Exams – Dumb or Smart?

My brother and I have our exams going on, so naturally we both are always seen with a book under our noses. We both are fairly responsible when it comes to studies, mostly because academics have always been an essential part in our lives from the very beginning.

My brother was about to give a test (I had a break day) and his teacher asked all the students to shut their eyes, go through every class in their minds, imagine giving the test, and imagine their happiness at receiving 100% in their exams.

Now, the imagination part is good. I usually use that to calm my nerves before exams, but the last part of her statement didn’t sit well with me. Thinking back to all my previous classes, I realised with a start that this was exactly what we were told as well.

Now, you need to understand that my brother is in grade IV, which means that his mind is ready to be shaped. The words he hears now will reflect in his future actions. So, if he hears that he would be happy only if he receives 100% in his exams, he should be ready to be demotivated in the future because no one I know has ever been able to reach 100%.

I have always been called a perfectionist and a stickler for straight-A’s, now we know the reason. I have been molded into this person who does not believe in anything less than A’s. My teachers now tell me to calm down if my grades go down a bit, but my mind has already accepted the fact that anything below 100% is not something to be proud of.

It is hard for me, even now, to accept anything below perfect. No matter how much I try to convince people with my writeups stating that perfection is an idea and each idea is different from the other, I can not believe in it myself.

Why is aiming for nothing less than 100% bad? Well, for one, you are putting unnecessary pressure on your brain, and the second is that perfection was, is, and always will be, just an idea.

The way to stop people from plunging into their self-created hole is to change the way teachers teach us.

Teachers are our second parents. School is our second family. On an average, each student spends at least 130 hours per academic year. And since we study in school for 14 years, we spend 1820 hours (approx.) in our schools. Can you imagine the impact schools have on us?!

The teachers need to understand that exams were created with the notion to understand how much a student understood in the class and not to judge if the student was a fool or not.

Students now give exams, not to judge their understanding of the concepts, but to feel worthy enough to be a part of this society. This creates a deep hole of stress and depression.

The teachers need to focus on the students’ mental health. Teachers need to hold counselling session with us every week, connect with us, talk to us, care about us.

Mental health is very important and during this pandemic, we need to take care of ourselves even more.

Assignments, tests, competitive exams – these do not judge whether you are dumb or smart. These are there to understand how much you have understood. We, humans, have a tendency to compete with ourselves, and it’s okay as long as we are in our limits.

Well, I have nothing else to say except humbly ask all of you to stop thinking that only A Grades can make you happy. Remember that anyone can be literate, but very few are educated.

That’s it for now!

Bye!

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