WHY YOU FAIL YOUR UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS

The university system on a level is quite a different world on its own. Most especially the Federal Universities we have around. A good number of students, undergraduate at different levels sweat in frustration every single time they write an examination. It appears as though most of the times they never did prepare for the examination despite the fact they spent hours at the university library reading, studying, and to borrow the general language, “jacking.”  One thus wonders then what could possibly have gone wrong. What possibly could have been the problem. Was it that they forgot what they read, or was it simply fate? Maybe yes, maybe no, but there are more psychological cum logical reasons to pursue.



 While it is impossible to have a campus filled with an all-time serious students, it is impossible as well to have an undergraduate who won’t come prepared to an examination hall. Maybe not like the genius but sure like an undergraduate. Living with this assumption, it will be safe therefore to highlight suspected reasons which may have, for several semesters immensely contributed to the failure and disappointments our undergraduates experience after their examinations.

ANXIOUSNESS:  

Curiosity they say kills the cat, and greed a thief. One of the many things that can make an undergraduate looks a dullard among his peers in a Nigerian University will be the noun called anxiousness. This whether exhibited before or during an examination can prove to be very devastating. No matter the level of exhibition this chemical response heightens the consciousness of the student into the worrying zone. This causes the student to worry about things he naturally wouldn’t be worried about. How is the questions going to be? What is it going to look like? How sure am I to solve them? Will I have enough time left to review my works? Unfortunately the answers to all these question will always be a fat no irrespective of how earnestly the student wants a different answer. His brain by default gets caught up in an intricate web of biochemical confusion and this drags his mind into a state of restlessness. The result of this is he ends up doing less than he has actually prepared to do. Under-performing.

PHOBIA:  

While this and anxiousness may sound alike, they are two exquisitely different things. While Anxiousness gets you worried over nothing, phobia actually gets you worried over something. The picture being painted in actual sense is that instead of you being concerned about what you probably may not be able to do, you are actually confronted with the reality of what you cannot do. The result is that the fear of what you cannot do in time overshadow the certainty of what you can do. This means that you end up not doing what you know, and were supposed to do. This further implies you end up getting less than you are supposed to get in your examination. Which means you end up failing at the end of the day.

OVER CONFIDENCE

 Now this may sound a little absurd, but is nonetheless a common phenomenon among undergraduates. Yes, it is normal to ask: “Is it really possible for someone to be overconfident?” The answer is yes. It is very much possible to get overconfident in yourself. It is possible to go to the examination hall with the delusion of certainty that you have known it all, to the extent you may refuse to revise your works on the day of examination. The idea of whatever I couldn’t understand before examination day, it’s impossible I understand on the examination day. Overconfidence without any doubts will blind you to the need of joining little chats focused on probable questions that may come up in your examination because you are actually forced to believe whatever that’s coming in that examination, you will certainly have an idea. Unfortunately for you, university examination is more than just having an idea; it is you knowing with facts. Thus, again, you end up failing.

NOT UNDERSTANDING THE QUESTIONS

 What you are is different from who you are. While the latter in context treats you as a person, the former treats you as a personality. It is quite possible to know and understand what you are taught in classes and yet not understand what you are asked to do in the examination hall. This is why most of the times you have lines of bewilderment disfiguring your face when you see the examination score of your seatmate who managed to answer a question out of four while you with haste answered all the four questions. It surprises you to find out despite evident differences in the number of questions attempted he still scores more than you in the said examination. The truth is while you were busy answering questions you really don’t understand, your seatmate was busy answering the only question he understands. Most student in the name of write-everything-you-know-let-my-sheet-be-filled write nothing but failure for themselves in the examination hall, while they cry the world a river later for doing so.

 There are quite a number of things that may contribute to your failure in your examinations, but these above are only the psychological com logical plausible reasons. There are more, and they will be exploited in future posts on this blog under different approach. But while we work towards doing that, our next post shall be on practicable ways to deal with the above listed factors. You can always check back if you happen to (not so meanly) suffer from any of them.

Originally Written by Olusanya Olaleye