Page 8 - Failure to Triumph - Journey of A Student

no matter how it goes. Your years of hard work and determination
can be at stake because of those few weeks.

The exam pressure will affect your overall performance. It won’t
allow you to secure the grades you deserve. Let me illustrate this
with an example.
Once a student of mine, who used to score very well in the mock
tests, could not manage her time during an exam. She left some
questions unsolved which lead to her failure. I asked her, “You
performed exceptionally well in the mock tests. Why could you not
replicate it in the final exam?”

She told me that she was very tensed during the exam. She gave
the instance of the Mathematics questions. She was taught many
tricks to save time and solve the questions quickly. She had learnt
the art of speed and accuracy. But to write a test at home in a stress-
free environment is one thing and to score in a stressful environment

at the examination venue is entirely different. She cited the example
of a question where she had to multiply 125 by 225. She knew how
to solve this type of questions and she went ahead and used her
learning to find out the answer. However, she was not sure of her
answer. The answer that she had calculated was in fact there as one
of the four options but her hands were shaking and she could not
mark the answer. Somewhere within her, she did not fully believe in

the trick. She gave up on the trick and solved that question in the
traditional way. She cross-checked her answer and only then marked
the correct one. But a lot of time was wasted in this entire process
and this became the reason why she could not score better.
This is similar to a football player practicing penalties during training
sessions. Practice training is different from the actual match. To

score a penalty in an actual match (when the gaze of the entire world
is on you) requires practice and most importantly, a calm mind.
Cicero said, “The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm
and tranquil.”

What happened to this student of mine happens to all of us. We
perform well in mock tests. We are in our comfort zones and we

write the tests without any fear and thus we give our best