Page 26 - INTRA MUROS November 2020

TODAY’S CHILD

A POSITIVE MINDSET FOR THE

UPCOMING EXAMS

By Dr Ilse Ruane

e've all had that day where we Attitude and belief about what one can Negative emotions can hurt you mentally.
wake up to our alarm, thinking accomplish are essential elements when Your emotions are telling you that, deep
Wabout how we would rather be it comes to achieving anything. down, you are not confident in your ability
doing anything other than face a day of to perform well and achieve your goals.
studying and exams. People experience Learners during exams typically fall Therefore, your confidence will decline.
negative thoughts every day, whether somewhere between the positive Also, since your negative emotions are
consciously or subconsciously. When mindset and negative mindset. A so strong, you will likely have difficulty
we entertain those negative thoughts, mentally tough learner has a positive focusing on what will help you to perform
we unknowingly sentence ourselves to mindset and a mentally weak learner well. The negative emotions draw your
creating a negative narrative that can be may have a negative mindset. A positive attention to all of the negative aspects of
carried into the exam context and into versus a negative mindset makes a your exam performance.
the future. bigger difference than you think.
For example, suddenly you are acutely
So how do you reign in and retrain Effects of a negative mindset aware that there is noise in the classroom,
your thoughts to make significant A negative mindset causes constant which in all honesty has always been
improvements to your exam time? negative wear and tear to your thoughts there... but today it is deafening. Negative
and, ultimately, to your body, and that emotions can hurt your motivation to
Mindset is bound to take its toll. No one can perform because you just do not feel good
A positive mindset is arguably one of stay positive all the time; we all have or you start believing you just cannot do
the most important tools to develop. bad days. How you respond to those it. For example, you sit frozen with the
Your mindset ultimately determines thoughts, however, is what counts. exam paper in front of you and you go
your results, whether in studying or in completely blank.
the exam itself. The learners who stay If you are hit with negative thoughts
positive in exams are setting themselves before an exam and allow these thoughts Negative emotions are tricky because, at
up for success. Positive learners are ready to take root, chances are that you will first, they can boost performance due to a
for anything that is thrown at them, underperform. Negative thoughts create rise in intensity. But this is short-lived. If not
whether their pen runs out of ink, their anxiety or fear. Negative thoughts cause properly dealt with, they will begin to cause
girlfriend or boyfriend just broke up with mental blocks or lack of focus and/or more damage, as they slowly wear away at
them or they are writing their favourite poor preparation. Negative thoughts tell our core belief that we can do the task at
and easiest subject. From psychology, us we have not been studying enough hand. A negative mindset tells us that we
we know that the positive belief in or do not know our work well enough, are failures and failure is unacceptable.
oneself and the outcome is what makes despite the fact that our preparation was When we are overwhelmed by these
the biggest difference to performance. solid. thoughts, we experience an onslaught of

24 INTRA MUROS NOVEMBER 2020