The number has become something larger than a number. It has become a verdict. And the shame around it becomes a barrier to the very work that would change it.

Correctness is not the same as clarity. Solve a problem not just till you get it correct, but till it becomes obvious. That is when you know. Not before.

The search for shortcuts is, at its root, a search for relief from discomfort. But the discomfort itself, that is where the skill is being built. To eliminate it prematurely is to eliminate the very process that would have made you better.

You were enough before the race began. The score you seek is a shadow of the depth you could build. And the question that unsettles you most, that is exactly where you should stay longest.

If the butterfly is helped out of the cocoon, instant suffering will be avoided, but for a lifetime of the same. The student wants to conquer. The trainer obliges. And somewhere in that transaction, the actual learning disappears.

The mock test matters. But what matters more is what happens in the moment after it ends. I noticed my students consistently choosing the path that yields less, and then realised, quietly, that I do the very same thing in life. Over and over again.

I find that a middle path can be very helpful (just in the same spirit as Buddha laid out the path to ending suffering - (not ending pain!)). Acknowledge the greed - but as Albert Ellis advises - Don't make it a "MUST". Your "PREFERENCE" is okay as it is simply being human. Your insistence that it must happen is being irrational.