(Dr. Larry Arnn is President, Hillsdale College, USA. [email protected])

Do you ever watch dog trials? I find them fascinating. Dogs herd sheep, run over obstacles, catch frisbees, and seek by scent and sight. They exhaust themselves in these contests. They do it joyfully. It is a fulfillment of their nature.

Students too face numerous trials. The most intense are examinations that come at the end of each year and, the worst (or best), just before graduation. In America and India, these are high stakes trials. They can have lasting impact on lives and careers.

Working in a college, I often witness students confronting these trials. They prompt me to think of the dog trials I like to watch. Yet students don’t seem to be having as much fun as dogs. I believe the difference is in the nature of the two species. Dogs have a nature, as do all beings. Running and jumping, seeking and fetching fulfills that nature. They love to do it.

Humans have a nature too: it is to learn and gather knowledge. We can find our highest joy in them. Of course, we do not have to learn and grow. We are free to choose among many interests and pursuits, and we can give them the wrong priority. Relaxation instead of work; watching TV instead of reading; playing video games instead of solving equations. There is nothing wrong with any of these choices, but TV and video games will ruin you if you give them highest priority.

Coming back to summative examinations, these human dog trials are usually not enjoyable even if they are necessary. Let me suggest two ways to make them more enjoyable and successful.

The first is to reduce focus on the immediate outcome, the score you will get. I’m aware that exam scores are important, but they don’t guarantee success. Focus instead on the work of learning. If you do it with discipline, you will inevitably get high scores. Get plenty of rest. Eliminate distractions. Focus. Give your best hours to the most important tasks. Pursue them intensely.

These practices are ways to master yourself in every activity. They will make you a person of moral virtue. That is half of happiness.

The second recommendation is to focus about the ultimate outcome which is not to pass a test, but to learn. History, literature, physics, mathematics and chemistry are wonderful, valuable to everyone. Your goal should be to make your knowledge of them last. Master key concepts and the knowledge they contain. This will make you a learned person, a person of intellectual virtue. That is the other half of happiness.

Trials are more important to humans than to dogs. For us they are occasions to grow morally and intellectually. You can become a knowledgeable and happy person if you learn to accept challenges as opportunities to grow. And you might be admitted to IIT — or Hillsdale.

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