Students’ Speak: Analyse the failure and implement steps to enhance your performance.

By: Deepak Nahar

One should understand an exam is not the end of your life. There will be countless exams in future. You will ace in some, you will fail in some.

Let’s face it, exams are usually not pleasant unless you’re Hermione Granger. Exam time can be a whirlwind of unpredictable emotions for most of us. We are generally stressed, under pressure and sleepy due to those sleepless nights of mugging. After going through all of this, if one fails to score well, it feels like everything he/she has done was a waste. This feeling leads to students getting demotivated, more stressed and sometimes depressed too.

One should understand an exam is not the end of your life. There will be countless exams in future. You will ace in some, you will fail in some.

“Falling while running a race doesn’t make you a loser, not getting up does.”

Every student has been through this situation be it in JEE mains or CAT or a college exam. You walk out of the exam hall and everyone is discussing how the exam went. Either you join in the discussion, as you feel it was a smooth ride, or you dodge all discussion of the disaster that just occurred. If you ever feel the latter, here are some tips for you to follow when the exam didn’t go as planned.

Be relaxed, not carefree

You need to divert your mind from what has happened. This is the toughest part. You can do so by spending time doing stuff you like. When I am in this situation, I watch a few episodes of a TV Series or watch a few stand-up comedy videos and my stress comes down to a manageable level. You need to find a couple of things that can help you do this. What you need to understand is always analyse what went wrong once you are stable and can comprehend your mistakes. Don’t ignore it, being relaxed and being carefree is two different things.

Apart from this, you also need to make sure you don’t affect the next exam. For this, I would suggest you take some rest. Take a nap, stay away from gadgets and try not to do anything that requires high energy. You also need to make sure you don’t affect your sleep cycle.

Look out for stressbusters

You can also try listening to music. A soothing soundtrack is one of the best stress busters. You can also go out for a stroll. I have always noticed that we break our regular exercise schedule due to examination pressure. I try to go out for a walk with friends for 15-20 minutes. During that time, we don’t discuss exams or academics. If you stay away from your home, you can call up your parents or siblings and chat with them about how things are back at home. I have seen a lot of my friends skip their lunch or dinner due to bad performance in an exam. Being sad and skipping food won’t help you here. You should try to keep the after-effects of a bad exam minimal.

In conclusion, try to do activities that help you feel relaxed. Don’t change your regular schedule. Move on fast, analyse the failure and implement steps to enhance your performance.

About the Author:

Deepak Nahar is pursuing B.Tech (CSE) degree from Vellore Institute of Technology. He is the Digital Marketing & Content Lead of Developer Student Club, VIT powered by Google Developers.