the peers and still others for not letting down the parents who pin high hopes on their wards. In a lighter vein, one is reminded here of the famous quote from Charles Caleb Colton: “Examinations are formidable even for the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.”
Students, to begin with, need to understand that the stress is indisputably a negative factor that only affects their performance and being worried is no sign or indication of one's earnestness or sincerity towards studies. It can be as harmful as being careless and jeopardize their focus and retention.
Parents and teachers both have a critical role in this regard — to put their wards and students on a course of normal life and comportment, especially in ensuring proper sleep, diet and relaxation. It is common to find parents often expressing concern that their kids are taking ‘board’ exams. This concern multiplies many times when it is noticed by the students in the parents’ utterings, behaviour or change in daily life routine. The only way parents can help them is by providing companionship and any other activity which in normal times puts the child at ease.
It is everyone’s concern to save the kids from this phenomenon of examination stress. The approach may begin from the parents who are advised to refrain from putting performance-related pressure and expectations before and during examinations. In fact, our education system is such that the score or grade related performance have different connotations in different scenarios. And most of these can be addressed without unduly expanding one’s capability. Parents should try to impress upon their wards that education is a means for acquiring knowledge and once you attain sound knowledge, it is good for your capabilities to face life and all its challenges in any form or situation. There should never be any stress in acquiring knowledge and the resultant competence. If the focus is changed from clearing exams to enhancing one’s knowledge, we may decisively counter the spectre of exam stress.
One may observe that the school encourages students to proceed on ‘preparation leave’ once the syllabus is over. In my view, this is the most crucial time that the teachers should spend with their students. Besides, usual counselling about the time-management during examinations, they should share with them the approach they themselves adopt while evaluating the answer sheets — what they look for in the answer sheets, how they discern for awarding scores for a particular answer to a question.
A teacher’s experience as an evaluator is the most important tip that may prepare students in the art of writing scoring answers. This applies to almost all subjects. Having spent an academic year with students, the teacher is in the best position to know about the students who are more susceptible to exam stress. To put it plainly, a teacher has to assume the role of a parent for the sake of negotiating this psychological quagmire.
The examiners/paper setters too have their task cut out to help assuage the exam-related stress by preparing question papers that focus on assessing the knowledge and ability of a student and not his level of ignorance. Absolute shockers need to be avoided.
One may recall CBSE’s Class X Social Studies question paper way back in 2006, in which one question asked the students to identify the photo of a lesser known monument (tomb) reproduced from the NCERT textbook. Hardly anybody was prepared for such a question. Irrespective of the marks assigned for a particular ‘tough’ question, it triggers the stress of what students perceive as unpredictable. The process does not end here. It gets carried on to the upcoming batches of board examinations who start looking for ‘unpredictable’ and uncommon factors that may emerge in the question paper. This puts doubts in the mind of students about the comprehensiveness of their preparation or the lack of it.
Having said this, it becomes imperative for the parents and teachers to take complete charge of the responsibility of reducing stress arising out of exams. Parents can ensure that there are fewer distractions while the preparations are on and more nutritional diet is provided to the child.
One simple solution is to be be available for the child most of the time and ensure that all negativities are weaned off, so much so, even the small tiffs in the house. Since, the exam results or the degree stay for a lifetime with the student, it is better to make them more knowledgeable and achievers in life.
(The writer is vice president, Communications, Amity Group)