Published on 12:00 AM, February 11, 2021

The Current Hardships of Exam Preparation

Covid-19 isn't getting any better and educational institutes are far from opening. Online classes are a big downgrade to regular classes. Teachers cannot monitor students properly which gives students a chance to slack off and skip classes. Furthermore, bad internet connections are a big interruption. Thus, many students around the world are struggling to understand concepts and theories.

Maahi Chowdhury of Sunbeams School says, "I'm facing tremendous problems while preparing for my exams since understanding certain parts of the syllabus has been painful. I'm way behind my syllabus and still struggling and hustling to actually prepare to give the exam."

The internet connection is not the only problem that students have to face. Zubaer Rahman Chowdhury, an A Level student of South Breeze School, says he had not received the proper environment to study in, "Online classes do not provide the same environment for studying as physical classes since there are lots of distractions around the house. I had to re-watch videos of online classes and it was difficult to get the motivation to study every day."

There is still a growing uncertainty about whether exams will be held or not as the UK has cancelled all exams. This has demotivated a lot of students. According to Sadia Tasnim, student of Mastermind, "Unless you're passionate about something, you genuinely don't find motivation to do it without a sense of accomplishment. My friends and I have lost our productivity due to the uncertainty of the exams being held and the grading system of curriculums."

Now the main question should be, how do we get out of this situation? The obvious choice would be to suck it up and make the best use of what we have. As mentioned before, Covid-19 is not getting any better. This is the only option we have and we have to do what is necessary for us to get good grades. Hopefully the grade boundaries will be lower this year as it was for the October/November 2020 candidates.

Take the words of a Physics teacher who asked to remain anonymous. He claims, "With a few months left, the best approach now would be to solve past papers (provided the course material is finished) and referring to the book and notes when a student gets stuck. A few recent papers should be taken 'exam style', keeping track of the timing, and then later checking the answers from the mark scheme. This helps the student learn how to pace themselves during an actual exam."

We can go back and forth with the whole situation but the bottom line will be that the only way you can prepare yourself is with the motivation to practise and a stable internet connection. Exams are closer than ever so stay safe, study hard and give extra effort to catch up on what you have missed.     

Abhoy Hriddo is currently in his room and very concerned about what he will do about the Physics classes he slacked off on. Help him out at abhoyhriddo@gmail.com