“5 + 5 = 20” is not the type of mistake you expect from a graduate student who spent about a year learning pre-primary school Arithmetic, six years learning primary school-level Arithmetic, another six years learning secondary school Mathematics and having an A in WASSCE O-level, and an excellent year of university Mathematics, including Calculus. But such happens under examination conditions even though that is the time it just should not happen; not at all! I laughed at myself for days when I got a mid-term script and I had written that two fives will add up to twenty. I guess the other option would be to be mad at myself and for missing the answer but it is not the kind of question I cannot miss even if I just woke up from a nightmare. But I did.
We were (I think) to determine the total amount of nitrogen ions (or something) present in a water body pollutes by several species of nitrogen. My interpretation was spot on. The stoichiometry was without blemish. I had determined all the N-equivalent of all the species and just when I was to do the easiest part of the answering, my hand decided to be independent of my brain.
I’d let it go until today again something similar repeated itself: I have just missed a question in a driving test because in my mind the question had “…younger…”, but it was actually “…older…” I was expecting to miss one or two questions in all, but not the first question that I knew well like the back of my hand- asking about the BAC limit for drivers older than 21. I quickly checked the “accurate answer” but what I checked was an answer to what I thought the question was: BAC limit for drivers younger than 21. I missed no other question but that and it struck me how easy it is for us to fail exams and perform below our potential.
In both cases I will identify ‘exam tension’ as the chief suspect. That is what makes your hand shake uncontrollably when you hear “start”. That is what turns your pant to your handkerchief because you just cannot stop sweating even on this cold day. That is what pushes many people to start tilting their necks to a minimum of ninety degrees either way because it makes them even forget what they know. That is what makes you hold your pen like you are just learning how to write and all the sweat pores in your fingers just woke up from their long-time sleep. Exam tension does not only shake the hand, it also shakes the mind and you start to write, at times, the opposite of what you meant. Or the question suddenly looks twisted and there is no answer in the objectives. Perhaps, like me, you start to see something else other than what was asked and you are brilliantly answering the questions in the wrong way. Worse still, it could temporarily disconnect from your brain sockets the nerves that join your hand to your brain and connect it to your heart instead (which is beating like 500 times in a minute!)
It probably does not affect some people so badly; they just make one or two mistakes here and there and that’s it. But if you think of the fact that the difference between one grade and the next is usually a mark you would understand how important just one mistake could be. I guess I've not been badly hit thus far but it has nonetheless created a gap between my potential and my performance. And before the gap gets wider than it is already I’m going to have to plug it up! I know it affects you too every once in a while but here comes help. Yahoo!
But, I'm I in the right position to advise a victim of what I'm suffering from myself? Can I tell you how to overcome exam tension when I just fell a victim a couple of hours ago? I will assume I'm talking to myself henceforth… Adeyemi, you have to stop fidgeting in the exam hall so you stop missing questions cheaply. I will prescribe the following medicines and watch how you do in the next couple of days:
· Study well. Study well and cover all you need to cover to increase your confidence in the exam hall. One of the major promoters of tension is lack of confidence- full confidence that you are ready for this;
· Take it easy! You remember what you did that exam that your hand just couldn’t stop shaking? Stop writing! Drop your pen! Sit back, relax and chant some TONGUES! Ha!
· Don’t be in a rush to finish so you can read questions and write answers carefully. But if it’s a time-constrained exam and you have to rush; rush. But ensure you spend some time going through your answers again before submitting it. When going through assume you were wrong all this while, so be on the lookout for things to correct;
· Alright people, that’s all I know and I still need more advice from you guys. Please help so I don’t repeat this mistake again. Thanks.
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