If you are a cricket enthusiast, which role do you enjoy most? Isn’t it batting? If you like cricket and look forward to playing it and practise diligently, you will become a good batsman in cricket. And yet you know that batting is the exam where you are being tested. You could be out for a duck in the first ball, or you could go on to hit a century! It is not always that all batsman score a century. It is not that every ball that comes their way ends up being a sixer. Yet you look forward to batting, and that gives you the thrill of success. It is only with practice that Sachin became the Little Master; he liked his game, faced challenges, and practised systematically!

The same is true of life. Every exam you face is the time when you are on the crease, waiting for the ball to swing in your direction and the bat to touch the ball to make a perfect six. Practice, Confidence, Concentration, and the initiative to perform are all that is needed. Have confidence in yourself, take the correct position — and start hitting out!

You have already learnt most of what you needed to learn for your Board exams. You can’t learn or practise at the crease called the exam. Now there is very little that can go wrong, if you will give it all that you have got. At the worst you will score just a few marks less. Unlike in cricket, you have no chances of getting ‘out’ on a duck.

You know that you will score at least the minimum marks you had scored in the preparatory exam. It is like going to bat with fifty or sixty runs already on the scoreboard. Calm, systematic and confident batting in the exam can get you those extra few marks that will be useful for moving on to a better career. Best of luck!