Support Your Child Before and During Exams
How To Support Your Child Before and During Exams
Exams can be extremely stressful for children in India. This is especially true in case of Board exams and entrance exams for higher studies. While teachers help children prepare for the exams academically, it is but one part of the overall process of preparation. Perhaps the most important aspect of exam preparation is being mentally and emotionally ready.
As parents, there are some things you can do to support your child during this crucial period in their lives. Let’s talk about some of them –
Expectations
It is true that all parents wish for their children to excel at academics and earn a high-paying job after graduation, only a tiny percentage of children will turn out this way. As parents, it is your job to know your child’s strengths and capabilities and nurture them accordingly. Sure, he or she is going to have classmates and cousins who are high-achieving, but never compare your son or daughter to those children.
Such comparisons during highly impressionable periods in life can leave a mark on their psyche. Constant comparison with other high-performers, even if it is sibling, can make a teenage child feel that he or she is less in value. This can compound after years and build up in their conscience, leading to an inherent lack of faith in one’s own abilities. In other words, if you compare your child to other high-performing kids, he or she will feel insufficient.
Remember, your job as a parent is to love and support your kids, not demand results like an employer. Be involved in your child’s academic life and know his or her capabilities. It is good to hope for high-results, but it’s not good to demand results.
Help to Create a Strategy
Strategizing beforehand definitely helps to lower the anxiety after the exam has begun. Sit with your child a day before the exam with a copy of the syllabus and previous years question papers. Know which portions your child is good at and tell him or her to attempt those questions first. Only after having attempted all of this should he or she move on to the next questions.
This helps to manage the time while writing the exam and ensures marks wherever your child is strong. The best way of writing an exam paper is to start with what one knows well and move backwards from there. This ensures a good overall scoring.
Emotional Support
A children, parents are the biggest source emotional support in the world. Supporting emotionally involves being available for your child right from the beginning. It is alright to encourage your child to achieve the best they can and push them, but only reasonably. It is as important to be emotionally supportive during academic setbacks as it is to celebrate academic successes.
Exams play an extremely important in today’s educational scenario and society and the media reinforce this notions in everybody’s minds. Children are especially susceptible to this messaging. It is your job as parents to make your children mentally strong and take setback in stride instead of shame.
An important thing to note during exams is dealing fears of poor performance. It may happen that your child is afraid that he or she did not do well in a particular subject and comes home distraught and crying. It is vital that you console him or her and encourage your child not to dwell on that particular exam. Instead help him or her focus on the next upcoming paper and assure that everything will be ok moving forward.
