We have heard it countless number of times, “students not performing well on examinations.” Be it Maths, Science, History or for that matter even Languages. Many students generally have a tough time performing well in subjects that are difficult and boring or are least interested in the subject altogether. These are but common reasons for bad results. But as parents we need to know what are the main reasons for our child’s poor performance.
While a hand full of students are blessed with exceptional intelligence, the average student isn’t. But they too have the ability and are capable of understanding and remembering matter with a little effort. So here are 6 reasons why students perform poorly in examinations?
1. Environmental Factors
Who knew that the environment whether family, school or college, social and experiences can drastically affect a child’s performance?
- Family Environment
If you didn’t know it already then now is a great time to get to know the various reason for performance differing. The environment in which the student is born plays a vital role in their performance. If the child is living in a healthy family environment with supporting and nurturing parents, students are more likely to obtain good grades. Most children try to do well to please their parents nonetheless.
- School or College Environment
If the school or college environment is a healthy one, that focuses and encourages the all round development of the pupil. Or if it strives to help students by preparing them at a young age to tackle the unknown has a bearing on the child’s performance. As it teaches them life skills that can assist them and it too plays a vital role in a child’s life and growth. The kind of people their classmates and teachers are, affects the performance. The way they are treated by their teachers or professors also affects their performance. Because if a child likes their teacher or is fond of their teacher, it motivates the child to do well in an attempt to please their teacher.
- Individual Experiences
Whether these experiences come from interacting with either classmates, teammates or teachers it in variable affects the child as a whole. Because experiences whether good or bad can affect the child’s performances as mentioned earlier.
2. Learning Methods
Most students usually follow faulty learning methods such as rote learning. Subjects like Arithmetics, Science and Language require the student to understand the concepts taught. They need to have a good basic foundation with a clarity in the concepts; which they usually lack. This in turn results in students not liking the subject and sometimes detesting it which isn’t good either.
When it comes to subjects that most students are least interested in or find difficult for example Mathematics, Science or Languages, their disinterest definitely shows in poor grades. The difficulty level that these subjects bring can affect the child’s interest even if the subject is easy merely requiring lots of practice on a regular basis.
4. Faulty Study Habits
Most students have a tendency to prepare for a test or an exam at the last minute, resulting in them engaging in all nighters or studying till the earlier hours of the morning. Mostly students refrain from revising the matter taught in class the same day. Several psychological studies have highlighted the importance of reviewing the matter that was taught the very same day. We all know that repetition helps students to memorise the matter better especially when it is fresh in their mind.
Several psychological studies have been conducted. And several memory improvement techniques have been derived based on these studies. Ideally the best way to remember any type of material is by using Mnemonics or developing associations. These techniques are best to remember subjects like Science, History, Geology, Geography etc. The average student is either unaware of these techniques or think that they are time consuming and ineffective nonetheless. They don’t realise that for these techniques to show results one needs to use them right from the beginning of the term when they have the time to utilise them.
6. Health Matters
It is important for students to ensure that they get enough rest, eat a balanced diet and most importantly exercise. It is important that you sleep in time, eat properly and exercise, if you wish to perform well in the examinations because both the body and the mind need to rest to function to its maximum potential. This is another reason that affects the performance. Lack of either of these three aspects affect students nevertheless.
Therefore, as parents it is important for us to help children realise their mistakes and assist them in their preparation in any way we can. Especially if we can help them to improve their grades and get them interested in a subject that they dislike, by highlighting the fact that it is actually easy once you are clear about the concepts and have the basics in place. We need to make them realise that the only way to overcome their fear of the subject and to memorise the formulas or chemical compositions is through practice. That is why Jaspher Kantuna says, “Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best.”