By Mahjabeen Malik
It is a breathtaking job to handle distressed students at any level. If you are a teacher or you have been teaching in your life to the students of any level, you are well versed the fact. There can be the involvement of many drastic reasons behind the student’s distress, anxiety or frustration but whatever the reason is, the teachers are supposed to tackle the student’s frustration and bring him/her back to his/her academic activities. A good teacher never discourages the students if they do not obtain good marks in the exams or they fail.
Being a teacher I have to meet a number of frustrated students (who have lost all their hopes and have fear of exams); but first, I listen to them with patience and then give them suggestions and some pieces of advice. Alhamdulillah, I receive a positive response from them. I succeed to convince them and help them how to prepare for the exams.
Exams are not monster, we must not be afraid of them. We are the big monster, we can learn day and night, work very hard and equip ourselves with the armour of our good preparation of exams and enter into the battlefield (Examination Hall) to defeat our foe that is called exams. We are the warriors, we are the soldiers, and we can win whatever we want. So fear of exam is a trifling thing for us. Dear readers and students, I beseech you to be courageous. Never be dejected, never look down upon yourself.
In this article, I’ll describe the problems of academically distressed students and give some suggestions to the teachers; how to handle distressed students and how to eradicate the fear of exams.
Problems of Distressed Students
Time management is one of the major problem faced by the students, especially at college and university level.
Depression Students cannot handle their issues.
Homesickness: The students who come from a distance or from remote areas feel homesickness, therefore, they cannot focus their attention on their academic curricular activities.
Parties: Arranging /attending parties is a healthy sign but for students
it becomes dangerous. It can lead them to drugs or use of alcohol which proves harmful.
Financial Problems: All are not born with a golden spoon in mouth. There a number of students who cannot afford their tuition fee. To meet the problems they have to do any job to continue their studies.
Social Problems: Some students are extrovert, friendly and amiable, they get free with so many people within no time. Making friendship is a good habit but sometimes it becomes dangerous. The students waste a lot of their precious study time in the company of friends. Excessive use of social media such as face book, WhatsApp, twitter etc becomes the reason for frustration. Mostly, young students get accustomed to chatting with the strangers on Facebook, not only they chat but emotionally involve. So the use of social media must be discouraged.
