Just when we are all preparing for the mid-year examination, let's talk about exam confidence.
Students always tell me that they "don't feel confident for tomorrow's exam". The next few questions they ask are:
Students always tell me that they "don't feel confident for tomorrow's exam". The next few questions they ask are:
1) Do you always feel so confident?
2) How do you feel so confident, even for English/GP that you always failed?
Well, the truth is I did not always feel confident, no matter how much effort I put into revision. Ironically, the papers that I felt the most confident in were English and General Paper, the ones that I always failed.
However, I know the importance of confidence. With confidence, one will feel good and will tend to do well, assuming all revisions have been done. The question is, how do I make myself feel confident?
Pray
I am a Buddhist. I pray before going for examination. If you have a religion, pray to your God. Trust that God will look after you, because you have done your due diligence studying for the exam.
I used to believe in myself only, believing that only I can control my own fate. So, if you are a free-thinker, trust yourself more during the period of examination. You know that you have done your best and the last lap is only to write down and/or apply whatever you have learned.
Whatever you never study, won't come out
Do I really know everything before I enter the exam hall? Do I always score full marks during practice? No to both questions. I told myself that whatever I don't know, won't appear in the exam paper. True enough, I was correct 95% of the time. What about the other 5%? The marks lost were insignificant to affect my grade.
Do not compare answers
After every paper, students tend to compare answers. If you find that all your answers are the "generally accepted correct answers", you feel very happy and confident. On the other hand, if you find that most of your answers are different from your friends, you feel down. Why take this risk? Go straight home and prepare for the next paper.
Take exam in peace
In one of my previous posts, I discussed 4 unorthodox ways to tackle examination. Those methods were supposed to make us feel good and enter the exam hall with a peace of mind. As long as we feel good, we feel confident and vice versa. Read that post again!
There are of course many other methods to feel confident, but ultimately it's all in your mind. Learn to control your mind and heart and you would have won half the battle.
There are of course many other methods to feel confident, but ultimately it's all in your mind. Learn to control your mind and heart and you would have won half the battle.
