It’s normal to feel a whole range of things before or after you get your exam results. How you feel is probably related. There are ways you can deal with the pressure of expectations. No exam result is so important that it will stop you achieving your goals in the long term.
Dealing with exam results
Getting exam results is a stressful experience. It can be really devastating if your marks are not that, what you expected, or you feel like you haven’t done well enough to live up to expectations – whether they’re yours, your family’s or someone else’s.
How results can affect you
Whether you’re waiting for results, or you’ve already got them, you could experience any of the following as part of ‘exam panic’:
- Disappointment or depression
- Stress or anxiety
- Happiness or excitement
- Guilt, confusion or sadness
- Illness
- Numbness
- Anger
Dealing with pressure and expectations
You could be someone who gets motivated and energized by pressure and expectation. But even if you are like that, both pressure and expectation can become too much, and end up harming your performance and outlook more than they help. There are some things you can do to deal with pressure. They include:
- Talking to someone outside the situation, like a friend or counsellor.
- Talking to the person setting the expectations, and try to make it clear they’re not helping.
- Re-setting your own expectations – they could be unrealistic or just unhelpful.
- Taking some space – go for a walk, play sports or video games and give your brain a break.
- Writing down your feelings.
- Avoiding drugs and alcohol – they just help compound stress.
Also remember that your exam results are just that – marks given to one thing you wrote down, once. They’re not a number that reflects your worth, and they won’t stop you doing what you want in the long-term. After graduation we have entrance for post graduation’s almost every course. So, your exam marks now are quite likely to be irrelevant.
by Simran Jindal
for DU Times
