Examinations are important but increase the stress level of students, this is further compounded by parental and teachers expectations.
Examinations are a necessary evil, with Examination fever, being a reality.
Examinations confine teachers and students to the syllabus defined at the beginning of the year.
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Teachers are under compulsion to complete the same timely and for students the syllabus is the goal for doing well in the examination. They determine whether a student is fit for promotion to the next class or not.
Students are thus under a lot of stress to perform well in examinations.
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Stress increases because of parental expectations, too. Every parent wants his child to be the best and ignores the fact that each child is born with different abilities. Some students with high intelligence are able to comprehend and remember things faster than those whose level of intelligence is less. But parents and teachers fail to accept this and put a lot of pressure on the child to be at the top of the class.
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The tendency to compare one’s child with the children of relatives, friends, and neighbors also adds to this pressure.Close to examinations, most children are stressed out as they are trying to meet the aspirations of their parents and teachers.
The fear of failure and poor performance gives them nightmares. They are afraid of the wrath of their parents and humiliation which they may have to face if performance is not up to the mark. Failure has become a social stigma for students and parents, alike.
It would not be wrong to say that examinations are a hurdy in making a child actualize his true potential. They are rightly denounced as a system which encourages only rote memory and are not a true test of ones knowledge, potential and ability.
A child, who may be good in music, may not be able to devote enough time to excel in it as he is always under the pressure of studying so that he can perform well in the examination; the result is that talent is nipped in the bud.
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This excessive importance to examination makes parents develop an attitude that other activities such as sports, dance, music, art serve no purpose.
Many a time, children are discouraged to pursue their interests, little realizing, when you take away from some one, what they love the most, frustration increases making him unhappy due to which he is unable to concentrate.
The tendency to while away ones time, with a book in front, also increases. Thus, irregularity in studies and inattentiveness, with the mind wandering, in pursuit of interest, insufficient preparation – makes many examinations.
Close to Exams, they spend sleepless nights and become. At times psychological problems become so serious that children suffer from complete forgetting everything when they see the question paper. Suicides are also increasing due to this undue importance to Exams.
But, it does not mean that Examinations serve no purpose because the fact, enable the student to assess how much he/she knows and the tea to analyze how successful her teaching methodology or strategy has! Some stress is in fact necessary for actualizing ones potential, because raises the adrenalin level which pushes them to work hard and perform the best of their ability.
Nevertheless, they become stressful when student’s study habits are erratic and when he loses focus of the objective of Exams and makes it the sole indicator of his performance.