Smiling with Exam Stress - In Conversation with Sir at Sorsfort

1. Smiling with Exam Stress In Conversation with For more Click, www.Sorsfort.edu.in The word “Examination” always pumps our Adrenalin up and we feel that unique stir in our hearts whenever we think of entering the examination hall. Why is this so? Why at least 90% of us have faced this? Some of us might have even missed a life changing opportunity owing to this stress during an exam or a job interview. Do we want the same to repeat with our children/ present generation students? We as parents, teachers and school definitely not want our children to settle for anything less than their best caliber. Given this generation of student is more pressurized than us we want some tools and techniques to help students do their best in each exam and excel in their lives. Today’s program focuses on particular problem child is facing during exam and the solutions developed with in Sadvidya curriculum to manage this examination stress. Here we have parents of students from different schools and Shree Kuldeep Surolia ji as the resource person. Parent 1: My child is in grade 7. He always gets nervous whenever I ask him about his studies. I am really worried if he is so nervous with me, then how can he even enter the exam hall and solve the question paper? Answer by Sir: You told your child gets nervous when you talk of studies. That says he is not always nervous; he is a happy and healthy child. This is really a positive thing. Coming to the problem, he is not interested in studies. You as a parent please try to figure out why he has developed dislike for studies. Talk to his teachers share your experience and listen to their experience with him at school. You will get the larger picture. May be he is more interested in some other activities at school or maybe he has difficulty in getting the academic concepts, or he may be facing difficulties in recollecting the concepts. Or are there more serious issues like he is feeling inferior to his friends or doesn’t like his teacher/ school or something of that sort. Before you worry about his boards at the end of this academic year, give him an opportunity so that he starts liking his studies. Create interest in studies. I will assume, he is good at say Cricket, ask him how he feels when he is going to bat happy or nervous or sad? He will be for sure happy. Because this chance to bat will give him something he likes to do. Right? Apply this technique to his studies. Read with him, help him in his assignments, and create an atmosphere that study time will be his time to interact with you- the person he loves the most. This kind of working together slowly creates interest in his studies; later he can group study with his friends. Additionally you or his teacher may create a game related to his studies. Last year some of my students made a game. They would write the names of different countries in chits and pop them in air; students would pick single chits and feel happy they went to that country which they picked. They repeatedly came to teachers asking for names of different countries. Similarly you can do it; given your child is older than these students, you may lengthen the game. Like tell which language they spoke in that country, what is the capital city; ethnicity, famous food, famous persons from that country etc can be added in the game. I have few other young students who were not good at addition. They would not answer what is 27+ 33. If you change the question as on your birthday you are distributing 27 chocolates to your friends in your grade1 class and 33 chocolates in grade 2, then how many chocolates will you get to school then 1 | P a g e SORSFORT

2. the student came out with correct answer albeit she took a little while but came out with proper answer. Check if this is the pattern with your child. He may be facing problem with the way of presentation. To sum up my point first make him like his studies. Once he gets command over his learning, examinations play a stage where he can show his talent similar to that of a cricket ground where he loves to play. Children will feel pressurized when we take exams even when they are prepared for it. You child, sadly, is not even interested in learning then if you talk of exams he feels burned out. I would suggest you not to remind him of his exams right now, he has 4 full months or 120 days before that day. Given more than half year has already passed, do not expect him to be the topper this year. Being topper is like the tip of ice berg. There is more than 90% not showing up; so for now work on the bottom lines. First let him –slowly start appreciating the efforts of his teachers, schools, parents and the society to make him a better person in future by means of education. Let us teach him sadvidya components of loving his work, dedication towards his duty and thanking the helpers who work for his betterment. Once his inner frictions are cleared, he will do the best at examinations too. Parent 2: My child is in 9th grade, she is good at studies. She performs well in unit tests but not in final examination. This is the pattern from last 8 years. As a result she is depressed. Please suggest a possible solution. Answer by Sir: It is good to know your child is good at studies. She would probably have one of the following or both the problems. 1.Lack of proper revision of full syllabus. 2.Too much pressure about the final exam expectations. If her problem is with revision the solution is simple- “Start earlier”. Usually it happens that children learn and remember easily when syllabus is limited. So they do well at unit tests. But during the final exam they need to cover entire syllabus. Students get overwhelmed here, they get scared. If this happens, they lose half of the battle before it begins. To overcome this, revision of the entire syllabus should be started at the earliest. If you can dedicate 3 months for revision, then you can revise entire syllabus 3, 4, 5 times. This is more than enough to remember what you studied even 5 years after that exam. Then obviously your exam will go excellent. Let me take an example, before your child started with nursery rhymes, didn’t you remember ‘twinkle twinkle little star?’ You did, yes? You didn’t recite that poem from almost 20 years yet you remembered it. Why? It is because you would repeat that rhyme at least once in a day for 2 years in your junior and senior kindergarten. Your nervous system preserved it for next 20 years; this memory 2 | P a g e SORSFORT

3. got refreshed when you recited it with your child in her nursery. Of course remembering 10 text books word to word is not easy but we can definitely remember the main concepts if we revise 3- 5 times in an academic years. Thus can do well even when the syllabus for examination is more. Her second problem could be too much expectation. It is natural that she and you expect her to excel, be among toppers in the final exams. See if this makes her nervous. Children, especially teens feel it as moral pressure when their parents expect high grades from them. They will also feel inferiority complex when the expectations are not met. This inferiority complex lessens their ability to work properly again they do less than expectation and this poison cycle continues. Talk to her like a friend. A teen age child is a friend. Tell her it is ok if her scores are less but it is not ok if she leaves her syllabus un- revised. Accompany her for an evening walk; do not talk about studies during that time. Share your past, ask her plans for future, tell what is going on in family etc. After returning home provides her with study friendly atmosphere, healthy balanced diet. If she loves to eat junk food repeatedly tell her this would badly influence her health and thus her performance in exam. The day before exam take care she gets proper sleep. On the day of exam make her meditates, do simple breathing exercises and ask her to stay calm during exam. This will for sure help her focus and perform better. Parent 3: What should do for a student so that he/ she cope with exam pressure? Answer by Sir: As I told in the first answer the student should feel exams are a bench mark to prove his/her potential not something that leaves him the guilt of failure. This is possible only when students study and learn their subjects. The way all schools create and adhere to a strict timetable at school, student should adhere to another time table at home. Allow a dedicated time lot for sleeping, eating, studying, playing and family time. Research’s of west say we need 8-10 hours of sleep to be active but ancient Indian science tells 4 hours is sufficient if we practice yoga. So we leave it to individual choice. Find out your child’s best possible time. But do fix a time of sleep and wake up time. After the child freshens up make sure to engage in mild physical activity or simple yoga depending on the age of the child. Physical activity should be for at least 45min for children above age of 10. Then practice simple breathing and exercise. Do not neglect personal hygiene encourage them to take bath and pray or again sit silently for another5 min. this will make the mind ready to go through the day with focus. Healthy – balanced diet is vital for human beings. Provide your child with it. Vedic science says that we are what we eat so please cut on tamasik food; avoid or minimize rajasik food that is food highly processed, fried, too sweet, too salty and too spicy. Eat satvik food that provides freshness and energy like fresh fruits, veggies, soups without preservatives, hygienically freshly cooked food must be eaten. Encourage your children to practice Mind- memory- meditation techniques which I teach at Sorsfort you can learn them from me. Or go through internet for such other techniques. Students have to study until they get it through. Based on individual caliber and age students should read every day for 3, 4 , 6 hours after school hours Tell your children the values of hard work, honest attempt in exams- no mal practicing, and make them understand the efforts put by you, their school and society to build their futures. If they develop gratitude they feel to give it back then they do not fail to give their honest attempts in their work. Make them feel loved, they will understand they can’t give back enough to the true love you have in them. It makes them do their best. A person who receives unconditional love as child gives it back as an adult. Unconditional love is an advanced sadvidya component. Where there is love, pressure/ stress doesn’t find any place there. If these practices and feelings become a daily routine they will carry on with every exam with utmost grace. 3 | P a g e SORSFORT

4. Parent 4: How will I make my child face any exam without any stress? Answer by Sir: A little stress is good. It will make the child realize importance of examination. If we do not pressurize at all then chances are there young kids take it too easily. Just make them know exams and performance in exam matters a lot, at the same time we should also teach them exam is not life and failure is not end of life. This is a double edged sword; we have to be very conscious☺ We know that stress causes muscle stiffness, palpitations, increased blood pressure, fast breathing this harms our health, floods mind with negative thoughts, shatters confidence and many such ill effects are there. Coming to your question it is really great if you teach a child to face any exam without stress- not just school exams but also exams life poses before him/her as the child grows. This is the aim we work on Sadvidya aspect in our curriculum. We can make a child – also we can grow ourselves- into a calm and relaxed person. This could be done if we create a condition opposite to that created by stress in our bodies. For example stress creates muscle stiffness then we have to consciously relax our muscles. This could be done by yoga. Stress creates palpitations then we have to normalize our heart beats by doing slow and long breathing. Breathing exercises like anulom- vilom, bhastrika(slow inhale with normal exhale), Brhramari(creating bee sound) calms down our system, increase oxygen rention in the body. Thus speed up metabolism and blood circulation and provide with energy and focus. Yogasanas like Shirsasana, Anjali Mudra (Salutation Seal) Sukhasana (Easy Pose) Marjaryasana (Cat Pose) Bitilasana (Cow Pose) Uttana Shishosana (Extended Puppy Pose) Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend) Balasana (Child’s Pose)and Savasana (Corpse Pose) are perfect stress busters. Next is meditation. Many scholars teach different types of meditations, in essence meditation is the technique to calm the mind. The basic method of meditation is to sit comfortably, close eyes and concentrate on our breath. Any passing by thoughts should be avoided. Once we learn and practice the technique meticulously in a short span of time like 2- 5 years we as a person will become calm and peaceful. Thus don’t easily get stressed out, distracted or irritated. So if you want your child to be a composed and truly calm to the core type of person first practice yourself and then teach the child Yoga, pranayama and Meditation. This would not only reduce the pressure of exam but also dilutes every type of stress in life. www.Sorsfort.edu.in 4 | P a g e SORSFORT