How do I crack a highly competitive examination? First examine your motivation

In this post, I am taking a deviation from reading motivation to write about a very different topic that I had to address a group of parents in India last year. I was invited by my school’s principal to speak at the parent-teacher meeting. I had the task to address a large group of parents in an online conference. As the new academic year was about to start in India amid the pandemic, the sessions were to be conducted online. Tenth grade is an important milestone in India as the students take the high-stake board examination at the end of the year. Performance in this examination decides which junior college you will attend and what branch (Science, Arts, or Commerce) you will choose for higher education.

Besides, these students also have an opportunity to appear for a national-level, highly competitive talent search examination called the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE). I was to address the parents to tell them the importance of this opportunity and what it takes to succeed in it. A large part of it was related to motivating parents and students; therefore, I decided to use the framework offered by the expectancy-value theory. I have described this theory in another post in the blog series. Here is how I used the theory to make five big points about students, parents, and teachers using this theory. It was a lot of fun; hence, this blog post! 

Expectancy beliefs, mastery experiences, and parental influences

First, I started by stating the importance of believing that the students can certainly achieve success in this tough competitive examination. However, they will not stand any chance if there is a doubt in their minds about their ability to succeed. I shared my personal experience with the audience,

“Back in 2004-2005, I never told myself I would NOT pass this examination. My past experiences of winning similar state-level competitions always told me that I had a fair chance at winning the national level championship”. 

Further, I emphasized the role of parental expectations in achievement motivation. I urged that all the parents should hold high expectations from their children and refrain from giving out negative messages about their child’s competence. I reminded the parents that their students were earlier identified as high-ability students when they entered this school, but intelligence only predicts about 10% of the variation in later academic success. This gave me a nice connection to emphasize the significance of other important success factors such as motivation, practice, and hard work. 

Values

In my remaining four points, I emphasized different student profiles that are largely motivated by four different values.

A. Interest value: Students who are motivated by the nature of the competitive examination (e.g., multiple-choice questions), those who love to challenge themselves, and those who enjoy the academic subjects that are included in this examination (Science, Mathematics, Social Science, and General Mental Ability).

B. Attainment value or task importance: Students who find achieving success in this examination is important to them, those who are motivated by the benefits of participating in such competitive examination. They find it important to be able to solve the multiple-choice format questions as those are important in later competitive college entrance examinations. 

C. Utility value: Students who think of the long-term usefulness of appearing for this examination. The success in this examination yields tremendous recognition among peers, relatives, teachers, and others. Also, the skills and techniques learned in the process are helpful for later advanced academics such as doctoral studies. These study techniques are greatly transferable to other contexts that are not otherwise explicitly taught in the regular school structure. 

D. Perceived costs: Certainly, a challenging examination like NTSE would demand longer hours of practice, more effort, training from experienced test-takers and coaches, and some fees. In an increasingly digital world where 15-year-olds are engaged in various social media and other internet and entertainment activities, the question of paying a cost arises. How much will the amount of time spent on NTSE keep my child/me (if student) from doing other things they/I would like to do otherwise? This might mean compromising on playtime or leisurely activities. 

All four task values operate together to determine the achievement value the NTSE preparations may have for an individual student (Eccles, 2005). How students and parents perceive all of these facets would directly influence students’ motivation to succeed in NTSE. The interplay between students and parents would add another level of complexity.

In nutshell, for the student to feel motivated to perform a task, two things are very important. First, they should feel they can do it. And second, they should value the task for at least one of the four values described above. Rest assured, without contemplating on these facets, no student-parent-teacher triad would be able to easily sail through the rigorous academic experience that any competitive examination is.

Best of efforts, dear parents and students!