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Tale of the Valiant Knight

By Martin See

Your eyes are fixated on the digital clock located at the front section of the school hall. The time inches towards judgement day. You are five minutes away from taking the most important examination in your life; the obstacle that separates you from your goals. Your stomach churns and groans in trepidation. Your hand shakes to its own rhythm. Fear chokes you as you struggle to recall the labyrinth of theories that you desperately studied the night before the examination.

You are afraid of the questions that lie ahead. How will I respond if I encounter unfamiliar questions? What happens if I run out of time to complete the paper? What will I do if I can't achieve my desired grade? These insecurities and uncertainties gradually worm its way into your mind, poisoning it with a cloak of pessimism. Any self-belief that you had prior to the examination would be drained away in a fashion similar to the Dementor's kiss.

For those of you who have accounts of such harrowing experience, I have a lot of sympathy for you because I know exactly how it feels to be that student. During my early schooling days, I was allergic to examination! The allergy manifest itself in many unpleasant ways. It was such a horrible experience! After being immeasurably frustrated by the same problem time and again, I decided it was time to control my mind and protect it from doubts and fears.

I had a taste for fairytale so I imagined myself as a valiant knight who was clothed in sturdy armour and equipped with the most menacing-looking lance. I was to ride to the land of Mathematica and to slay its heinous King using my newly acquired knowledge. In another scenario, I was an intrepid knight confronting the infamous nine-headed beast in the notorious wasteland of Scientia. I know it sounds like an absurd story to you but it did the trick! Through the power of imagination, I was no longer the kid sitting for the most important examination but I was the valiant knight, a noble man full of confidence and self-belief.

My new mindset yielded very positive results. The surge in confidence and my belief in my abilities influenced the way I studied subjects and how I answered questions. As Henry Ford, the automobile industrialist, once said, "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Many students cannot achieve their full potential because they are weighed down by their doubts and fears. They don't believe they have what it takes to score distinctions. Are you one of them? If you fit the bill, it is time for you to change your mindset and protect yourself from the adverse influence of pessimism. You can start doing so by transforming into the valiant knight!