Seven youths help beat exam blues

BIJAPUR: Archana Misale was sceptical when she heard that a bunch of seven city youths could help her get over her fear of examinations in just about five hours. The student of Kalidas High School is now so confident that she feels she can even "celebrate" sitting an examination.
She owes her newfound self-confidence to Vishwanath Kulkarni, Subhash Kannur, Pradeep Tulasi, Gopal Kulkarni, Raghavendra Golasangi, Raghavendra Gondi, Pramod Pattar of Sneha Siri Samaj Seva Sangh.
The group, which offers its services for free, gets SSLC and second-year pre-university students to talk freely about their fears of examinations and helps tackle them step-by-step, explains Vishwanath, leader of the Sangh.
Members were motivated by their own academic struggles to launch the group.
The team has visited nearly 24 schools and colleges in the district and aims at helping students of at least 200 schools in the district.
"During our visits to schools, most of the students spoke frankly to us, which helped us solve their problems. Another notable thing is that nearly 80% boys were not afraid of sitting examinations and 20% studied hard because of their fear. On the contrary, the ratio was 60% and 40%, respectively, among girls," says Vishwanath.
Raghavendra Godi, another member of the group who is a DTP operator, says the team needs at least five hours at every school or college. "We don't make students of different classes attend the session together. A smaller group helps us focus more on the students."
The Sangh also makes students understand that cheating in examinations is not the way to confront their fears. "We tell them to study hard, instead. Cheating may help them clear an examination, but it will not last in the long run."
S B Sajjan, vice-principal of Government Girls' School, Bijapur, says she has seen a vast change in students' perception of examinations and credits the team's unique method for it.
The team's method
~ To break the ice, the team first asks students to define SSLC or PUC
~ It then asks them what they understand by the term 'examination' and what they do while preparing for one
~ The members make students understand how an SSLC/PUC education will stand them in good stead in future
~ They ask students how long they study and how much time is required to good satisfactory results
~ They emphasize on keeping calm
~ They advise against cheating during examinations. Stress upon how studying thoroughly helps understand a subject well
~ Suggest that students go through the question paper calmly first and prioritize answering questions they are more confident of