Facing examinations with confidence

Fear Factor

For students, board examinations have always been a cause of utmost stress. The notion of these exams being the high point of one’s life and how it decides the future ahead puts the students through unwanted tension.

With ICSE exams starting today, and CBSE tenth grade exams starting on March 2, Metrolife talks to school authorities, students and counsellors about how they are handling the exam fever.

Lakshmi Rao, principal of National Public School, Koramangala, talks about the students in her school. “We have very few students, just about 30 per class. So we give personal attention to each student. Our teachers go out of their way to clear doubts.”
She adds, “We also have counsellors to help them out any minute and our teachers are very approachable.”

Lakshmi feels the best way to curb tension is to prepare well and not compare one student with another. “We tell the students not to compare notes, and not to panic before an exam,” she firmly says.

Tristha Ramamurthy, vice-president of the CMR Trust, which runs the CMR National Public School, Kalyan Nagar, says, “Our teachers list out the students who need extra care, and they are directed to the counsellors. We do sittings with parents, where we try to find out about their expectations and understand their home situations better. We also bring in speakers from outside for stress management.”

From the student’s perspective, most have found ways to handle stress. Vishuwaesh Balaji, a tenth grader from Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, says, “Whenever I feel stressed, I just go and play a game of basketball, and it helps beat the stress. I go for long walks or to my grandfather’s place or listen to music. The school’s trial papers, other question papers and study material online have helped a lot to prepare and stay confident.”

“I’m often stressed and I try to take breaks between my study sessions to curb it. I watch television to relax or play football. When I’m really stressed, I turn to my parents or my grandfather for advice and consolation,” says Arjun P, a student of Sindhi High School, Hebbal.

He adds, “At school, workshops were organised to make us feel better, which gave us pointers about how to stay calm and improve our concentration.”  

Counselling centres and helplines across the City have been receiving a variety of calls during this time. Githanjlee, a counsellor with Mind Care, a counselling centre at Rajajinagar, says, “There have been at least 10 cases, where the parents have complained about their children not concentrating well and being distracted. The children by themselves seem to be very relaxed and calm, it’s the parents who seem to be more stressed.”

Agrees Preethi Lobo, a counsellor with Swaraa, a counselling centre at HSR Layout, “About 50 per cent of the calls we got around this exam time were calls from adolescents expressing their anxieties. The peer pressure and the expectations seem to be weighing them down. We call the children and their parents and have a sitting with them together only to find that the parents are in fact more stressed than the students.”

Ali Khwaja from Banjara Academy, R T Nagar, details, “There have been almost 300 cases that we’ve attended to, which vary from two-minute phone calls to many sittings with the children and parents. There have been cases varying from slightly stressed children to students who’ve developed fever out of worrying, and some not wanting to sit for the exams at all. We try and help the students with tips to calm down, and help with their preparations.”

Prabhavathi, a counsellor from Makkala Sahaya Vani, says, “The usual distress calls are there but we haven’t really received many distress calls for the board exams specifically.”

Helping hand

Makkala Sahaya Vani – 1098
Mind Care, Rajajinagar – 9845629195
Swaraa, HSR Layout – 9632166335
Banjara Academy, RT Nagar – 23535766 / 26575101