“Mummy, I feel I’m getting fever.” “I don’t like to appear exam tomorrow.” “Sir, I knew every answer but I don’t know why I could not write anything properly.” “Madam, my head is aching, I can’t write. I am thirsty. Please give me a glass of water.” Such are the common pre-exam or exam-time episodes with many of the students. The common term used by us for such exam-time or pre-exam behaviour is exam phobia. Phobia means ‘extreme or abnormal fear of something.”
Now examination phobia means ‘extreme or abnormal fear of examination.’ Many students suffer exam phobia. As the examination keeps drawing near they start showing some unusual behaviour. They feel uneasy. They wish that the day would never come. When the day arrives, they feel distressed. This feeling of fear, distress, uneasiness and discomfort makes outburst in the form of vomiting tendency, headache, feverish sensation, refusal of exam, fainting, excessive thirst, etc. What medical remedy can there be for such examination phobia? I do not think there is any.
The examinee himself is the physician for his own phobia. There are certain non-medical treatment measures for examination phobia. First, the examinee must know the usual causes of examination phobia. Lack of confidence can be the biggest cause of examination phobia. One must have adequate confidence in one’s capacity. Lack of confidence lends feeling of nervousness to a person. When an examinee has less confidence in his ability, he feels that he can not face the examination challenge. So he loses his morale. When he loses his morale he feels abnormally afraid of the exam he is writing or is gong to write.
Lack of adequate preparation very often leads an examinee to exam phobia. If an examinee is not clearly familiar with the syllabus, thorough with the chapters and lacks even general concepts of the chapters, he is very likely to develop a fear for the examination.
The tendency to escape any hardship of life also develops examination phobia in the students. Excessive love of ease and comfort may develop in a individual the tendency to fight shy of the difficulties of life. Family background may be the cause of the growth of such tendency in the children. Children should be given the opportunity to feel that life is not an easy sail. It is full of hardships.
Lack of positive aim and mission in life also sometimes develops examination phobia in the students. Children with positive aims and missions will never fear any challenge in life. They feel interested in facing competitions. Examinations may work as the measuring scale to assess how much fit they are for certain challenging work. Such students can never develop examination phobia. On the contrary the children having the opposite mental set-up are sure to fear examination or any test in life.
Anxiety, depression, neuro-psychotic disorders, mal-adjustment with learning situations and environment may also be the causes for examination phobia.
To fight examination phobia students must inculcate abundant confidence in them. They must never feel that they are in any way inferior to others in capacity. They must neither be under- confident nor overconfident. They must have an optimistic vision that they will fair well in the examination. Dear examinees, be confident enough while appearing an examination. Your fear for the examination will gradually disappear. Be fully prepared for any examination. Study the subjects intensively clearing all the doubts. The more you will prepare for the examination, the more confident you will be. Your exam phobia will vanish giving you enough courage to face the examination.
Be prepared to take challenge in life. Do not be afraid of hardships. Do not be indolent, lazy and timid.
Have a positive aim and mission in life. Feel that the examinations you are writing are the stepping stones to the fulfilment of your aim and mission.
Be psychologically bold and have strong morale. Do not fall prey to anxiety, depression and pessimism. Always feel happy and energetic. Examination phobia that you have will surely bid ‘good bye’.
Gopal Talukdar
PGT (English), JNV, Kohima
