EXAMS ANXIETY- let’s bring it down?

Oh my God! Exams are on the head and I haven’t Read anything. Time is so less and too much of course. It’s going to be tough. I am not able to do that. What to do? Please someone help me. I have not even attended the classes properly. Teachers are not going to support for sure. Ab to Bhagwan hi Malik hai….sab kharab ho gaya… AND then comes the real monster “the anxiety attack” SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY

• Butterflies in your stomach,

• pounding heart,

• crying frequently,

• not able to concentrate,

• poor focus and attention,

• there is no memory of a single sentence,

• shivering/ trembling or numbness,

• sometimes fever,

• insomnia and

• finally apprehension of FAILURES

BUT do you worth it?? Don’t you think you worth something else…you want your teacher to see that in spite of your anxiety, absentism in regular classes, sadness, family issues, relationship strains, you are there sitting in examination hall and giving your papers. You want them to understand that may be this time you won’t score distinction because you were fighting your normal routine since weeks. You want your professors to look at your social isolation and absent mindedness from class and support you for exams by encouraging for your presence in examination hall. What’s the wrong in these expectations? These are the students who were teachers favorites few months back. These are the students whose hard work were like the set of examples for other students. These are the students who were above average in their past results. Then what happened now that they are so anxious before exams? REASONS OF EXAM ANXIETY

• Lack of preparation

• Bad mental states like depression or generalized anxiety

• Anxious personality traits

• Stressful event prior to exams

• Some bad experiences etc

Now if these conditions are there, don’t you think that students are allowed to being anxious and all of us who are so called family members, friends, teachers examiners should support them in dealing this anxiety. All these thoughts came only after a forwarded what’s app Message which reads like this: “A student studying in Russia says, The highest score for most of the exams in Russia is 5. If a student does not answer any question and returns back his exam paper blank, with no question answered, he gets 2 out of 5. In my first days at the University of Moscow, I did not know about this system and I was surprised and asked Dr. Theodor Medraev: “Is this fair that a student did not answer any question and you give him 2 out of 5? Why not give him a zero ? Isn’t that the right way ?” He answered: “How can we give a Human Being a zero ? How can we give him a zero to someone who was getting up at 7 am to attend all the lectures ? How can we give him a zero since he got up in this cold weather, and used public transport and reached to do the exam in time, and tried to solve the questions ? How can we give him a zero for the nights he used to study and spent his money on pens and notebooks and bought a computer for studying ? How can we give him a zero when he left all other life styles and pursued his studies ? Here my son, we do not give a zero to a student just because he did not know the answer. We at least try to respect the fact that this is a Human Being, and he is having a brain, and he tried. Because this result which we give, is not just for the questions in the exam paper, it is also about showing appreciation and respect to the fact that this is a Human Being and deserves to have a score.” Truly I cried and did not know how to respond. There I knew my value as a Human Being. Zeros can actually decrease motivation on students, and can quickly destroy them and make them stop caring about their studies altogether. Once a zero score has been put in the grade book, they need no longer care about that subject and they may assume that, there’s nothing they can do about it. Today I tell my story as a message to our teachers, so as to change this shabby system of education which we have in our country.” I swear nothing is going to change ….but I wish every student reading this should get better understanding of their exam anxiety and give importance to their all efforts they put in their studies till date. So dear students do remember these things:

• If you are not prepared just make sure that you APPEAR in exams and ATTEMPT all questions

• If you are feeling anxious and depressed then focus on drinking water and breathing exercises and do everything which RELAX YOU and GIVES YOU PLEASURE….Guys YOU ARE IMPORTANT not the numbers

• If you are getting these anxiety spurts every time you are having exams then this is the fault of our education system which declared exams as emergency and conditioned your body to react in exam emergency. It will be vanish very soon with your little training

• If there is stressful event at your home/family/life then you are allowed to support your loved ones and pour your all efforts in gaining your then spending time in course books.

• If you are getting haunted by your bad experiences, then remember it’s not your failures it’s teachers who never learnt to pass your efforts and always focuses on numbers

And with my all experience I tell you the truth that marks in exams are not what makes you great achiever but your resilience and coping makes you. Cope with it. Anxiety is just your normal emotions as cloudy days in winters… You will remain YOU even when exams are not there…..