You Decide,

You Rule!

Applying the winner's mentality towards exams

Category: Schools and Education
By Marcus Ong

Many times in our lives, we are called upon to take major examinations as an evaluation tool on our actual understanding of a subject matter. Exams and tests are here to stay as long as employers need actual proof of an employee's academic competence. However, there are different ways that we can react towards exams which will determine our relative success. How do we explain that some students ace exams effortlessly and others struggle constantly to get a pass? The reason cannot be due to superior IQs alone or pure diligent efforts on the part of the students. The more important factor is what I call the "winner's mentality".

Most students fear exams where stress coupled with loads of materials to study will do much damage even to the most intelligent minds amongst us. I believe that most students studied hard for their exams but the results did not do justice to the hard work put in. The common experience is that candidates blanked out during the actual paper itself putting to waste months of intense revision. The chief reason is fear of the exam coupled with a loser's mentality. It is indeed sad to see candidates underperforming due to irrational fear of the paper. Did this happen to you before and wonder how you can put a stop to it permanently?

All of us have memory files in our brains and unfortunately humans have the tendency to recall sad events with more ease than happy events. I remembered as a young child, I was scolded by a math teacher and branded as a complete failure in the subject that I will never be able to ace the subject. I was hurt emotionally as a child and this incident surfaces every time I take a major exam. The irony was that I was living my math teacher's prediction that I will be a complete failure in math that subconsciously, I will underperform for the math paper despite ample preparation. One fine day, I decided to put a stop to this problem once and for all by adopting the winner's mentality.

How to activate the winner's mentality to help you ace your exam? You may think that what I am going to suggest is a bit crazy but it works perfectly for me and those that I have taught the technique to. Before you can experience the success of this technique, I will like to say that it is not a magical formula to replace the revision you need to do before each paper. You can do the following the morning before you go for your exams. Say the following phrase facing the mirror: " I am the master of my own destiny and I will ace my paper today." Watch yourself in the mirror as you say these words and observe the confident look on your face. By the way, do inject some energy when you say these words. If you do not like what you see, repeat again one more time with more conviction. You will be able to do so with a little practice. My own experience was that I saw the mental picture of myself whenever I felt anxious during the paper later that day. The powerful thing is that my mind cleared up very fast and I was able to solve the problems easily. The results were amazingly good that I was able to ace the paper effortlessly. I never look back since I implemented this simple exercise knowing that I am the master of my own destiny. Do not let external factors decide the outcome for you and learn to trust in your innate gift I hope that you can help yourself too if you are always doing badly for major exams. You just need to have more faith in your ability that you can do well too. No one is born stupid in this world but many choose to believe that they are stupid. This is the real tragedy in my honest opinion.  

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Marcus Ong is a tuition consultant with We Care Tuition Agency.

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