Easing the burden of an unfair system

IT IS THAT TIME of the year again when students are facing into Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations. Already telephone calls are flooding into my practice from parents who are troubled by their sons and daughters wanting to drop out of doing the examinations; or not making any realistic efforts to prepare for them or over-working.

Regrettably, some parents bribe their children with promises, for example, of anything from £20 to £100 for every A-grade achieved. In this latter situation I must ask the question: "Whose life is it anyway?" "Who is doing the examination here?"

Students are under enough pressure from the examinations themselves. Parental or, indeed teacher, pressure for high performance is something they could well do without.

One of my major recommendations to parents around all school examination times is to go to the sidelines of their children's academic lives and be ready to offer advice only on request. It is expedient that there be no unsolicited talking about examinations, or about the results or points required for chosen courses or comparisons with another son's or daughter's examination results.

It is certainly important for parents to be ready to offer help, support and resources on request and it is okay for them to let the young people know that these are on offer. However, coming up to examination time is not the time for analysing why students have not made responsible efforts nor, indeed, why they are over-studying.

The time for such investigations is a couple of days after the publication of results and the discussion needs to be conducted in an atmosphere of concern, acceptance and love. The presence of any threatening behaviour on the part of parents only pushes the young person further into avoidance or perfectionism and anxiety.

Clearly, if here and now, a number of weeks before the examinations, students want to drop out entirely, then caring discussion of the whys and wherefores are now needed. Sometimes the family may require the services of a counsellor who will ensure emotional safety for both the children and the parents.

For those thousands of students who are determined to see the examinations through, there are a number of things they can do to reduce some of the inevitable pressure.

I believe that students need to acknowledge that the "points system" is unfair, unjust and is a product of an educational system that has not matched third-level educational places with existing demands. Furthermore, the number of points required for a third-level place is neither an index of the knowledge required for pursuing the course nor an index of intelligence.

Too many students take on the burden of this unfair system; it is important that they keep a cool and clear perspective, so that they reduce some of the strain arising from a faulty educational system.

Even more crucial is for students to be aware that not attaining the points needed for a selected course of studies is a failure of the system and, furthermore, there are many career options available. Students need to be wary of falling into the trap of restricting themselves by placing all their career options in one or two baskets.

LIVING IN THE PRESENT is a discipline that certainly may help students over the coming weeks. Living in the future (by worrying and fretting) or in the past (by dwelling on past poor examinations results or criticism by significant adults) means that precious energy and concentration is lost to the present.

Studying and learning is greatly facilitated by efforts to keep focus only on what is happening in the here and now. Any straying of focus needs to be corrected with a firm self-statement: "I'm determined to keep my focus on the present-moment activity of studying".

Be sure to build in treats (coffee break, listening to a favourite CD track, TV programme) between study blocks, which should take a maximum of two hours at a time.

Self-talk of a nature that is affirming and encouraging and helps maintain a cool head can be beneficial prior to, immediately before, during and after examinations. However, to be truly influential, such self-talk needs to be infused with a sense of the person's goodness, worth and independence of any behaviour (particularly examination performance) as a yardstick of your worth.

So many young people and their parents use this yardstick to beat themselves with, as any failure is seen as a major threat to their sense of self.

Possible self-statements that may be of help are as follows:

Prior to the examination: "I am determined to live in the present moment, make reasonable efforts and know that the examinations are not in the remote 51 way any measure of my worth."

Immediately before the examination: "This examination is purely a test of my present level of knowledge and I intend to stay calm and keep in mind the major short-comings of the `points system'. No matter what happens there are an infinite number of career options open to me."

During the examinations: "I feel somewhat tense now but I'm going to let my body go loose and heavy, solidly ground my feet, take a deep breath and as I exhale I'm letting go of all tension and anxiety. This examination is no measure of my goodness and worth."

After the examination: "The deed is done. No post-mortems. No comparisons. I want to stay with the present. I deserve a treat. I'm going to be with people who view things in this way".