[dropcap]H[/dropcap]ow to Cope with Exam Failure
Many a student waiting for results of their High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) exams and Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate (HSSLC) might have spent a sleepless Tuesday night.
By the end of Tuesday the lives of parents and guardians of over thirty thousand students in Nagaland will have undergone some change when the results of their children and wards are known. The results will not simply be a reflection of individual performance but a cumulative report on the education system in the state. And the coming days will invite much analysis as the results are compared to previous performances etc ..
Still, the student is the focus and how she / he will cope with the outcome of the exam. Sometimes it can be very difficult to predict the outcome of exams, whether in high school or in secondary section . This is probably because, exams are arguably one of the most feared things in education for students. Whether a student is confident in their abilities in their chosen subject(s) or not, exams can often both predictably and unpredictably bring out the best, and more than often, the worst, in a student.
If the worst does happen, failing your exams can be one of the most devastating experiences for a student, especially when they were not expecting to fail their exams.
One way to cope with exam failure, is to talk to people.
Talk to your family, talk to your friends, discuss the options you can take now that you’ve had your exam results back. One thing to remember is that failing exams is not the end of the world. Exam failure is only one of the many hurdles to come by in each one’s life, and there are always possibilities to learn and rise above failure. After all, the saying goes that ‘failure makes you stronger’. Funnily enough, it really does. It gives you an understanding of what it means to fail, to lose, to receive a negative outcome that you may not have expected to get.
Failure stops being one when you rise up from the fall.
A common worry amongst students who have failed some of their exams, is that they’ll now never be able to get the job they wanted after graduating, or even the university degree they were first opting for. Wrong. You should never let exam failure force you into believing that you now can’t achieve any of your dreams. Sure, some things will be harder to reach, but that doesn’t make them unreachable. Failing exams doesn’t make you any less of a person, any less intelligent, or any less able to achieve what you want to, than those who may have gotten better results in their exams than you.
Sometimes students tend to blame themselves entirely and can suffer from fear and frustration but at times parents who force their children to study subjects their children are not comfortable with are equally at fault.
One girl remarked saying “I was a straight A/A* student. The lowest grade I’d ever tasted was the one B I’d got in my GCSEs. Unfortunately, my parents and I made the wrong decision in enrolling me in the International Baccalaureate programme in my school, where teachers were incapable of teaching the IB to us properly, and despite being the brightest/highest achievers in the entire school, we all failed (or, at least got very low marks, still passing the IB, but not getting our first choice of university, if any.).
There will be some who may never have experienced failure. Others will face pressure from parents and friends also to get high marks. In such instances its easy to feel that you are not only a failure but have let down the entire family and friends. The future to some will feel like it has caved in leaving one feeling helpless and isolated.
But its good to remember that when the “going gets tough, the tough get going” as narrated in the anectode below.
“Once I’d gotten myself together, I sent hundreds of emails out to various universities, including my first choice London School of Economics (LSE) and insurance choice (Edinburgh), explaining to them what had happened. Unfortunately, LSE came to the decision that my grades were two low compared to their asking grade, and rejected me (they were actually very understanding about what happened though, unfortunately it was their policy to decline students who’d gotten 4 grades or more under their asking grade). Edinburgh also declined me.
What upset me the most was that I’d already gotten the halls of my choice at LSE, and they even had the ‘cheek’ to send me an email telling me so, even after they had rejected me. I’d never felt so upset in my life. Everyone and everything felt mocking, nasty, and against me. The worst thing was, I KNEW that if I’d have chosen to do A Levels, I would’ve gotten at least A A A, and would’ve gotten into LSE easily. I was constrained, and constricted by my low IB grades.
How did I combat my failure?
I worked hard to get other universities to recognise my potential, without judging me through just my IB grades. I sent emails and called up every university I could think of who had courses on offer that interested me. I bombarded them with samples of my written work, art work, work experience, letters from my teachers, everything. And due to my persistence, my hard work paid off. I had many universities responding to me, asking me to enrol.
I even gained the interest of Durham University. I eventually found a course that interested me, and a university I thought I would thrive in; Goldsmiths. I went from failing my exams and believing I would never get a university place, to being accepted into a university (out of many who offered), meeting wonderful people, having an awesome freshers week, and generally enjoying university life.
The most important thing to remember in such a situation is to remain true to yourself; remember who you are, what your strengths are, what you are capable of doing, and what you want to do, and you will get there. “
'Hopeless and jobless'
On conclusion the results will provide a vital inight, a sort of compass on how education should be formulated in the state.
We also need to re orient our mindsets that its not only a paper degree, that can bring in revenue .
It is equally important to invest in vocational support and training for young people who are not academically successful. Government, employers and charities must work together to get them into jobs. Without this, thousands will struggle to compete, leaving them hopeless and jobless.
