Why Students Fail During Examination....

Hello readers.... hope y'all are doing good? Well, this time it's not a gist this time *sigh* whereas it's something educative, inspiring, and can help you now even during your examination.

If I ask, why do students fail exam? I expect to get answers like lack of diligence and poor preparation. And I quite agree, particularly with all the distractions of this time. But do you know it's more than that.... Most students don't read only when it's close to exam time in which there won't be much time to cover up the whole syllabus....

Well, my drift here however is that, there are more subtle reasons why students fail exam, and attention needs to be paid to them to reduce the failure figure and rate. The reasons are mentioned below:


1. Not following the trend of exam papers:

Examiners are not out to fail students. The purpose of examination is to test the student’s understanding and knowledge of the subject or topic. And examiners usually leave a trace in the pattern of questions they set from year to year. A careful study of past questions over the past decade will at least guide an observant student as to what form the questions would take in order to prepare accordingly.

2. Not reading “wide” enough:

Reading only school notes for a final or entrance exam means the student is at the mercies of her subject teacher’s lessons notes, which may not be comprehensive enough. A good study combination of notes taken in class and usage of recommended textbooks with ample examples, illustrations and exercises will greatly enhance the student’s chances of success. Usage, I mean, not flipping through!

3. Not reading “deep” enough:

Passing an exam does not only require seriousness, but it takes some smartness as well. While it is good to cover the syllabus, it may really not do much good to give same focus to every aspect or topic, spreading oneself too thin. Where it applies, it is needful to concentrate more on certain subject aspects likely to form the sections of the exam. For instance, a student about to write the WAEC English exam, for the purpose of excelling, may have to pay more attention to the Comprehension, Summary and Essay writing aspects than say, lexis and structure. Why? They form the sections of the English theory exam which take up 60% of the marks.

4. Not interpreting questions rightly:

Exam questions could be moderately tricky, and the student must follow through the thoughts of the examiner on each question to give correct answers. It is not enough to understand the topic, you must also be able to apply that understanding to give an appropriate answer to the question asked. And if you have read a question wrongly, how can you answer it rightly?

5. Not articulating answers well:

It comes to this most times: from incongruent flow of expression to grave misspellings to illegible handwriting and worst of all bad English, and the examiner develops a headache over a student’s script. To make his (the examiner’s) day instead, the student needs to lay answer points progressively climaxing with the examiner’s predetermined outcome. In mathematics and calculation based topics of other subjects for instance, the examiner doesn’t just want the student to get the answer to the question. He expects her to arrive at it through a step-by-step logical sequence that would leave no one in doubt of her understanding of the question, topic and subject.


If you think you have other reasons why students fail their exams, feel free to contribute using the comment box below...we'll love to also hear from you.

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