You know the exam is going to be a problem. In fact you know it’s going to be several problems, you know what course they’re coming from, you even know exactly when they’re coming and exactly how long you’ll have to solve them. Which makes them the best problems of all time! The rest of life’s problems come at you randomly without warning, never mind multiple months of professional preparation in how to deal with them.
The second strength of exams is that they’re short. Sure, those few hours can feel like a long time, but compared to the problems you’ll face for the rest of your life after leaving university they’re beautifully brief. Compared to job-hunting and mortgages, mere hours sitting in a quiet room writing feels like entertainment, not a challenge.
The third thing that makes exams great is that you’re not alone. You’re not even nearly alone. So many people suffer problems alone, unwilling or scared to even mention what worries them to each other. But every year hundreds of thousands of students share the stress of exams, helping each other with jokes, advice, and preparation strategies. If we could approach other problems like that the species would be much better off!
A fourth advantage is that you get marks for your work. If you do well in an exam you definitely get a good result from that exam. The rest of the world isn’t like that! So many jobs aren’t like that! The world is filled with stories of stress and mismanagement, theft and under-appreciated struggle. The idea of doing something right and automatically getting benefits from is practically a utopia.
Plus there’s the fact that you only need to do exams a few times a term. When you have a job you have to work all the time. Every day! And even one bad performance can significantly affect your future. So enjoy this chilled university atmosphere where you’re trusted to put things together for yourself, and only checked on whether you’re actually doing it once in a long while.
Everyone hates exams, and only too late they realize that’s like hating the romantic interest at the start of a “they learn to love each other” movie. Sure, the exam is annoying, but years later you realize that they were doing everything to try to make you better, they were giving you months of space to get yourself together, they offered every lesson you could ever need to get to know them properly, and that in the end you knew you felt good when things went well with them. Learn to love your exams now! Before it’s too late!
Exams are everything you could want in a problem.
The second strength of exams is that they’re short. Sure, those few hours can feel like a long time, but compared to the problems you’ll face for the rest of your life after leaving university they’re beautifully brief. Compared to job-hunting and mortgages, mere hours sitting in a quiet room writing feels like entertainment, not a challenge.
The third thing that makes exams great is that you’re not alone. You’re not even nearly alone. So many people suffer problems alone, unwilling or scared to even mention what worries them to each other. But every year hundreds of thousands of students share the stress of exams, helping each other with jokes, advice, and preparation strategies. If we could approach other problems like that the species would be much better off!
A fourth advantage is that you get marks for your work. If you do well in an exam you definitely get a good result from that exam. The rest of the world isn’t like that! So many jobs aren’t like that! The world is filled with stories of stress and mismanagement, theft and under-appreciated struggle. The idea of doing something right and automatically getting benefits from is practically a utopia.
Plus there’s the fact that you only need to do exams a few times a term. When you have a job you have to work all the time. Every day! And even one bad performance can significantly affect your future. So enjoy this chilled university atmosphere where you’re trusted to put things together for yourself, and only checked on whether you’re actually doing it once in a long while.
Everyone hates exams, and only too late they realize that’s like hating the romantic interest at the start of a “they learn to love each other” movie. Sure, the exam is annoying, but years later you realize that they were doing everything to try to make you better, they were giving you months of space to get yourself together, they offered every lesson you could ever need to get to know them properly, and that in the end you knew you felt good when things went well with them. Learn to love your exams now! Before it’s too late!
