Experts share ways to reduce stress and balance emotions when entering the 2024 high school graduation exam

The high school graduation exam is always a turning point (both in terms of biological maturity and career orientation) that young people must commit to, be self-motivated and self-motivated.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thanh Nam. (Photo: NVCC)

On the afternoon of June 26, more than 1 million candidates for the 2024 high school graduation exam completed the exam registration procedures and listened to the announcement of exam regulations. This is the last year that candidates will take the exam according to the old general education program (2006 program). From next year, the number of exam subjects will be reduced to 4, including two compulsory subjects and two elective subjects. The structure and content of the exam will also be changed to match the new program (2018).

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Education, VNU, gave advice to help candidates reduce stress and balance their emotions before entering the exam room.

Candidates are starting to take the 2024 high school graduation exam. According to you, what direction should be taken so that students can find the most suitable place for their abilities and qualities, instead of running towards the university destination?

The world is changing rapidly, the future is uncertain, so even if you have a university degree but do not actually study, do real work and do it properly; if you do not have the ability to self-study and self-update, sooner or later you will become outdated and be eliminated.

The high school graduation exam is always a turning point (both in terms of biological maturity and career orientation) that you must commit to, be self-aware and self-motivated. You cannot wait for any luck from spiritual forces or help from the outside.

The point is that you need to determine the right life goals to steadfastly move forward. That means you need to have some time to calm down to find your true passion, to experience a lot to know where your real strengths lie. At the same time, young people must learn about career trends and penetrate real work positions to visualize the portrait of their future career.

Once your career goals are clear, you will be able to orient yourself to a suitable training program and training facilities. Then, if you do not meet your expectations the first time, simply try again.

Many young people will be confused and feel discouraged because they are worried that they will not achieve the desired results and get into the desired schools. In fact, a good, famous school cannot guarantee you success in the future.

The biggest determinants of our future success are internal factors. These include systems analysis thinking, creative thinking, the ability to apply technology, use AI and big data, talent management, design thinking and user experience, fluency in multiple languages, and the ability to recover quickly from failure.

Sadly, many universities only focus on providing specialized knowledge without training and improving the very important skills for you to integrate into the professional world and succeed.

From a psychological perspective, what advice do you have for candidates taking the high school graduation exam, to help them reduce stress and balance their emotions when entering the exam room?

We are all familiar with the saying “all roads lead to Rome”, this is really true. In the current context, as long as you have the will to learn, there are many opportunities and paths for you to learn and become a “guru” in a certain field.

Never before have MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses (Free Open Online Courses) been offered for free by many prestigious universities such as Havard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, and Cambridge.

You will no longer be able to use the excuse that you are poor or do not have the conditions to study at good or prestigious schools. Because you can easily access online learning platforms such as Coursera (with more than 20 million students worldwide) or EdX (with nearly 10 million students).

"The world is changing faster and faster, the future is uncertain, so even if you have a university degree but don't really study, work and do it properly; if you don't have the ability to self-study and update yourself, sooner or later you will become outdated and be eliminated."

Initial research results of students participating in MOOC courses show that they have been updated with timely skills to improve their current job performance, helping them increase their ability to move to a new job, increase their chances of getting a new job position, help them start their own business in an unfamiliar field, get a raise, and get promoted.

Therefore, to reduce stress and balance emotions before entering the exam room, tell yourself that even if you fail, you still have many opportunities to become talented and successful. If you do not achieve your wish to enter a specific school, you still have the ability to study many programs of world-famous universities such as Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, Cambridge on online learning platforms.

Even if you are only admitted to a normal university, young people still have the opportunity to practice the successful abilities of 21st century citizens. Specifically, these are systems analysis thinking, creative thinking, the ability to apply technology, use AI and big data, design thinking, user experience, perseverance, flexibility or the ability to recover quickly after failure.

On the afternoon of June 26, more than 1 million candidates completed procedures for the 2024 high school graduation exam. (Source: Vietnamnet)

Is there any solution to reduce the pressure of studying and taking exams to adapt to the era of Artificial Intelligence, sir?

Indeed, young people are increasingly living in a competitive world. The more automation and artificial intelligence are applied, the higher the competition between people, leading to greater pressure to assert, to compare, to be the best.

The rapid development of the knowledge economy and artificial intelligence makes any of us feel threatened by the risk of falling behind, losing the ability to work and becoming unemployed. That invisibly pushes learning and testing activities to become more and more stressful, even for children from preschool and primary school.

We cannot change the trend of technology and artificial intelligence putting pressure on learning. However, we can change our perception and practice skills to reduce these pressures.

A familiar saying is “Work smart. Don't work hard”. First, you need to ask yourself to determine your goals. Why am I working so hard to study now? What goals will it help me achieve? Is that really the goal we want?

Second, know how to prioritize. Every task is important, but 20% of the work will always bring 80% of the results. Don't let yourself be overwhelmed with too many tasks that don't help you study effectively. Rearrange the work that needs to be prioritized because there is nothing more useless than doing things that don't need to be done right now.

To study effectively, you must also understand the principles of brain activity to review effectively. For example, among our senses, vision is superior to all, so effective learning requires diagramming. Previously, my parents reminded me of a principle for deep learning and long-term memory, which is the Listen - Summarize - Remember - Think - Review method (including listening carefully, summarizing key words, remembering with mindmaps, fishbones, tree diagrams or milk diagrams; thinking about metaphorical examples).

Remember, our brains can't do too many things at once. Therefore, we need to learn to focus, do one thing at a time, and take turns.

Studying in short bursts with short naps will improve your performance and brain sharpness. Therefore, you need to use the Pomodoro technique to study in cycles. Physical activity can refresh your brain and strengthen your will. Even during the busiest revision time, don't forget your practice regimen. Sometimes, new ideas will appear when we are alone. Every day, take some time to do nothing to explore your inner self and visualize your future career portrait.

Living in the era of artificial intelligence, you can also take advantage of AI to create a reasonable study and rest plan. You can use AI applications to synthesize knowledge, draw mind maps. Some of you have also used AI to create "test questions" games to test your knowledge.

If AI is used intelligently, it will not only help students review for exams more effectively, but also create interactive connections that help individuals reduce loneliness, develop critical thinking, self-study skills and self-questioning.

So what should parents do if their children's exam results are not as expected? What advice do you have for parents at this time?

First of all, parents should support and equip their children with self-care skills (both in terms of nutrition, physical health, mental health and social relationships). Parents should teach their children lessons about resilience in the face of difficulties and daring to accept failure through their own example and the story of great people like Edison who failed 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb.

Let your children understand that failure is not a shame if they know how to turn it into a lesson and an opportunity to improve for the next attempt. They can learn any skill and be better than others if they work harder, make more efforts and study harder than them. Don't look at the superstars in the class as competitors but as inspirations, see what you can learn from them. Give your children positive self-talk messages such as: " I will never give up"; "I am determined to do better next time"; "I will overcome every challenge with effort"; "Failure helps me train my brain to be more resilient and superior".

Thank you!

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/chuyen-gia-chia-se-cach-giam-cang-thang-va-can-bang-cam-ec-khi-buoc-vao-ky-thi-tot-nghiep-thpt-2024-276386.html