Exams and Stress

I was FRUSTRATED and ANGRY and WORRIED. It was December2010 and I was preparing for my ISC Boards. I was okay in practical subjects but hated theory ones and it seemed that I was not able to remember my theory lessons inspite of my best efforts and it all seemed a big void. Suddenly my Dad came from office and I blurted out my problem to him. He replied in his cryptic manner “YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REMEMBER YOUR LESSONS TILL YOU TRY TO REMEMBER THEM” I was aghast and shouted at him that what kind of answer is that? He smiled and said that I shall ask how it can be done instead of shouting at him like that. I suddenly felt ashamed as Dad is a natural Adviser and I have seen so many people seek his advice on so many matters. It led to the following conversation which changed my thinking forever; Me : How it is possible? Dad: It definitely is. You read so many novels. If I ask you can tell each and everything about plot . Me: Yes I can. Dad: Did you try to remember each and everything when you were reading it? Me: No Dad: Then how have you remembered it? What is the difference between novels and you study books? Me: Well……….(silent) Dad: You remembered it because you made no effort to remember. You simply read it and it is there in your mind. But you are trying to remember your lessons and you seem to forget everything. Our brains are just like computers with frontal memory (RAM)is used for immediate and important tasks and rest of the info is shifted to back memory(HARD DISK)to be retrieved as and when needed. If you try to cram frontal memory with info it would go to back memory and you would feel you have forgotten it. But it is there. Me: How can we retrieve it during exams ? What is the guarantee I will remember it? Dad: (Smiling) You would definitely if you would let it by having trust that you would remember it by being relaxed and by reading your subjects at least twice without trying to remember it and by making notes preferably by hand to jog your memory. It will be there in your mind from back memory when you need it. Me: You have got me confused. Now I cannot read without trying to remember and if your system doesn’t work I will be doomed. Dad: Well, You attempt your Prelims on this system and if your marks are not OK then I will take the responsibility and You can switch back to your own System. No harm in trying. Friends, I trusted my Dad’s advice and attempted my Prelims by simply reading the theory papers and not trying to remember anything. I was fully relaxed and responsibility being Dad’s I tried to do as he said. And I was surprised by my performance in prelims and I scored better marks in theory papers ,in fact better than practicals in one case. I was elated and thanked Dad for handing me the golden key of success in exams He again smiled that cryptic smile of his and said TRUST YOURSELF AND YOU CAN DO WONDERS. Really a simple way to trust my ability, faculty and capability of my mind has given me a dream run of securing top grades in ISC Exams in 2011, CPT in June2011 and IPCC Both Groups in May2012.In fact we are nowadays taught to trust nobody resulting in our inability to trust ourselves and our abilities. In fact we don’t trust our friends, teachers, books and anything. Confusion reigns supreme and tension is the result not letting us remember in time what we know during exams when it most needed and remembering it afterwards when we are relaxed but the info is not needed. Moreover the proliferation of computers has put paid to the habit of making NOTES by hand and it is a fact that writing notes with your hands create a far stronger flags in the brain than reading with your eyes because writing notes is infrequent activity and it helps remembering content once we start writing exams. I have put my CPT And IPCC NOTES and in the process of putting many more on my blog www.castudyarena.com I would request my friends to jot it down in their own way using the body of notes for their further reference and to use them during exams to revise their course. I hope my fellow friends will trust me and try out the system to gain better understanding and higher success as I have achieved. Till then CIAO.