“Being able to walk out and say to yourself ‘that was the best I could have done and I gave it a really good crack’ is the way I would measure your success with the exam. Challenge yourself to give it your best effort and let the result take care of itself.”
I finish each exam preparation session that I run with some form of the above statement in an effort to push to students my belief that exams are definitely worth trying your best in and that it’s great to strive for excellence, but that building the exams and study scores and ATARs into a life-defining moment is really a recipe for stress and anxiety. Teachers know at this time of year that our jobs are as much about providing feedback and leading great revision exercise as they are about managing anxiety, stress and nerves in the lead up to the exam period. Throw in another year of covid interruptions and we’re again doing our best to have our students primed at the right time for exam success!
I’ve often taken a lot from articles and readings about treating students as athletes in the way they prepare themselves for this academic challenge. Sleep, diet, exercise and rest are critically important parts of their preparation and harnessing a positive mindset can do wonders for a student lacking in confidence and feeling that their exam results will have such a huge impaction their futures. So I eagerly took the advice of a friend recently who suggested an episode of a podcast from the team at The Resilience Project who put out a series titled ‘The Imperfects’. This particular episode has them interviewing mindset coach, Ben Crowe. That name may be familiar as Crowe was recently in the public eye following Ash Barty’s Wimbledon triumph. He speaks of his work with top athletes and his desire to address the issues impacting so many of us when it comes to perfection, fulfilment and purpose. What stood out most for me was how pervasive the challenges that he speaks of are - you don’t have to be a world-class athlete to feel pressure and you don’t have to be in a unique situation to want to feel more in control and content with what you’re doing in your life.
Minutes in, I knew that there were some gems that I’d be walking away with and I was already planning a second listen to really cement some of the key take aways. My thoughts then turned to how many of my former students could have really used the advice given and how many students of 2021 could find gold in Ben’s lessons. So, as a starter, I’ve distilled the episode down to my three key take aways. I encourage students, teachers, parents, anyone really to take some time to listen to the episode and see how it may connect with you. But before that, here’s three ways that I think teachers can use the advice of Ben Crowe in supporting their students in the lead up to exams.
1. Control is an illusion, perfection isn’t real!
This idea hit me hard as it’s something that I have long found difficult to accept. Hearing about how so many others need to heed this lesson did help me feel better, however! Crowe speaks of the things we can control and finding a sense of contentment within ourselves based how we act and live our lives. It’s great to have goals and it’s great to put in effort towards achieving those goals, but the uncontrollable outcomes (think exam results!) don’t define who we are or whether we have succeeded or not. Having extrinsic motivators, Crowe argues, leads to heightened anxiety as we are basing our self-worth on an outcome that we can’t completely control. How others think of us, despite our best efforts, is also out of our control and therefore unhelpful.
This idea brought me to think of students who are results driven and the stress that they put themselves under to achieve. It also led me to reflect on feeling content and proud of what is controllable - our attitude and our level of effort. Listening to the group speak about the idea, I found myself wanting to tell students that working with intrinsic motivators, and seeing success as honestly knowing that our best effort was applied could be a great way to approach studying without seeing it as an ominous, negative influence causing stress.
I can control how many practice exams I complete and how many hours I put towards learning and mastering content. I can control how I prepare and the attitude I choose to take towards each task in the lead up to exams. I can’t control how my exam result will stack up against thousands of others and what the exact outcome will be. Basing success on my efforts and attitude, rather than a number is a much healthier way of approaching things!
2. The difference between who you are and what you do.
The episode often comes back to a mantra regarding the human ‘being’ versus the human ’doing’ and, if I’m being honest, it’s not something I completely have my head around just yet; although I am eager to read more about that idea. One key take away though is establishing the difference between what we can achieve from who we are as people and ensuring that we are focused on being comfortable and proud of who we are over what we can do.
I’d often struggled found myself uncomfortable with the argument ‘your ATAR doesn’t define you’. Not because I wanted students to see themselves as a direct reflection of some test results, but because I felt it often overlooked those students who gave their absolute all and found success for their efforts. It seemed convenient for those who had not dedicated themselves to studying or given any prolonged effort to undermine the efforts of others.
Crowe’s message helped me re-frame this conflict and provided me with a great balance between celebrating the success of our students and their application to doing well, whilst not creating an environment where their results are the complete measure of their personal worth. The bottom line for me is that we can still look to motivate our students and preach the benefits of dedication and effort, but ensure that we are also instilling in our students that their sense of personal worth is not tied to their exam result or ATAR score. So many schools already do this so well, but it’s an important message to maintain, particularly with a generation that are becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of perfection.
3. It’s okay to strive.
What I enjoyed most about the discussion was that it didn’t look to de-value effort or accomplishment, but it rather pushed towards how we view ourselves and what we hope to achieve. Many people, students included, may feel that stress and anxiety are part and parcel of being a high achiever and that without that stress-induced motivation, the thrill of accomplishment vanishes. Crowe’s words and ideas brilliantly walk the line between accepting ourselves as being ‘enough' despite what we do or don’t achieve, but also allowing ourselves to set aspirational goals and dream big. It’s refreshing to consider that reducing our level of stress, anxiety and fear in regards to performance does not have to come at the expense of wanting to achieve great things.
What a win it would be for us as educators if we could send more of our graduates off into the world this year with them feeling confident in themselves and who they are, whilst also being motivated to continually improve themselves.
Ben Taylor - The English Lab
Please remember that these are my inspired ramblings and personal interpretation of a great podcast. To listen to it and to make your own connections, click the button below. Many teachers would be familiar with Hugh Van Cuylenberg from his work with his company, The Resilience Project. If you have benefitted from one of their sessions, be sure to check out the podcast!
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