CLOTHES, SELF-ESTEEM, & EXAM

Ever wonder how come majority of the students did well in school but as they continue onto University, they somehow find it more difficult to cope?

I woke up today as early as 4 a.m. to study for my final exam paper on 9 a.m. typically like most students who often unwillingly forced to do last minute revision just before the examination. I have a date coming up after the exam hence I dressed up better than usual only to realise about one thing...

I have engaged in behaviour in which Psychologist would have diagnosed me as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Not only do I admire myself for being so cool and handsome, (ok... I know you start to hate me now but Hey!! You are good looking as well so don’t hate me ^^ “Beauty is in the eye of beholder” after all) but I was busy taking photos of myself which previously I would never really bothered to. As a village boy who constantly walks around the house half naked, I never really care about my outlook.

However, this morning really makes me realise about my appearance & how much difference it make just to put in a little effort to dress up nice. Not only do I boost of self-esteem and self-admiration, I even take some photos of my own:

How I wish I have a better camera ^^

Counsellors or therapists would have recommend techniques to encourage you behave as such to boost your self-esteem so I suppose I happened to do it unconsciously. Conservative culture may discourage such behaviour but honestly I wouldn’t really care how others perceived me, most importantly is how I perceived myself. Don’t you agree?

With inflated self-esteem, my mood becomes better. Not only was I able to cheer up my In-Blue-Love with my ridiculous gimmick, I am very calm & collected before the exam while others were anxious & panic in the exam hall, somehow I did gain some admiration along the way. Needless to say, I think I perform quite well for the exam & I would be expecting good result.

Feeling good about yourself will not only attract positive energy to you but also help you ease down on certain negative emotions such as anxiety & nervousness that may cause us to make mistakes in exam due to carelessness.

So I concluded one thing, when you take exam, dress well! You might make a difference!
Wear formal, uniform or anything that makes you feel good about yourself. Remember how we used to wear uniform to schools until we get rid of them in university? Perhaps it could be a factor. After all, the examination is like the battlefield of the Holy Grail for students, so why not dressed up well while facing it? ^^

Certain University in Thailand & Japan does make it compulsory for university student to wear uniform:

Rodriguez (2005) in her study of The Effects of School Uniforms on Self-esteem, stated that uniform may correlate to self-esteem and school performances although failed to find significance correlations but in her literature review stated that there are many previous research that successfully found the significance, perhaps is contextual factor. This is supported by Scholarstic and others as well. I would recommend some future researches be done in Malaysia context instead such as the study on the relationship of uniform wearing with school or university performance and self-esteem.

I finally understand now why some of my friends would dress up well just to take exam...