Schools were designed to educate us and help us tap into our potential. Since then, the school system exams has come a long way and its purpose is not exactly the same anymore. Many schools nowadays are more focused on getting more and more kids to enroll and graduate. In simple words; learning doesn’t matter anymore as much as numbers do. Whether it’s the highest marks or the highest enrollment and graduation rates, every school tries to stay on the top.
However, this creates a lot of competition which students have to deal with. Of course, when students are burdened with an endless list of tasks, they’re going to search for Top Essay Writer services. One of the hardest things about schools is exams – something most of you would hate. Competitive exams filter out which students are the smartest among their peers. Or rather, which students can handle the most pressure and how much they can memorize by heart.
While competitive exams are a simple way to measure how much students understand their syllabus, they can break students’ spirits. Let’s find out the reasons why such exams can be bad for students’ motivation and will to learn in school.
Competitive Exams Harm The Self-Esteem
It’s pretty obvious that any competition is going to have 1 to 3 winners while the rest would – not win. In other words, all those people would be losers because they didn’t outshine the entire group. Now imagine the aftermath; a few students are feeling great while the rest of them are left with self-doubt. Moreover, we love the feeling of winning but it doesn’t last long because we’re now worried about maintaining our results. In fact, competitive exams are equally as bad for the self-esteem of high-achievers because their self-esteem now relies on them.
Going by this, students’ worth depends on the number of people they’ve beaten. So, if you don’t do better than all others, your hard work is simply not good enough. Moreover, if you score the highest once, you have to make sure that you beat others every single time. This only creates a toxic cycle of anxiety over how you’re going to perform in exams. Plus, the rewards of winning don’t even keep up your self-esteem for long. Competitive exams work against your confidence and give you much more to lose than to gain.
You Don’t Actually Need Competition To Succeed
We were told as kids that we do our best only when we’re in a race — which was a lie. No, you’re not going to become fat and lazy loser without competition. In fact, you can work better through cooperation and team spirit as opposed to competing with others. This especially applies to more complex learning tasks, you are bound to perform worse in competitive environments.
Many studies prove that students don’t learn better when education is transformed into a competitive struggle. Why? Firstly, competition increases anxiety which works against concentration. Secondly, competition demands you to defeat others, which means, you’d be focused on others rather than your own progress. Finally, trying to be above everyone else drifts your focus on what’s truly important – learning. When you focus too much on rewards, you wouldn’t care that much about learning. Hence converting learning into an impossible race is far from productive and mostly brings down performance.
It Results In Hostility
Although many people have to lose in a competition by definition, nobody wants that fate for themselves. Therefore, you would see others as mere obstacles in the way of success. Of course, this creates an environment where students see each other as a threat. Moreover, it leads you to envy and be suspicious of those who win. This only creates rivalry and resentment between students as they’re constantly trying to outdo each other. Indeed, you can’t trust someone who gains something from your failure even if they’re a student just like yourself.
All these ingredients of competitive examinations make a perfect recipe for aggression. This only results in driving good relationships between students to a breaking point. When students compete, they won’t be able to understand the perspective of others. In fact, a study even proves that the feeling of competition decreases empathy and generosity in students. Hence, when you’re not able to trust others and accept them, you’ll find negative feelings within you. This is the reason why many students cheat, turn violent, or withdraw when the competition gets tight.
It’s Bad For Mental Health
We all know that too much of anything is bad for you and the same applies to competition. Competitive exams can be extremely pressurizing for students trying to juggle different aspects of life and acing them. When there’s excessive competition, you’re more likely to fail to reach success. Of course, everybody dreads that outcome and this creates excessive stress for students. Nowadays, anxiety, depression even suicide is becoming common among students in competitive environments. It’s pretty obvious that the examination system is failing us when people are considering taking their lives than failing.
This only shows that there’s no place in the world for people who are average or below. However, they make up the majority and this means that we only celebrate a handful of winners. Many students admit to having nightmares about failing their exams even after graduation. Hard work is supposed to make you feel good but competitive exams only add to the trauma of students. Not everyone is a conventional genius and this does not mean that they should be punished for it. However, it’s a sad reality that competitive exams have caused mental health problems for students globally.
Conclusion
We know that moderation and balance are important for success in students’ life. Students around the world are dealing with a lengthy and tough curriculum as well as extracurricular activities. It is due to this pressure that they search for take my online course services. Students already have a lot to deal with, so there’s no point in putting them through such challenges.
Competition is good for giving you motivation but too much of it can push you off the edge. It only makes sense why we dread competitive exams as they are not effective for our learning. There should be other ways to test students’ abilities because competitive exams have their own limitations. Students have different kinds of talents and skills and not all of them can be measured through competitive exams. Hence, the harmful effects of competitive exams on students are not worth it. Although, if you have to appear for competitive exams, remember that it’s not the end of the world.
