How to Overcome the Fear of Exams – IIT JEE, NEET, and Boards?
Even after graduating from college, the word “exam” can still send chills in many’s spine. There is definitely some extra pressure on students during the Class 12th Boards exam and competitive exams like NEET, JEE Mains, and JEE Advanced. This causes the students to fear as they are being told that their future depends on this exam. This usually causes the student to mess their exam, be sleep deprived, feel depressed, and anxious.
With the growing competition each year in these exams, student fear even more nowadays. Just saying relax isn’t enough. Students all over India continue to approach the exam ineffectively with fear in their mind, which acts as a hurdle in exploring their potential and only reduces their chances of success.
So, here are a few tips which students should use to overcome their fear of exams like Board, IIT JEE and NEET.
Change your mindset
While preparing for the exam, we are most often motivated to prove our self to our parents and teachers. We are more worried about how many marks our friends scored and live in fear of them scoring more than us. You have to face shame then. Hence, instead of understanding the syllabus, we often times compare with others and look for easy marks.
We keep on asking “What will come in the exam?”, Instead of asking, “Have I understood the topic enough for the exam?”. By focusing on the positive side of things, you have a better mindset than most people, which will help you to remain focus. This gives you a better chance of preparing for the exam without free and stressing out as the exam come nearer.
Commit to a schedule
We all make a schedule before the exam, the ones you make the first time around. You need to commit to them because they are realistic and don’t have short cut techniques. So, if you follow them rigorously, then you are sure to build your knowledge of each subject with time. You don’t have to cram everything in the last minute, which increases your confidence. This also avoids unnecessary fear of not covering syllabus when you give exams with vast syllabi like JEE and Boards.
Don’t give up in the middle
Not all of the students are bright enough to start preparing from the offset, many of them join late. Due to which they have a backlog of preparation. This generally acts as an excuse for many during the result or leaving the preparation in the middle. This can also happen between an exam when suddenly you noticed you made a mistake and the next thought is to give up. This increase the pressure and fear upon you. So, if you see yourself struggling in an exam or nervousness starts to creep in. Take a moment off and reflect on your hard work and performance till now, would you rather let it all go waste, or you want to give it another try. The result might not be what you expected but better than giving in the middle, and you having a fighting spirit in yourself.
Focus on the present only
Most of us often over think about the present and the future. We are often worried about our past performance, thinking things would never change, and we would fail miserably. Then we start to think about how things will go wrong if we fail. All these only fuels our fear and makes students more vulnerable to failure. We need to focus on the present, work hard in the present so our past is not repeated in the future. If we can do it, we would be less fearful as we know we would achieve at least something in the exam.
Break the Myth
Our parents, teachers, and everyone else motivate the student with only one point of view, that our future depends on this exam. If we fail, we are doomed. I can see students getting motivated with it, but it is a double-edged sword, if a person starts lagging, he just fell in the trap of failure and depression. So, we should break this Myth as many students who have not done well in Boards, IIT JEE and NEET has been successful in other walks of life. We need to motivate students to study well and not score well because knowledge and hard work are never wasted. They would surely be successful somewhere else if not here.
