The Psychology of Passing Exams (Part-5)

SELF-TALK

We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.
Helen Keller.

Another application of affirmations is self-talk. You are constantly having an internal dialogue with yourself about events which are occurring in your internal and external envioronmental. The self-talk has a very strong effect on emotions and behavior. It usually happens subconsciously but with practice you can learn to listen to it and control it. Most of the inner dialogue is negative, e.g., ‘I can’t do it. I’m not good enough. I’ll mess it up. It’s too hard. There is no point going on. They’ll that I’m stupid and useless’ and so on. Negative self-talk creates pressure.

The candidate in a pressure situation, e.g., unable to answer a question in the long case, may:

1. Magnify the obstacles and underestimate his or her own resources;

2. Think irrationally and feel the examiners dislike and are ‘out to get’ him or her:

3. Visualize the outcome he or she fears or doesn’t want to happen and not concentrate on what he or she wants to achieve;

4. Try too hard with ‘do nots’ and ‘must nots’; and

5. Worry about criticism, rejection by others and embarrassment.

Self defeating thoughts are difficult but not impossible to control. Some of the strategies used are as follows.

1. Repeating negative thoughts aloud as soon as they come to mind helps some individuals get rid of them.

2. Thought-stopping. As soon as you are aware of negative thoughts, say ‘STOP!’ ‘CANCEL!’ and/or imagine a red light or the word ‘STOP!’ and then focus on something else such as your breathing. Another technique is to wear an elastic band around the wrist, and to pull and flick it each time a self-defeating thoughts comes to mind.

3. Being aware that everyone has negative thoughts, particularly in pressure situations, helps to lessen their impact.

4. If you fight negative thoughts, you concentrate on them and make them worse. You need to replace them with positive thoughts.

5. Encouraging negative thoughts to go through your mind and then allowing them to pass out may also get rid of them, e.g., saying to yourself ‘Come on, I’m waiting for you’.

6. Asking yourself question such as ‘Why am I doing this?; ‘What’s my plan?; ‘What do I have to do now?; What’s the worst thing that can happen?’ may also reduce self-defeating thoughts.

7. You can stop undesirable self-talk by taking a few slow deep breaths and thinking positive affirmations. For example, say to yourself ‘Take a few deep breaths, relax and take control’; ‘You can do it!; Relax and flow’; ‘Slow down’; ‘I perform better under pressure’.

Youth Icon 2009: Substance scores over Style

A leading Indian newspaper has let out a list of Top 10 Indian youth icons this Sunday. The survey was reportedly conducted among 200 youths (ages 18 to 25) across 10 major Indian cities. Although the results of the survey were inspiring, it sure had its bits of errors.

Firstly, the sample size of 200 people across 10 cities (that made it a petty 20 peoples per city) was rather small for a national newspaper to conduct a survey that was going to be reported on the cover of their supplement magazine. Secondly, their gaffe of putting style-icons, cinema celebrities and achievers with go-getter spirit who have made this country proud, under the same bracket and branding them all as youth-icon is no less than a blunder.

Despite these handful of flaws, that could’ve made this list irrelevant to what it claims to establish -- youth icon--, there is a positive side to it.

The biggest surprise that came up was that for the first time youths of India have voted a Security Force as their top inspiration in a popular icon survey – yeah, you heard it right—the list has been topped by the prestigious National Security Guards (NSG), India’s elite counter-terrorism organization.

Limping behind, by a large margin, was cine actor Shahrukh Khan, followed by Indian cricket team’s captain M S Dhoni. Another actor, Amir Khan, found place at fourth spot. Olympic Gold winner Adhinav Bindra and Booker Prize winner Arvind Adiga also found place on fifth and ninth positions in this cine actor dominated list.

Five out of ten positions in this list were occupied by cinema celebrities, who were probably voted into this list by some glamor-blinded youths. However, the overall outcome surely reflects that substance definitely scored over style among majority of the youths.

Surprisingly, only two women – corporate icon Chanda Kochchar and cine actor Kareena Kapoor -- made it to the list (I’d have loved to see Katrina Kaif, my personal favourite, in place of Kareena on this list though. But alas, I didn’t get to vote).

Moreover, only one politician could make into this list -- the Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi. This Cambridge and Harvard University alum is sure making an impact on the Indian youth and is playing an instrumental role, along with his other contemporaries, in cleaning the tarnished image of Indian politicians that has anchored into the minds of commoner.

The Psychology of Passing Exams (Part-4)

AFFIRMATION
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice----
It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
W. Byran.

An affirmation is a positive statement describing what you want to be, have or do. The constant repetition of positive thoughts day in and day out displaces stored negative thoughts in your subconscious mind. Remember the words of Benjamin Franklin: ‘Little strokes fell great oaks’.

Here are a few guidelines for constructing affirmations.

1. Use the first person ‘I’.

2. State affirmations positively. ‘I will not be afraid when i perform in long cases’ is not as effective as‘t enjoy the challenge and sense of achievement I feel when I perform in long cases’.

3. State affirmations in the present tense. When though you know it isn’t true yet, affirmations need to be worded in the present tense. Therefore state ‘I am a Pathologist’ rather than ‘I will be a Pathologist’ and see yourself already in possession of your goal.

4. State affirmations with emotion. The more feeling you can generate when repeating the affirmations, the more effective they will be.

5. Write out affirmations. Write down your affirmations on 3x5 cm cards and carry them with you (in pocket, wallet etc.) and place them in areas where you will see them (e.g., study desk, bathroom mirror, dressing table, dash board). Repeat them throughout the day, especially first upon awaking and when you are about to sleep.

The Psychology of Passing Exams (Part-3)

GOAL SETTING
If you fail to plan, plan to fail.

Once you have made up your mind to become a Pathologist, you must chart a course toward this ultimate goal. This means intelligent goal-setting. Goal –setting is not easy. To be effective it reqires constant review and change. Goal –setting involves writing out the steps it will take to accomplish your mission. It may take 5 months, it may take 10 years, but the mission must be broken down into smaller units so that you know what you are to achieve in each area every day, week, month.

Goal-setting will allow you to plan your time for study most effectively. Service commitments, domestic demands and social obligations are the main factors affecting study time. Organize your working time to your greatest advantage by sensibly reviewing your commitments. Ensure that realistic time periods are alloted. Decide an order of priority in their execution and then do it! A small amount of time used at the start of the day reviewing what tasks need to be done pays off in time saved for studying. Remember always to differentiate between important tasks and urgent tasks.

Here are some guidelines for setting goals.

1. Set specific goals. Specific goals are much more productive than general goals which merely stress ‘doing your best’.

2. State goals positively. for example, set aside 2 hours every evening to study Robin’s textbook. Effective goals need a positive mental image of yourself achieving what you want or being what you want to become. You cannot picture a negative goal.

3. Set challenging goals. Psychologist Edwin Locke found that ‘the higher the level of intended achievement [that is, the higher the goal], the higher the level of performance.

4. Set measurable goals. Goals need to be measurable in terms of what is achieved and when it is achieved. A goal of ‘increasing performance in the long case’ is not measurable. Rather a goal of ‘completing 20 long cases within 3 months is measurable.

5. Set realistic and achievable goals. A goal must not to be too difficult otherwise you will not want to try. But it must not be too easy—there is no challenge. State what results can be realistically achieved, given your resources. For a medical student to say ‘My goal is to be Professor of Pathology in 20 years' that will be a more realistic goal, especially if he sets down the intermediate goals.

6. Set tangible goals. Some of your goals will be intangible. You can accomplish these intangible goals by achieving related tangible ones. The goals you set should always be tangible. For example, if you lack self-confidence, the intangible goal of ‘achieving greater confidence’ is not measurable. How will you know when you have enough confidence? Setting specific, tangible goals fostering development of confidence will be effective, e.g., ‘I speak up at grand rounds’.

7. Make sure goals include behavioural changes. You must set goals of be coming, of developing whatever characteristic you lack before you achieve your tangible goal. You cannot except to become proficient in short cases if you continue to avoid doing them. You need to alter behaviour.

8. Write out your goals in present tense. Written goals ensure that you clearly describe what you want and you commit yourself to its accomplishment. Written goals need to be in the positive, present tense so that your mind accepts it. Written goals force you to establish priorities, for often two very desirable goals will come into conflict. Prioritize your values to determine which is the most important.

9. Vividly imagine your goals. Develop the habit of several times a day vividly imaging yourself having achieved your goal.

10. Write down the benefits of reaching your goals. Writing down the benefits of reaching your goals improves motivation and desire.

11. Write out a plan to reach your goal.

12. Write out a list of obstacles that hinder you in reaching your goals. Listing the obstacles that hinder goal achievement allows you to focus on what needs to be done: ‘A problem stated is a problem half-solved’.

13. Set short –term and long-term goals. Set time priority goals. A 5-year plan. A 1-year plan. A daily ‘to do’ list. Every day, write down the 6 most important things that need to be done. Rank the 6 items with the hardest first down to the easiest last. Start on number 1. If interrupted, take care of the interruption and return to finishing number 1. Check off each item as it is completed and carry over into the following day those that were not accomplished. Every night make out a new list for the next day.

14. Set goals to maintain a balanced life. True happiness can be reached only by living a balanced life. To ensure a balanced life, set goals in the following areas: physical, mental/career, spiritual, financial, family and social. The secret of success lies in establishing a clearly defined goal, writing it down, and then hammer it into your subconscious mind with unrelenting practice-----daily rehearsal with words, images and emotions as if you had already accomplished it.