Exam time : Make or break the term
Elton Gomori
Youth Interactive Correspondent
As the temperatures are uncompromisingly engaging the increase mode, the jacarandas are blooming right where they are planted in their glorious purple.
This term marks the occurrence of a do-or-die term in the Zimbabwean school calendar as Grade 7 public examination classes completed their examinations and those of high school students are ongoing.
Notwithstanding public examinations that are underway across the country, the buck also stops with all non-public exam class primary and secondary students as they will be taking end-of-year examinations in a few weeks.
That it’s time for students to reap what sowed is neither open to doubt nor anywhere close to ambiguity.
Considering the enormousness of the academic work covered during the year and prior, examinations must not be met with an aura of animosity or an element of resentment.
Examinations are to a student as the arena is to an actor in a theatre.
It’s the time for candidates to shine; albeit it may be a mammoth task for those who may be inadequately prepared.
Just like in many other endeavors, success in examinations is significantly contingent upon the right mental attitude.
To calibrate and foster a positive mental framework towards examinations, it is of prime importance for candidates to massacre the spirit of fear and timidity.
This can only be realised if and only if, as candidates, you treat them as a necessary process and a means to the end as opposed to treating them as the ultimate determiner of the wellness of life.
There is certainly life after examinations and they ought to be approached as such.
The magic of success in examinations largely hinges on preparation.
Part of the preparation you need has been done already but now is certainly not the time to wallow in complacency and put tools down.
In the field of academia, it can not be over until it’s over.
Remain focused and put all proverbial hands on the deck.
Now is the time to either convert your knowledge and skills into academic grades or to technically amass the information you need for good grades, the buzzword is focus.
Eliminate distractions like social media, games or watching television. Starve yourself of those luxuries so that you commit yourself wholly to your revision.
Even though time is not on your side now, your mind still harbors the ability and agility to assimilate and accommodate new concepts and knowledge blocks.
It is against this background that reading, watching tutorials, attempting typical examination papers, and consulting with your teachers around your learning grey areas should be your preoccupation at the moment.
You can still upgrade or transform your academic tides.
Now is the right time to be deaf to discouragement, blind to impossibilities, and dumped to negativity.
We have been so privileged to be living in this day and era; the information age, when and where relevant information on any subject matter is in abundance.
If you find yourself dubious concerning some concept, I urge you to make use of the internet when carrying out your personal or peer revision.
I remember addressing students in Harare recently on a similar issue, I alluded to that the best elementary, secondary, or tertiary institution of learning is ‘The YouTube Group of Schools’.
In as much as it may sound ridiculous, there is a huge sense of truism in that YouTube is replete with useful audio and visual resources in the form of tutorials that are so useful in exam preparation.
Such resources can be used as aids to books, peer to peer as well as teacher-to-student interactions.
During the examinations, do due diligence in following instructions and also manage your time circumspectly so that you can be able to apply your relevant knowledge on the examination scripts as much as will be required.
Avoid discussing and reflecting on examinations that you would have finished writing to safeguard yourselves from falling into the dungeon of stress and depression as you may discover your shortcomings and blunders you might have made.
There is no use crying over spilled milk.
To all students facing exams, you are the academic maverick you have been waiting for. Approach the exams as if your life depends on them; because it does.
Give it your best shot, it has to be excellence on display or nothing at all. Excellence is mandatory, it is not optional at all.
The writer, Elton Gomori, is a teacher and public speaking coach at Nattie Junior School in Harare.
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