Boosting Your Confidence in a Subject
Confidence is the key to success. You simply can’t be successful without thinking you at least have a chance. This isn’t aiming high so much as knowing you will achieve what you set out to do.
So if you want to get a great grade in any GCSE or A-Level subject, you’ll need to get confident.
Not everyone is born with confidence, certainly not in particular subjects you study at school. Building confidence takes some time and work, but if you set aside an evening (or less), you’ll be sure to come away knowing you’re going to do much better.
One strategy for building confidence in a subject is to acknowledge your progress. How much chemistry did you know last year? Less than this year? How much less? Loads? Thought so.
Once you understand how far you have come, you’ll be ready to add to your confidence. Do some simple tests in any one of your subjects. Anything you’ve already covered.
When you get a question right, take the time to praise yourself and take the success into account. That’s one more mark you’re going to get in the exam. Could be a grade booster, you never know.
When you get the question wrong, don’t worry. Be constructive about it. Find out and understand the answer there and then. Don’t let that one slip. Answer the question again, even if you’ve only been looking at the answer two seconds ago. You’ll get it right. Now take out the time to realise what you’ve just done. You’ve found one of your weaknesses and eradicated it. It’s gone. Now it’s another one of the many marks you’re able to get in the exam. Well done you.
Continue like this and soon enough you’ll have the entire subject under your belt and you’ll be able to walk into that exam knowing that you can answer just about every question in that paper they can throw at you. Now that’s confidence.