The future of commerce graduates lies in what they focus on for their future growth. If you like accounts, you may join courses in Chartered Accountancy (CA) or Cost ‘n’ Works Accountancy (CWA) or even Company Secretaryship (CS). If interested in management, you can go for MBA.

Similar to UPSC Civil Services, various states conduct civil services examination for their residents. State-level exams are supposed to be easier to crack. The Haryana Public Service Commission HPSC (https://hpsc.gov.in/) conducts an examination every year. The exam is in three steps: prelims exam, mains exam and interview, and eligibility is graduation.

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It is believed that studying anything 20-30 minutes before the exam, is a major cause of anxiety faced during the examination. Avoid doing the same, and also avoid asking your friends about what is important and what is not. Studying last minute is going to make you more anxious and the possibility of remembering is minimal.

• Do not enter the examination on an empty stomach.
• Sleep for at least 6-7 hours prior to writing the exam.
• Do not study anything 30 minutes before the exam.
• Stay away from negative people who will add to your stress.
• Keep yourself well hydrated, carry juice/electrol with you; sometimes it can be very handy.
• Check your stationery well in advance to avoid last-minute hassles.
• Practise deep breathing exercises if you feel very nervous.
• Open and close your fist if you are anxious and feel any kind of stiffness.
• Ask for permission to stand up and stretch, sometimes your muscles can get tensed if you are stressed. Stretching can help you destress.

In case the situation is beyond your control, ask for help.

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Exam season is approaching, which can make it challenging to prioritise healthy habits due to late-night studying, lack of sleep, piles of highlighted study notes and textbooks. However, maintaining a healthy lifestyle even during challenging times will help you get the best outcome.

You may not know it, but your diet has a direct impact on how your body operates under various circumstances. Certain foods can boost mental clarity, memory recall and overall well-being, and can also boost energy levels. Here are a few guidelines for students to maintain a healthy lifestyle during exam time.

Rule 1: Never skip a meal

Sometimes you might feel tempted to skip a meal in order to finish studying one more chapter, but ignoring your hunger cues and skipping a meal is only going to set you back.

The brain requires adequate glucose for proper functioning. While studying, there is a constant inclination to munch on sweets (biscuits, chocolates) and heavily salted foods (crisps, farsan). Simple sugars from candies and sweets cause a brief spike in energy, which is followed by a collapse in blood sugar levels that causes exhaustion, lethargy and other symptoms.

Include slow-releasing carbohydrates in your meals, such as whole grain roti, bread or porridge made with whole rolled oats. Add a protein-rich food such as milk, yoghurt or eggs, to your meal to help you feel satiated for a longer period.

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Exam stress or test anxiety involves a combination of excessively negative feelings, worry and dread about test performance and often interferes with normal learning and lowers exam performance. It is prevalent amongst students all over the world. The words ‘pressure’ and ‘stress’ are often used interchangeably, but in fact they are quite different.

Pressure can be positive and useful to complete deadlines or to help somebody avoid danger. However, when pressure is prolonged, it can be negative, and depending on how the individual perceives it and reacts to it, it can lead to the development of stress.

Exam stress is a natural reaction to too much pressure and can come from a number of sources, viz., young people themselves, comparisons with others, wanting to reach over-ambitious goals, pressure to excel in an exam from family members and peer pressure or pressure from teachers.

Symptoms of exam stress or test anxiety

Some people feel pressure and develop stress symptoms more readily than others. When someone is faced with increased pressure (in this case at exam time) their body can go into a response which releases increased amounts of stress chemicals in the body. This can lead to various symptoms including:

• Feeling cranky and irritable.
• Feeling inadequate and negative self-talk.
• Problems sleeping or waking up from sleep.

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We all love travelling, don’t we? Let’s recollect one of all our favourite times of the year — our summer vacation, a month-long holiday, for which we start planning months prior to it. The list is as long as the number of hours to reach our holiday destination, isn’t it? But as we travel to our destination, sometimes we still forget something or miss out on something. But do you give up going on holiday? Never! Instead we quickly tell ourselves that we shall be even better-prepared the next time.

You must be wondering, I have been talking about travelling and packing, but the topic states ‘Studying’ and ‘Exam’. So now let us understand this Train from Studying to Exam, which is one of its kind. We all get jitters during our exams, as very often we are never prepared for it. But when you plan and study, you automatically become super confident.

Let’s create a simple itinerary which can be followed to make this journey smooth. Start with making a combination of subjects which are your favourite and the least favourite, then choose the time of the day when you are most active.

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The root cause of stress and anxiety among students can be pin-pointed to the fear of examinations, failure to live up to parental expectations and peer pressure. The present education system has been giving undue importance to the singular aspect called ‘result’. Parents, in their over-enthusiasm, tend to impose lofty expectations on children even to out-perform their peers. They, in fact, try to live their own ambitions through their children without making any effort to know the areas of interest of their kids. Children are made to feel miserable when they fail in school examinations. This robs them of the very joy of their life. Mere blind focus on academic performance has been putting a tremendous pressure on the child.

It requires a tower of strength to smoothen the knitted eyebrows of the family members and rescue the wretched, tongue-tied poor candidate, who has possibly spent nights on a sleepless pillow and burnt the midnight oil with sincerity, and yet has not lived up to the vaulting ambitions of the family. What we fail to realize is that fierce competition and increasing social expectations have put a heavy pressure on students to perform in academics alone.

With the rise of technology integration in diverse fields and a great demand for application-oriented and knowledgeable candidates from the employers, many parents have begun understanding the wider scheme of things and have consequently stopped pressuring the students. But there are miles to go before we are able to break free from this adamantine chain. Parents need to provide assurance to their children that success is not the half-brother of results. They can succeed in life even though they might fail to secure the highest marks in their regular examinations. They need to be encouraged to be practical, positive and passionate in their efforts. Parents need to harness their unreasonable ambitions and set realistic targets, empower the kids to look at failure with the eye of positivity in opposition to the traditional approach of doubt and frustration.

The educational arena is yet to witness major reforms in our country. However, the newly approved National Education Policy offers a transformative vision for the segment of education. With the NEP 2020, we foresee major changes taking place at all levels in the Indian education system and potentiality to transform India into a “vibrant knowledge hub” making it a global knowledge superpower. It emphasizes on conceptual understanding rather than rote learning; seeks to develop knowledge, skills and values to nurture responsible global citizens. Students are the valued resource of our country and the responsibility of nurturing and equipping them for the future completely rests on the education they receive. With greater focus on application-oriented conceptual learning, examinations would then become an easily accepted self-assessing tool rather than being a weapon of stress, anxiety and excruciating mental torture.

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Examinations are around the corner. For many students examination days are days of fear and worry. As a result, they are unable to concentrate and make any progress. Examinations are not to be considered as essential for our education process. All the same, they help us to make an evaluation; it is an opportunity to feel proud of ourselves and a time to check out our style and methods of studying and preparing. Examinations help us measure our intellectual calibre, memory power and concentration.

Success in exams depends on a positive condition of mind and body, or the power of work and courage. The more we invest ourselves in an exam, the better are our chances of success.

In order to prepare well in advance, we need self-confidence and a strong mind to dedicate time and energy to prepare for an examination.

Preparation can be on three levels:

a. Remote preparation
This is the time to learn and record as many facts as possible. This is usually done by reading books and material eagerly and extensively. Here your intention is to improve your treasure of knowledge. It is this study that helps you to outshine other students. Daily study and preparation of the next day’s classes also come within the purview of remote preparation.

b. Mediate Preparation
At this level, students should focus more on the syllabus and study, keeping the examination in mind. Sure and complete reading and studying are necessary to score good marks in the examination. Sufficient revisions have to be made and the subject must be clear to the student. Here, the student takes short notes using different systems like preparing short note cards based on a topic. Each card will deal with one subject.

c. Immediate preparation
Immediate preparation is done when the exams are just under your nose. You will have no time to spare for any other purpose. Your mind will be filled with exam “mania”. This is the time for intense concentration, and making the best use of your memory. The cards or the short notes you have made during the second stage will be of great help here.

There are certain things in life that we need to do though we do not like them, as they are essential for our growth. Most of the time it is these painful things and experiences that promote our growth and success. William James, the American psychologist, used to say, “Everyone, especially young people, should do everyday something which one does not like to do.”

Certain things in life require nothing less than full commitment. Examinations are one such thing which require full commitment and hard work. Examination demands toil and pain of studying with intense concentration. This develops the discipline needed to do what is necessary even though it may be unpleasant. Anything worthwhile in life demands sacrifice, pain and self-discipline.

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