Tuesday, July 18, 2017

WHY STUDENTS FAIL EXAMINATIONS

In the past, academic failures were thought mainly to be a function of unseriousness or lack of preparation of students, but today studies have shown that why students fail examinations goes beyond lack of preparation or unseriousness. In my own personal research and experience, I have found out that brilliant students could fail when supposed dull students are passing exams.

I discover that why students fail exams can be divided into two categories. The INTERNAL and EXTERNAL factors.

INTERNAL FACTORS

Internal factors are the one's that has to do with a particular individual. Exam failures in this category could be said to be caused by the self.

1. Lack Of Preparation.

This is the major internal cause of examination failure. This factor is relative, meaning that it could affect all categories of students, whether they are brilliant or not. A genius who fails to prepare for an exam would most likely fail and a slow learner who prepares would most likely pass.

Academic activities should not only begin by attending classes but should end by personal and intensive study. Examinations are only once in a term, semester and sometimes a session and no student would have a genuine excuse of not being able to prepare well. Students fail examinations when they don't prepare. No matter how small the preparation is, there is a higher likelihood of passing, even if it is just the threshold of the pass mark.

2. Unseriousness.

Some students simply don't care. They won't attend classes. They won't do assignments or group tasks. They would go late to class. They find it hard to read or study. Unseriousness is a bad thing in academics. Many students get so unserious to the extent of not even caring about the outcomes of their unseriousness.

Many unserious students tend to also have unserious friends who won't make them do the right things at the right times. Unserious students find it hard to be able to balance their social lives with their academic lives. Infact, they don't even care. Unseriousness is another reason why students fail examinations.

3. Fear Of Failure.

A lot of students suffer from this. They are always already scared of failing, even before they write the examination. Fear of failure is something that affects the emotion and psychology of students. Truth is, examination is inevitable in academics and if you are in school, you must be prepared to face exams with boldness.

Fear is a state of the mind and attitude towards something, in this case, examination. Fear of failure will affect a students study, assimilation and overall preparation.

4. Examination Phobia.

This phobia is the last minute tension that students experience before an examination. It could be likened to the surge of adrenaline that Usain Bolt would feel before a 100 metre race. Every student has examination phobia. The better and the poorly prepared students both have the same tension.

What makes the difference is how this tension can be overcome before writing an exam. Tension will lead to lack of coordination and also leads to forgetting easily what has been read.

5. Pressure To Pass.

Many students fail because of the pressure to pass. This pressure could come from themselves, from parents, from friends, lecturers or even the department. When there is no healthy competition between students in the same class, department or faculty, it then leads to pressure to pass.

Academics should be seen as a healthy competition and the excessive notion of wanting to pass mainly to please people should be discouraged totally.

EXTERNAL FACTORS

1. Inadequate Teaching.

The process of teacher-learner interaction is one of the pillars of academics. It is important, as most of the times, students won't understand what they read by themselves only. They need the teacher or instructor to make known or explain unto them the meanings of what they had read or are going to read.

When teaching is not adequate, students won't understand and when the exam question comes, you can only imagine what would happen. Questions become so strange like they were not part of the subject. They are, only inadequate teaching made it so.

2. Deliberate Failing.

In my part of the world, some lecturers could deliberately fail students and brag about it. Many students keep failing some courses, not because they were not brilliant or not, but because they had not given in to some demand by the instructor or teacher.

Many students fail yearly due to this and it seems no really strong advocacy is on ground to curb and eradicate this negative academic trend. Many students even fear to report because of the dire consequences of it.

8. Others.

A whole lot of other factors fall under this category. Serious sickness during exam time could make a student fail an exam, depending mostly on the policy of the school. Lateness to examinations could amount to not having enough time to answer questions. Exam malpractice is also a strong theme in failures in exams.

A whole centre could be failed if too many malpractices happened there and innocent students could also suffer from the consequences of this. If this post have be helpful, please share. Thanks.

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