Examination Fever among Nigerian Students: Causes and Remedies

Abstract

The problem of examination fever with its all-inclusive concomitant devastating adverse effects on examination performance of students, examination malpractice with its consequential turning out of half-baked graduates, engendering financial setbacks on parents and sponsors of the students, inducing retrogressive economic and technological development of the society, and dimpling the reputation of the nation globally plague students in Nigerian educational institutions. The problem of could be traced to either its existence in ongoing examination exercises or on its anticipation by students on incumbent forthcoming examinations. This paper examines the causes and possible remedies of examination fever, and concludes that examination fever is not a physical health condition but psychological situation occasioned and predicted on students’ behavioral and attitudinal dispositions toward examinations, but manifested in physical health challenges, and that the remedies to examination fever, therefore, is positive change in behavior and attitude of students through the instrumentality of their reorientation in the entire educational process, and not just medication, to thwart its reoccurrence in subsequent examinations.  The paper adopts purely philosophical approaches.