Exams are part and parcel of people's lives and, predictably, some people are more efficient in this routine than others. What is truly more significant than sitting for exams is how people accept the results of their exams, especially if they are far cry from being excellent.
When people do not show themselves at their best, such thoughts as "I am doomed to be a failure", "I do not live up to my parents' expectations", or "I am falling behind with others" always crop up in people's minds. Surely, they may have a sense of reality and validity, but still, these thoughts are labeled as thinking errors.
The first type of thinking errors is called “dichotomous thinking”. It happens when people look at things from a black or white perspective – it is either a success or a failure. There is “fortune telling” which happens when people are convinced that they know what is about to happen, “I will be a failure again”. Another type of a thinking error is “catastrophizing”. It is when you expect the worst possible thing to happen – it can sound like, “If I flunk my exams, I will never find a job in my lifetime.”
In situations like this, people tend to “overgeneralize” things. They draw conclusions basing on one thing that will seemingly destroy everything. While doing this, they resort to such words as “always” or “never”. For example, “Since I did not succeed in this exam, I will never succeed in anything at all.” But other from that, people are unable to see a silver lining and usually underestimate their abilities turning over such thoughts in their minds as: “It was purely by chance that I succeeded last time.”
Sort out your thoughts
To sort out these thoughts, you can try “cognitive restructuring”. This technique has been widely practiced by psychologists who use the cognitive behavioral approach to assist people who feel depressed and help to get rid of bad habits.
According to this approach, people suffer from such problems because they continue turning over a negative thought in their minds to such an extent that they become obsessed with this thinking pattern. These thoughts cause such bodily side effects as apprehensions, negative emotions, excessive alarms, etc.
They can also inflict avoidance behaviors – for instance, when people are unwilling to resit exams – all this can then result in a vicious circle.
The technique
Cognitive restructuring can help to fix any disquieting thoughts and to inoculate students against suffering from negative feelings. To make use of this technique, you need to take a number of steps. For starters, you can use a Thought Record Sheet to record your feelings.
It can involve assessing your feelings and thoughts over a specific day. Then, it can assist you in detecting any thinking errors you make.
You can learn to change the way you think. Shutterstock
You can also prepare some tricky questions to assess the reasonableness of your thoughts – such as “Am I a magician to foresee the future?”
Moving forward
This technique enables you to see the battle between the irrational and rational aspects. Accordingly, by concentrating on the evidence, you can define the reasonableness of these automatic fact-based thoughts.
We do hope that these techniques will help you to simmer down before the results day and will also come in handy when reaching decisions as soon as your exam results are announced.
