Time has come for exams, tension, anxiety …..and hopefully the end of the academic year. Then the rush for admissions, entrance exams, confusion of which course to take.
We teach children for 12 years in school, but do not give them any skills to choose their careers. There is a mad rush for Computer Science Engineering or medicine, and lakhs of students prepare for years and years to crack JEE or NEET, without knowing what they are in for and where it is leading them.
It is the responsibility of all of us to give inputs and familiarize students, and their parents, about which career (out of innumerable lucrative choices) is suitable for any specific child, and to resist the herd mentality. Please make that effort…..
It is a question of their whole future, they need a little hand-holding.
How often have you felt that you are stressed out the moment you think of studies and exams? Have you ever felt like just giving up and running away somewhere? If you have faced or are facing such situations, did you ever stop to think how and why stress accumulates in some of us, while others are carefree and whistling their way through exams and life?
There are answers to these questions. All we need to do is to take a short break, stop getting stressed out by thinking of exams all the time, and pay attention to a few important facts. Otherwise we will become like the over-enthusiastic boy who was so happy when he got a contract to cut trees that he just went on chopping with all his might. He never stopped to sharpen his axe, with the result that all his efforts were in vain. The blunt axe could not cut, and in his frustration he kept hacking harder and harder till he dropped of exhaustion and lost the contract. Are you ready to sharpen your mental axe?
The countdown to exams has begun. You are probably counting days now, and are getting tensed, particularly when you think of those tough and boring subjects that you have begun to hate. No one can be good at all subjects. There are at least eight types of intelligence: mathe-logical, linguistic, interpersonal, intra-personal, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, spatial and ecological. Eventually you will find the right vocation that suits your intelligence, but right now you have to study all subjects from languages to technical ones. To make the best of it, here are a few tip:
As your exams get nearer, do not cut down on your sleep beyond rational limits. You can certainly do with 25-30% less sleep than average, but cutting it down to 50% or less can actually add to your strain. Keep up your hygiene, food habits, get fresh air and clear your mind periodically. On the day of the exam, don’t cram till the last moment. Have a healthy meal, go early and check out the place, talk to friends or family to calm down your nerves, and then begin the exam with the clear thought – it is just an exam, it is not going to kill you.
Technology has advanced immensely. Schools have state-of-the-art facilities in every aspect of child requirements, and millions are spent for providing all comforts and amenities to the students. Yet a survey by Banjara showed that 95% of all children, including those in high-end schools, still carry a water bottle in addition to the already heavy bag. Is it not possible to provide purified drinking water to the students in their classrooms? If we really cared for our children, we can think of these (and many similar) small steps to make life convenient to them.
We have still not managed to reduce the size (and weight) of the school bag in today’s e-learning era. We continue to give all our attention to home work, completion of portions, innumerable tests and exams, and rote learning.
If we wish to create a better world around us as the next generation takes over, it is high time we took some initiatives.