12 Points to Remember when Sitting Exams

Remember life outside the Exams and Results.

(Photo shows students at our Prajna Vihar School, our inter-religious school, in Bodh Gaya, India)

Here are 12 Points to Remember when Sitting Exams. Remember life outside the Exams and Results.

1. Make sure you have the necessary pens etc.

2. If you have a mind block, try to start a sentence with a key word.

3. Keep an eye on the time to make sure you finish what you want to write.

4. Keep time to read slowly through what you wrote.

5. Make a point, give examples and explain.

6. Make first sentence in essay strong and clear and last sentence.

7. Make some bullet points or arrows to central theme

8. Make sure your conclusion answers the question by using words in the question.

9. Read question slowly and carefully and underline key words

10. Take a few mindful deep breaths from time to time

11. Try to keep handwriting clear rather than scribbled.

12. Try to offer quotes or summary of quote. More than 700,000 teenagers, aged around 15-17 years, will sit their GCSEs in May/June in the UK. You might be taking exams in 10 or 12 subjects.

Hundreds of millions of teenagers worldwide are sitting similar kinds of exams.

You will probably have received a lot of encouragement and pressure from your teachers and parents to pass as many exams as possible and get good grades.

You are given all sorts of promises of a big income, a big career and personal success. Remember the super affluent elite, the 1%, have their problems – alcohol, drugs, gambling, addictions, anger, divorce, health problems and unhappiness.

You might crave such success to compensate for feelings of lack of self worth. That’s a recipe for getting depressed about your life whether rich, average income or poor.

You might be putting a great deal of pressure upon yourselves.

After you have received the results of your exams, you will see photos of student in the newspapers of students jumping high together with arms outstretched clutching the paper with the results in their hands.

You might feel happy or sad with your efforts, or with your results, or both.

Remember to put into perspective all the hype and pressure around these exams. You might think your whole life depends on these exams.

Within a few years, you might not even remember your results and they may have little to do with the way you spend your life.

Exam results can only measure a tiny corner of your mind which has the capacity to remember information and write it down in a comprehensive way.

Skills Outside Exams

You may have skills far outside the range of all these tests.

1. A capacity to assemble kits

2. A keen interest in cooking and running a home

3. A love of children, animals and the outdoors

4. A love of working with features of a computer

5. A passion for the arts – music, dance, drama

6. A wish to travel and expand your cultural horizons

7. Ability to be alone and independent

8. Ability to repair broken items, fix things and install

9. Capacity to support friendships and family

10. Contentment with little

11. Good with your hands indoors and outdoors.

12. Determined to contribute to a sustainable world

13. Interest to be self-employed

14. Join organisations to make the world a better place.

15. Keep any eye open for those in need

16. Learn to live with calmness and clarity on little income.

17. Love of the city, small town or rural environment

18. Skills in sport, martial arts, physical fitness and more

19. Spending time outdoors.

20. Start a project, big or small. Take one day at a time.

Exam papers cannot measure your abilities in these skills. You might think “Yes, but these personal interests are not going to provide me with a real job and a real income”.

You may find that your interest in one of the 21 areas listed above have more influence upon your working life than your grades.

You might get a bucket load of A stars, go to the top university in the country and get a Phd. After all that, you know you want to do something else with your life.

Some of us quit school before we took exams, never went to college or university and have experienced a happy, worthwhile and adventurous life.

Some of us know high achievers and feel grateful we did not end up in that category. Far too many high achievers are stressed out, addicted to chemical highs, pain killers, hate their jobs and their personal life is in a mess.

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