Video on Exam Stress

The other video which I would like to comment on is on exam stress. In my opinion, this is a critical issue, and is suffocating a lot of students in Singapore especially. The emphasis of grades, the schools students get into, the different treatment from teachers and parents. It is al too much for the students. I always believe that we go to school for the education and knowledge, not for the grades. Of course we cannot deny the fact that good grades, getting a degree or whatsoever is important in order to get a good-paying job, or at least, "to survice in the society" as what Singaporeans always say, but it does not mean that someone who does not do well in studies do not excel in anything else. It does not mean that all the successful businessman are successful in their studies as well. I feel that as the society places their "interest" on students doing well for studies, they should at the same time encourage and also tryt o discover the other talents of the students as well.

Of course the emphasis here is not on discovering students' talents, it's just to bring out the point that grades are not the more important.

As we can all see from the video, the students are all very stressed up because of their coming test, and their stress mainly comes from the teachers and parents. Teachers should be a good role model in class, who should be able to encourage, motivate and treat every student equally. I feel that the teacher is right in rewarding students who do well, but her method of rewarding is very wrong. She should not make use of material means to motivate her students to study, because students will get the wrong idea of their purpose to study. They may just work for the material rewards. Another thing is, the teacher should not criticise and bring down students morale by scolding them and saying insensitive things to hurt them. In the video, the teacher calls her student irresponsible just because he did not do well for the test. This is very wrong of the teacher as it will not only bring down a student's self-esteem, it may also give the student the impression that he will not be able to do well in future. Moreovoer, we all know that tests and exams are not the best ways in determining whether students learn and understand their lessons. The teacher should instead talk to the student nicely and try to know their problems and reasons for not doing well, whether it's because they did not study, did not understand, or due to other problems. It is only then that they can tailor the best solution to help a student.

The mother in the video is also not doing the right thing by comparing the grades of the sisters. It's firstly demoralising and secondly adds on unrequired stress for the girl. The mother should instead encourage her and get the sister who does well to help.

Personally, I was caught in the above situations above before, and I don't mind sharing with all of you. When I was in JC, I did not do well for my studies. When I say studies, it means all the subjects, and this is especially true when I was in JC1. It's not because I didn't study, apparently I did, but still didn't do well. My Chemistry teacher, who is also my Civics tutor wrote stuff on my test papers because I did not do well. They were things like "Did you even bother to study?", "You get all the reagents and conditions wrong!!!". When she met up with my parent during Parent-teacher meeting, she asked if I have any siblings and what they are doing now. I claimed that I have a sister studying in NUS majoring in Chemistry.

"HAHA!! WHAT? You tell me your sis is majoring in Chemistry and yet you SUCH grades for Chemistry? How come your sister can get such good grades and you can't?" My teacher said this in front of my mother.

Because of that, I can really understand how teachers' words and actions, as well as comparison of grades between siblings can add on to student's stress and how it can hurt a student's confidence and pride. I would definitely not treat my students as machines. Machines that generate good results but may not be useful to the society in future. I would not push my students, at least not giving them the extra stress when they are already under the immense pressure fromthe society to do well. It's really important to guide the students according to their pace instead of forcing them to work according to your pace and requirements.

As mentioned, this is a critical issue which is faced by all students. Hence I think parents and teachers who are pushing children and students too hard due to poor results, it's time to stop doing that, and start thinking of how to help the kids manage their work, help them relieve stress, and most importantly, recognise their efforts and never stop encouraging them.

Lay Jun =)