Why Students Fail Exams… Many decades ago education was not a do-or-die affair in our society, but today, it has become a vital tool that everyone has to pass through in order to cope with this digital age. However, it becomes necessary for students to pass their examinations. But failure is inevitable in this course. So the question is why do students fail their exams even when they have the confidence that they wrote their exams well?
In most cases, students attach their failure to their lecturers or that they weren’t taught what was set in the examination. And many other excuses or reasons they give to justify their failures.
Consequently, the common causes of exam failures among most students are obvious, even though students take them for granted. However, this article will outline some reasons students fail exams.
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Here Are the Top Reasons Why Students Fail Exams
Are you preparing for your examination, do you want to pass your exams successfully? Then avoid the following factors that cause exam failure among students. They are:
1. Lack of Quality Preparation
2. Poor Time Management
3. Laziness/Procrastination
4. Failure to Follow Exam Instructions
5. Low Confidence and Overconfidence
6. Anxiety and Nervousness
7. Examination Malpractice
8. Distractions
9. Wrong Choice of Course of Study
Now, let us look at them one after other
1. Lack of Quality Preparation
Inadequate preparation is one leading cause of exam failure among students. They don’t spend quality time studying for their exams, yet they expect to be successful. Some won’t even cover their syllable, and when they fail, they attribute it to their lecturer forgetting that life is garbage in garbage out.
All that you need if you really want to pass your exams. Benjamin Franklin said that “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Therefore, all that you need if you really want to pass your exams is quality preparation.
2. Poor Time Management
Poor planning on how to manage time is another cause of exam failure among students. Winston Churchill says that “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.” Most students who fail exams don’t balance their time usage.
They allocate more time to unnecessary activities in school that take their time of studies. In the exam hall, they spend lots of time answering questions that they don’t understand Or that are too hard instead of starting with the simpler ones, thereby unable to answer the number of questions required of them in the exam and this can also result in massive failure.
3. Laziness/Procrastination
Laziness and procrastination are major causes of failure in exams. When the exam is still far away, you hear students say I don’t feel like reading, in fact, I will read tomorrow, so they relax. 
Then when the exam is around the corner, they will begin to rush to read in a week, what would have been read in two months and yet won’t be able to meet up with the time. Laziness gives birth to procrastination then procrastination leads to rush, depression, fear, poor performance, and failure at last.
4. Failure to Follow Exam Instructions
Students also fail exams when they fail to read carefully the instructions guiding the exams. Sometimes, they are expected to answer only three questions, but some I too know will answer more or even all the questions.
Some even fail to answer the compulsory questions they were asked to answer because they did not take time to read the instructions and this will result in their failure. In the same vein, the inability to understand the question and the right answer required for a particular question can bring about exam failure.
5. Low Confidence and Overconfidence
They both, (low confidence and overconfidence) are two whirlwinds that blow no student good. Low confidence cripples a student, making him or her feel unable to be rational in thought.
Also, students that are intelligent always feel they know everything. So they can’t fail exams therefore, they relent from studying hard for their exams feeling that they will always pass as usual. But sometimes it turns out to be otherwise and results in failure.
6. Anxiety and Nervousness
Anxiety and nervousness are one main destroyers of exam success. Anytime a student allows fear and anxiety to grip him or she is doomed for failure. Anxiety will make you forget everything you have read for the exams, and in the end, you find out that you couldn’t write anything, thereby resulting in failure.
7. Examination Malpractice
Exam malpractice is one factor that leads to exam failure. L laziness, procrastination, and unseriousness give birth to the above factors. That is to say that when students become too lazy to study their books and keep postponing their studies, it will lead them to indulge in exam malpractice and when caught, the aftermath will be a failure.
8. Distractions
Distraction is one stumbling block to exam success. It happens to everyone, not just students. The worse path of it is that technology has made available so many things, gadgets, and platforms that cause distractions. They include social media, watching movies, attending parties, sitting out, and other campus activities that keep them away from studying. And as a result, they are either tired, sick, or even drunk, thereby losing focus and interest in their academics. The resultant effect is always a failure.
9. Wrong Choice of Course of Study
Students’ exam failure also occurs when they choose the wrong course or are studying a course their parents recommended for them that they don’t like. If they don’t like the course, their interest and attention would not be there, because they will always find it difficult to study. The lack of interest and love for such a course will result in failure too.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, success or failure in exams depends wholly on students, not on the inexcusable excuses that they present to justify their failures. However, if students prepare well for their exams and consider the aforementioned factors, they will surely come out with flying colors.