All students would step into an examination hall psychologically prepared to be assessed. Like a gladiator facing a lion, most would have psychologically convinced themselves that they would survive and prevail. This is the best side of human nature: optimism on display.

Being optimistic and Being realistic

Students who prevail are those who are realistic. Realistic in terms of how much work you have put in and how much you have actually prepared yourself.

A realistic student would know what topics he is bad in and what topics he is strong in, and what are the topics that he is average in.  This honest assessment would put the student in a realistic position when he or she apportions his or her time in working on the questions.  A good primary tuition teacher would give you a fair idea of what you are strong in and what you are weak in.

Circle is perfect but we are mere mortals

No one is perfect. Similarly in assessments, we need not be perfect. For those striving for a grade A, please remember that it is not about scoring full marks. Don’t kick yourself in the examination hall when you run into a question that you do not know how to answer.

In a simulated examination conducted in the tuition centre, a math tuition teacher would set difficult questions in the beginning of the paper to demoralize the students. You should be prepared to walk away from the question and not be affected by it.

Momentum and Morale

It is human nature to be emotionally charged when you are in the examination hall. Calm your nerves by first working on questions you know and build a momentum in solving the questions. An assessment is the same as building a Lego model, as you work on them, the more confidence you will feel, and the more you would be able to work on further complicated and complex problems.

A Science tuition teacher and an English tuition teacher would give timed mock assessment papers to students during lessons and check their progress and approach. Simulations and repetitions would help learners to be mentally prepared for such assessments.

Secondary tuition teachers would check on students during the assessments to ensure that they exercise self-control and apportion their time wisely in accordance with the marks of each question.

Don’t Question the Question

In A level tuition, we noticed that some students like to question the question during assessments. JC tuition students tend to do that for data analysis questions. They would ask why the information or data trend is as depicted as it was despite the question not asking them to explain. They would over analyse the question that is being asked and conclude that the question does not make sense or does not provide sufficient data, or the question should be changed instead.

It really does not pay off to do all the above during the examination. The focus of A level students during examination, should be spending your precious allocated time on solving the questions and gathering the marks.