By Sharifatu Ja’afaru (300 Level)
It is that time of the year again, when the hairs starts to turn grey, sleep is lost and stress levels reach an alarming level. Yes, it’s exam season at the University of Jos.
Examination or exam as students love to call it, is a test of how good somebody is at something. Whenever it is exam season, the mood and actions of students are enough to tell what is obtainable. Walking down the usually noisy cafeteria of the Naraguta hostel in the evening, is uncharacteristically silent making one wonder what was happening?
One’s curiosity was aroused further as one walked down the corridor to peep through the window. The variety in the reflection of light got one fascinated, as one beheld candles, rechargeable lamps of all sorts and so on, all combining to give the hall a nice illumination. The second semester examinations are indeed around the corner!
Unijosechoonline spoke with students on preparations for the examination:
Jemima Isiaka noted ”I’m not totally prepared”. She acknowledged that Nigerian Students only study to pass examination and encourages her colleagues to cultivate learning habit and not just reading to pass exams. On her part, Rebecca Abaku of the Mass Communication Department said, ”the prolonged strike has affected what I read. Situating between fixed lectures and studying is challenging. Productions and group assignments are time consuming”. She acknowledged that she has natural anxiety towards examination but once the examination commences, she gets emotionally stable.
However, Alechenu Abel of the Theatre and Film Arts Department has a different opinion.”I am not a truant because I’m always punctual in class, so am prepared. People who are scared of exams are those who avoid lectures.” He explains that the Nigerian educational system has made students to hate school but love education adding, “the idea of school weighs them down because they are always threatened by test and exams.”
Giving an insight into why students have examination anxiety, a lecturer in Educational Measurement and Evaluation Dr. Yusuf Mustapha attributed exams anxiety to three factors- students, lecturers and environmental factors. He said students’ poor study habit is a major factor. “You find ladies galivanting around, male students drinking and gambling instead of studying. By nature, some people are lazy. Students dont read and when is exams time they will want to cover the whole syllabus in one week, engaging in a crash programme and when they discover the method is not working, anxiety sets in”, he said.
He also identified poor teaching habits of some lecturers as another cause of anxiety. According to him, “when students are rushed, they get confused and anxiety sets in. The environmental factor has to do with parents threatening to withdraw sponsorship when their wards have challenges like spill over or marrying out their female children if they fail to perform well in school. The nature of subject matter is yet another reason why students experience anxiety. For example, many students have natural fear for Mathematics.”
To alleviate examination anxiety, Dr. Mustapha said lecturers should encourage students to instill confidence in them. They should make up time to teach students how to answer examination questions and how to reduce test anxiety. He added that students on their part should develop proper reading habit while the university management should endeavour to make learning environment conduicive.
Meanwhile, the different faculties and departments in the university are set for the examination with lectures virtually rounded off in most of them. This was confirmed by the Examination Officer of the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Science Dr. B.G.Babudoh who acknowledged that the department was ready for the exams as syllabus were almost covered before the unfortunate ASUU strike. He was optimistic that the students should be ready having been taken through their various courses by lecturers. Babudoh urged the students to be up and doing and to pursue their education with all seriousness as that is their primary reason of being in the university.
His advice aptly captures Vince Lombardi’s popular saying that ”the price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand”. It is hoped that this message has been imbibed by students as the examination kicks off.
