Challenges Students Face While Giving Exams

Exams are the one thing that students dread all over the world. Studying day and night, preparing thoroughly and finally writing down all they have memorized can seem like a Herculean task. However, this is not the toughest part. According to research by Central Michigan University, students face a lot of challenges while giving their exams, ranging from anxiety to a complete mental block.

This is why giving an exam can be more challenging than preparing for it. Students need to have strong self-control and determination while writing their exams, to avoid any opposing thoughts or feelings, which can affect their performance.

In this blog, the various challenges faced by students while giving exams are identified and discussed. Read on to find out more.

Why do exams pose a challenge to students?

Exams exist for a reason. They are meant to test a student’s understanding and knowledge of a particular subject. Furthermore, they act as tools for professors, instructors and teachers to determine the academic proficiency of a student and gauge their level of academic excellence. However, not all students can handle exams the same way as others.

The mere thought of exams approaching makes some students feel nauseous and anxious. Some students start panicking and question their level of preparation. Some even start to have depressive feelings, seriously affecting their psychological and mental health.

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According to insight by Princeton University, there are several reasons why students tend to fear exams so much.

• Fear of failing

Students who did not have sufficient time to prepare may experience disturbing thoughts about their performance. They might feel that they will fail even after giving their best attempt.

• Lack of preparation

Students who hardly had any time to prepare and always availed of Economics assignment help to write their homework may feel like they will flunk their exams. This can cause them a great deal of stress and anxiety.

• Previous negative experiences while giving exams

Students who did not fare well previously in their exams may have feelings of doubt and uncertainty over their current tests. They might feel that the same thing will happen to them again.

Thus, these are some of the reasons why students tend to have exam fear or anxiety. However, in addition to these reasons above, students face different challenges while taking exams, which further adds to their woes, as discussed below.

Challenges students face while giving exams

There are several challenges that students face while giving their exams. Have a look at them.

• Unfamiliar environments

A student often needs to travel to a different centre or institution for giving their exams. The new environment can be totally different from what they were accustomed to in their schools and colleges. This sudden change in their environments hardly provides them with any time to acclimatize.

Thus, students have to adjust to the new place, surroundings, infrastructure, meals, and others. Already they have an ongoing pressure of giving their exams. Top that with a change in the surroundings, and they have a real problem on their hands.

• Timely arrival

 Continuing from the first point, if students’ exam centres are different, they will have to figure out the best possible route to travel. This can prove to be a huge bummer for them as they will have to prepare in advance to travel to their centres. This means checking out the travel routes, public transport options, etc.

 However, despite taking all measures, it can happen that they arrive late to their destinations, which can cause them unnecessary stress and anxiety. Also, arriving late means they will have less time to finish their exams, which can severely affect the quality of their performance.

• No provisions for food

Some exams can go on for hours at a stretch. You can be looking at sitting on your desk for 3-4 hours without having anything to eat. The process of writing your answers is in itself stressful and burns up a lot of calories while you mentally prepare your answers and write them on paper.

However, combine that with long hours with no food, and you have a real problem on your hands. Without food as fuel to burn, you tend to feel sluggish and tired. You will also have difficulty remembering what you studied for your test, and writing answers down can be highly tedious on an empty stomach.

• Lack of proper infrastructure

Some exam centres may fail to provide students with basic infrastructure for writing their exams. This includes lack of proper sitting areas, unavailability of desks, lack of sheets, unpleasant exam environments like too warm or cold, etc.

This is one of the most common issues that students face while giving their exams and cause a great deal of stress and frustration. If your exam centre’s infrastructure is not up to the mark, it can severely affect your exam performance.

• Lack of exam management

Some exam centres have poor exam management leading to serious inconveniences on the students’ part. For example, the exam halls might be filled with distracting noises, no prevention for unethical activities, and even lack of any invigilator or supervisor. Thus, it can become hard for students to give their exams and concentrate on writing properly.

Lack of proper exam management can also lead to unjust results where students who passed or managed to write their answers through illicit means have the edge over others who properly gave their exams.

• Mental block

Even after having a positive exam environment and being well-prepared, some students experience what is called a mental block. This essentially means forgetting the answers that you know and had prepared for. This is one of the most common types of problems that students face while writing their exams and occurs mainly due to excessive stress or lack of sleep the previous night.

Some students may also face a mental block due to the other points mentioned above, like lack of proper infrastructure, management, unfamiliar environments, etc. All of which can affect one’s ability to think straight and concentrate on their answers.

As you can see, these are some of the challenges that students worldwide face while giving their exams. Although the problems are more persistent and defined in developing countries, there have been reported instances of it occurring in developed and first-world countries as well.

Steps to reduce exam challenges

Although the challenges mentioned above require thorough inspection and analysis, there are some steps that you, as a student, can take to minimize the effects of the obstacles.

• Solve sample test papers and previous year questions to have an idea of the exam pattern
• Get a good night’s sleep to ensure you feel motivated and energized the next day.
• Have a healthy breakfast in the morning before arriving for your test
• Try to reach your exam centre early to prevent any unforeseen circumstances from making you late
• Try to sit for your exam with a positive mind

Although these tips will help minimize the effects of some challenges, others that are not in your hand, like lack of proper infrastructure and unfamiliar environments, will be hard to ignore. However, having a positive mindset can help to minimize the effects of these to some extent.

Final thoughts

Thousands of students worldwide experience some challenge, issue or problem while sitting for their exams. While exams are an indispensable part of our student lives, it is up to us to handle the negatives to the best of our advantage and give our exams to the best of our abilities.

Author Bio

William Smith is a retired professor of Law at a reputed university in the US. He is also associated with Allessaywriter.com as an Law Assignment Help expert and loves guiding young students with their in-class coursework and other assignments.