When it comes to cracking the examination, don’t fret over results; focus on task at hand, do it bit by bit

I have been reading with interest the articles on exam stress of late. The effort to take the pressure of studies off the young minds is admirable. But in a sign of the times we live in, most such articles have been written, not by educationists, but by counsellors.

Counselling does lay the roadmap to avoid the pitfalls and provide help in a moment of emotional insecurity but equally good would be an account by the students who have been success stories — on their schedule, study pattern and hobbies. No two child are alike, and comparisons are odious, but it will give a glimpse of how these achievers managed without falling prey to exam stress.

No examination comes without stress and there is one silver lining —it brings out the best in you under pressure. Examinations are more of a technique, not just a test of knowledge. Knowledge is expansive, examinations have a pattern. It is about objectivity. You do not have to just study, you also have to read between the lines to understand the pattern of questions expected.

The fear of examinations is created by an element of uncertainty, of what questions will come, of what happens if one doesn’t succeed? It is the fear of the unknown, a factor, which according to social scientists like Emile Durkheim, led to the advent of religion, to have a stabilising influence on the mind, through a protective aura against unknown elements.

Studies are important, indicated by the forms in many offices where we still have columns for thumb impression in case someone is illiterate. It is wrong to expect the students to study so that all of them go to the IITs and medical colleges. Education is important to make one an aware citizen. It helps in doing well anything that one might choose to do.

The stress of examinations made the government do away with the Class X Board examinations. Now, with a rethink, the Board examinations are back. In fact, they had always been there before Kapil Sibal turned benign. In my time, I had noted just a few qualities among those who did well academically—regular studies and a tendency to ask what they did not understand. Admitting ignorance is no shame for it is only from there that one can start learning.

A lot is said about rote learning or “committing from the book and vomiting on the paper.” But schools, in fact, encourage the children to first study the chapter and then do the exercises. Along with the given exercises, one should also try to comprehend what else could be asked. Every child has a different capacity. It is better to start preparations in advance. It is the seasonal study where you choke the most. Even brilliant students go awry at times. It is like the game of cricket where the best of batsman can get out on a duck on any given day. But as the US-based psychiatrist Brian Weiss says in his bestseller “Many lives, many masters”, the thing to tell yourself is that there is life beyond that. It is a concept that is being used for counselling even in death-and-dying cases. Cracked the exam, well and good! If not, look around, you will find your niche.

In my time, life was much simpler. Parents thought they were doing the child a favour by allowing him to study. You were expected to do well in payback. It was your problem. With parents becoming more and more protective, even the teachers are at a loss. I remember being caned by my biology teacher in Class IX for not memorising a table on classification of vertebrata. The table was memorised the next day. Simple techniques like VIBGYOR and BODMAS were used to remember the colours of rainbow and the Math formula.

I am no educationist and have certainly never been a topper but recount the memoir of Matt Bissonnette, who wrote, under the pen name of Mark Owen, the book “No Easy Day”, an account of the US Navy Seal operations to eliminate Osama Bin Laden. Bissonnette was daunted by the rigour of his tough training as a Navy Seal and thought he wouldn’t make it. Then he asked himself, “How do you eat an elephant?” Bit by bit, was the answer that came to his mind. So, do not get deterred by the vastness of the goal, just focus on the task at hand. If I have to complete the syllabus, I must focus on the chapter I should be doing today, not fretting over how much I have to study.

So, do it like the Navy Seals — bit by bit.