Saturday 13 October 2012

Exams

Exams

Have you ever felt anxiety about an upcoming exam? If so, do you know that there is research found that being anxious in advance may increase your grade?

“Pre-exam anxiety 'can boost grades'” reports a result of a survey of 96 children aged 12 to 14 years about a relationship between anxiety and their abilities to perform tests dealing with working-memory skill. The researchers found that for people who have low working-memory skills, increases in anxiety led to decreases in their test scores. Conversely, for people who have high working-memory skills, increases in anxiety contributed to increases in their test performance.

I believe that everyone feels worried about exams but the level of anxiety is different. I also think that there are various reasons why individuals are anxious before taking exams. Some people know that they have abilities to do the test and perhaps reach the highest score. This is due to their study habits that they have been studying hard for a long time before their exams but they are worried that they may not do the test to the best of their abilities or get lower grades than they expect. On the other hand, some might be worried that they have not finished reviewing all materials before the test date. Also, they have potentials not to pass the exam.

I am the one who always feel nervous about a forthcoming exam. I feel that I am not ready to take any exam; even though; I have reviewed all materials many times. I am worried that I might overlook some points which are important and then come up in the test. I remember that the first time I did a quiz when I was studying my bachelor degree, I felt very confident before going to the test room. However, during the exam, there were some questions that would not have been difficult to answer if I had read the book carefully and thoroughly. This is because the answer was obviously stated as a footnote in the book. After that, I felt guilty because I knew that the professor who issued that exam had a reputation in finding spots that people may not expect to be a question. Later on, I have never had such a confident before any upcoming exams but this situation encouraged me to spot every single point. Also, it changed me from a fast-doing test taker to be a last-doing test taker because I need to be careful. 
__________
Reference

Education news (2012, October 12). Pre-exam anxiety 'can boost grades'. BBC News Education Retrieved October 12, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19895531

5 comments:

  1. It reminds me about my university admission that I was very nurvous when I was doing Chemistry exam. It results from I could not cover all of this lesson that I was not good at and I concern about it until I stood before exam classroom. I have a severe stomach ache. I think it is a bad memory. Therefore, when I studied in university, I changed my behavior by making myself to release the tension and enjoy before the exam starts about half hour. That is a good way for me to dual with an exam. In my opinion, to dual with any problems with clear mind helps you solving a problem better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I know why we are anxious when we are in examination period. The reason is expectations. We expect that we will finish and receive an excellent results. We expect the results of these exam might affect our future lives. Beyond that, everyone around us expect that we will have done the best results and will finally have had the best lives. When all expectations flow from every directions into only one target, us, we will force ourselves to work hard and there have some mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression or anorexia developed inside us.
    However,a little worry has a benefit because it is concern us to carefully spend lives. Therefore, many accidents will decrease dramatically.
    There is an idea answering why we are nervous because we are not as tough as Hillary Clinton as Peter's mention. Although we have been practiced a lot, we still feel nervous when we have an exam, especially English speaking test or even presentation in front of the class. The only way to reduce nervousness is practice and practice; many people said that. I don't think we can completely reduce nervousness, but we will be more confident and can control our excitement. Consequently, whatever will happen, we will continue until reaching at the end.
    Finally, readiness won't come, so won't wait it. Just do it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that most people who have to do exam or be in some event which they though it is very importance feel nervous before they do it, although whatever how old they are. There is the most important reason to support why most people feel nervous or worry about their events because most people think that they might do the test or be in that event as not well as they though it would be because their feeling s are too exciting, so that make self-pressure and then that it would become much stressful after they worried about it too much. These phenomena might occur with everyone when they were in important events.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with "that for people who have low working-memory skills, increases in anxiety led to decreases in their test scores. Conversely, for people who have high working-memory skills, increases in anxiety contributed to increases in their test performance". For me, this always happen, I always feel nervous about any exam and, because I have low working-momory skills, the anxiety leds to decrease in my test scores. I try to change this, but is hard. I'm afraid to forget important things and this concern is terrible!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have a low working-memory and feel nervous specially when I study hard. I can't have confidence in my memory so I get into panic with difficult question. Because of this, I am a fast-doing tast taker which can be finished hard time faster. Actually, I want to be a last-doing tast taker and take exam more carefully, but I'm afraid of incresing mistakes which is caused by my dim memory.

    ReplyDelete

Before you click the blue "Publish" button for your first comment on a post, check ✔ the "Notify me" box. You want to know when your classmates contribute to a discussion you have joined.

A thoughtful response should normally mean writing for five to ten minutes. After you state your main idea, some details, explanation, examples or other follow up will help your readers.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.