Students’ Speak: What to do when exam doesn’t go well?

By: Swapnaneel Bhuiya

Results are not everything. It is important that if you really feel that you have done your best, then you know that it is enough.

When you go out of the examination hall, you either join the conversation as if you think it went well enough, or you avoid all the discussion of the disaster that just happened. If you ever feel later, read further to come out of the stress and reboot your career.

It seems obvious, but it is really important not to panic after exiting the exam hall. Try to be at a quiet and calm place for a while. Remember that this is only one test in your entire academic career, and it is not the end of the world.

This is students’ tendency to consider their performance to be the worst in an exam be it a college exam or an exam like JEE mains. However, you may be pleasantly surprised. Perhaps it was a particularly difficult examination and as such would be marked more generously. Nevertheless, I am also aware of my own experience, that sometimes you just know that it was bad, despite how many times people try to make you feel comfortable.

Research on other available options

Talking to others can help you find out if it was a paper that everyone found complicated or perhaps it was just you who had a bad day. Nevertheless, if you know that it went bad, talking to friends can still help, as they can make you feel better about it or put it in your perspective.

I think that no exam is so important that you fail your degree completely. So, if an exam went bad, research on other available options. This research can be reassuring and can help calm you down.

If you did the best you could do nothing else. Results are not everything. It is important that if you really feel that you have done your best, then you know that it is enough. I cannot think of a friend who can say that in every test he took, he did well. So don't worry; you are not alone.

Make use of experience

Being harsh on oneself is not helpful, but using experience as a way of improvement for the future is beneficial. Where did you go wrong, what could you have done differently? Should there be a specific topic in your consideration next time? There is nothing you can do after the exam ends. When thinking about where you can improve for next time, it's a good idea. You can't control the outcome and you won't know for a month or two regardless of the outcome, so dwelling on it will worry you, and you don't want to do that.

We envy those with whom we compare ourselves. Your social comparison group is the group by which you measure yourself, so you may be jealous of a coworker, sibling, classmate, or in-laws. We envy the achievements that we feel are possibilities for us - but we do not feel confident in achieving them. For example, you cannot be jealous of someone winning a Nobel Prize, because they are out of your league, but you envy a classmate who was promoted to your shared field. We are likely to envy someone when we think it is not worth their benefit, because our jealousy often carries it with a sense of injustice.

Jealousy often leads us to become depressed, anxious and angry. And we talk about what has happened. Our rumor has specific ideas: "I can't believe they got promoted"; "How can this happen?"; And "I can't take my mind off of it." We focus on our sense of unfairness. We avoid looking at the other person, because it reminds us that we are falling behind. We complain about this to other people, isolating them with constant complaints. We complain about this to other people, tearing them apart with frequent complaints or, in some cases, forming alliances with others. We can also give up competition altogether, because we think that it reminds us of our sense of failure or our belief that we cannot tolerate unfairness.

Focus on EQ rather than IQ

As we know, it is not the smartest people who are the most successful or fulfilled in life. You probably know people who are academically gifted and yet socially inept and are unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships. Intellectual ability or your intelligence quotient (IQ) is not enough to achieve success in life. Yes, your IQ can help you enter college, but it is your Emotional Quotient (EQ) that will help you manage stress and emotions when facing your final exam. IQ and EQ are present in tandem and are most effective when they form each other.

Emotions are pieces of important information that tell you about yourself and others, but due to stress that takes us out of our comfort zones, we can become overwhelmed and lose control of ourselves. With the ability to manage stress and remain emotionally present, you can learn to get disturbing information without overriding your thoughts and self-control. You will be able to make choices that enable you to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in a healthy way, take initiative, follow through on commitments and adapt to changing circumstances.

Manage stress

Managing stress is the first step in building emotional intelligence. The science of attachment indicates that your current emotional experience is likely a reflection of your early life experience. Your ability to manage core emotions such as anger, sadness, fear, and happiness often depends on the quality and continuity of emotional experiences of your early life. If your primary caregiver understands and values ​​your feelings as an infant, it is possible that your feelings have become a valuable asset in adult life. But, if your emotional experiences as an infant are confusing, threatening or painful, then you may have tried to distance yourself from your feelings.

Social awareness enables you to identify and interpret mainly nonverbal cues others are constantly using to communicate with you. These signs tell you how other people are really feeling, how their emotional state is changing moment by moment, and what is really important to them. When groups of people send the same nonverbal signals, you are able to read and understand the power dynamics and share the emotional experiences of the group. In short, you are sympathetic and socially comfortable.

About the Author:

Swapnaneel Bhuiya is a fourth-year mining engineering student at IIEST Shibpur. He appeared for JEE exam in 2016 and scored 140 marks in the first attempt.