Maturity exams—a phrase that frightens many young people from about the 10th grade—and are somehow mistakenly confused with maturity. The exams are not meant to assess a student’s maturity, but rather to check the level of knowledge they can demonstrate at that particular moment.

In my opinion, preparing for exams can be compared to sports—the same distance can be run or swum many times, yet each time the result may be different. This does not mean that at some point you are better or worse. It only means that at a given moment you can demonstrate a certain result, which depends on many factors. For example, psychological aspects, emotional state, attitude, physical condition, and rest. Maturity exams should be evaluated in exactly the same way.

The result becomes more important than the process.

The first drawback is that exams are most often prepared for as if they were competitions—all attention is focused on training so that at the appointed time a specific distance can be completed in the shortest possible time. In this way, other aspects are pushed aside, the very things a student has been developing throughout the year. Achievements in personality, competencies, the ability to think, and engagement in other activities are not taken into account. Excessive and prolonged concentration on preparing for an exam as if it were a competition is extremely harmful to the student.

Simply put, students prepare for a competition in which they will never participate again. It is not like a favorite sport, where one repeatedly takes part in competitions, enjoys the experience, improves, and continues training. Exams are a one-time event, a struggle that receives enormous attention, and in the end, the main joy comes when it is all over. This is precisely the impression of exams that is being formed today. And there is no connection with maturity whatsoever.

The attitude must change.

We first try to change students’ perception of what an exam, test, or knowledge assessment really is. Currently, culturally, exams and standardized tests—regardless of the grade in which they are taken—are treated like thresholds. These thresholds signal to children how well they are evaluated or how “bad” they are. A labeling principle has been established, seemingly indicating a student’s worth. Living in such a culture, every assessment becomes extremely harmful. Changing this deeply rooted culture is not easy, as it exists beyond the school walls, throughout the student’s environment. Even some parents often overemphasize any assessment, creating immense stress for both themselves and their children.

For example, we explain to children that after completing a certain task, it is worthwhile to check how they did—not to judge them, but to understand what they could do differently next time: perhaps better, simpler, or more creatively. Checking one’s work is useful for the student’s own growth and improvement, not for others to evaluate them. It is not a threshold, but a healthy review and a tool for progress. When children start to view knowledge assessments like a health check—seeing what has improved or changed over a period of learning—the exams themselves become not a terrifying monster, but an ordinary event that doesn’t require special preparation. This is a fundamental principle: to eliminate the mindset that exams require special preparation and additional effort solely dedicated to them. Even the very term “preparing for an exam” carries negative associations, because one shouldn’t need to specially prepare for something they have been learning for many years.

If this process is viewed not as an ordinary, healthy activity but as an element of suffering that must simply be endured or overcome, the subconscious evaluates that knowledge negatively. This means that after the exams, there is an unconscious desire to forget the experience as quickly as possible, along with the knowledge gained. In this way, a block is created against what was learned over many years. Exams and tests are necessary, but they should be seen as tools to measure one’s progress.

Learning must be enjoyable.

I am convinced that we all want children to engage in anything they do with interest, not because they are forced. It is jarring to hear statements that school is not for curiosity or enjoying one’s time, but for hard, long, and important work. It is very unfortunate that even prominent education experts still believe that pleasure should not be sought in the learning process. School occupies a very long period in a child’s life, not to mention that 12 years for a young person is much more significant than for an adult. Devoting around 10–15% of one’s entire life to constant suffering is simply absurd. Do we really want children’s learning to be associated with suffering—when it could be a path of joy and curiosity?