Breaking your fetters

Exams are often considered a ‘fear’ factor among children. Students of all age groups do have ‘exam phobia’ and undergo exam anxiety resulting in some sort of ‘exam fever’. Nervousness about the exams leading to fright begins even before one gets the question paper in the hand causing them to underperform. Some are able to take this tension with ease while some others find it difficult to do so. At times the extent of exam stress is too much for the students that some even take extreme measures. But those who are determined and dare to bounce back will succeed in life with perseverance and hard work.

Brian Acton was an American computer programmer and internet entrepreneur, whom no one wanted to hire in the mid-2009. Despite a dozen years of experience at Yahoo and Apple Computer, he got turned down by two of the internet’s most upcoming companies at that time, namely, Twitter and Facebook. When he could not find any company that would hire him, he teamed up with Jan Koum, and built the application WhatsApp that has dominated cloud-based messaging and is the most virally used social media in the world. Eventually Whatsapp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for about $19 billion in cash and stock, making Acton’s net worth around $3.8 billion.

Like Brian Acton, you too can bounce back if you have met with failures in life. Some of you might make the mistake of thinking that you cannot succeed to do something, simply because you failed at it once before. The fact is that failures are part of life and learning. As the proverb tells us “Failures are the stepping stones to success.” Hence never give up when you have to deal with hard struggles in life. Dr Navniit Gandhi in the cover story of this issue explains in six simple steps, how to break the shackles of exam phobia. She suggests several success mantras to help you stay better motivated, focused and appear for your exams with greater confidence. Follow the tips she has given which will definitely help you keep cool and perform better in your exams. Remember also that it is very important to write legibly and highlight the important points, the headings and the sub-headings while writing the exams.

“Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs”, said Leonardo da Vinci. Do not study because you have to. But study because knowledge will empower you, study because no one can take away the knowledge from you, study because it is your asset in life. Above all, study because it will give you confidence and help you snap your fetters and succeed in life.