How To Be Confident

thanks to dreamscometrue.sulekha.com

Confidence is a great feeling. Sometimes, people do a lot of things to gain this valuable self-assurance. In terms of study, students always long for confidence before exams! Well, while I was reading a book, I got this great quote from Earl Gray Stevens..

"Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions."

Does that ring a bell? Or maybe a light bulb? Okay, jokes aside, when it comes to examinations, most students become anxious. Typically because they're not ready, or afraid that they're not ready. The common student will naturally do this:

1. Find past-year exams
2. Ask teachers/lecturers for 'advice'
3. Seek possible exam questions

Yes, you got me. I do them too (sometimes). So let's make this a thought for us all. Why do we do all of the stated actions? Because (I think) we feel that if we can be ready with all the answers to the exam questions, we'll be ready for them. However, what happens if for some reason (and it does happen) the exam questions are not the same as the past-year, nor the 'advice' of the teachers/lecturers and not even the same as the 'targeted questions'? Well, my friend, (if you're a student) we're somewhat dead (that is..if exam grade matters to you). Unless you were actually prepared and you were already confident for the exam, it would have been a disaster.

How to be confident? It's easy. Be prepared. Hmm..maybe that sounds too easy. As in Earl Gray Stevens' quote above, "being open to all the questions" might actually mean "be fully prepared". It means, you actually have to study from the start. If in university, you have the tutorials, you have notes, you have text books, and you also have the vast resources such as the internet to actually study about the certain subjects that requires you to take the examination. The problem is that if you, I mean, if we study for the sake of exams only, then I think we'll never be open to all the questions. Even if there is a very high possibility that the exam is the same as the past year questions, we will not be confident because we know deep in our hearts that we're actually not ready for it. We did not prepare...

The application of the said quote is quite vast. But in terms of studying, we can take it literally. Be ready to be asked anything regarding what you've studied and you'll be more confident. Maybe even like this guy..