And once again it’s that time of the year. The class twelve results for Tamil Nadu are out. Girls have done better than the boys (as has often been the case) and along with that come the mandatory thanks by toppers appropriately attributed to parents, teachers, principal and in some rare cases, even the school correspondent.  Well, yes of course, marks are important, the scores one gets in their higher secondary will define the college one gets into , defining the kind of placement opportunities that once is exposed to. However, pressure accompanying what is labelled as one of the most important exams in a student’s life in this part of the world , has been responsible for many taking the extreme step when things looked too bleak. For instance, according to The Hindu, number of suicides, both pre-results and post-results are worrying though they have reduced over the years. From a figure of fifty in 2013, the number of suicides have reduced considerably to 24 in 2014, said the report. In March, a girl student from Tirusulam committed suicide ahead of her Class 12 maths exam.  After the results were declared on Thursday, atleast seven cases of suicide were reported in the state apart from fourteen unsuccessful attempts by students to end their lives, reported New Indian Express. While some took to the extreme step by hanging themselves, others consumed pesticide or set themselves on fire, said the report.  But are marks more important than one’s life? NO. A single mark difference may be the reason for a student losing out on a seat at a prestigious engineering college. Forget scoring low scores, even scoring high scores in all three main subjects Math, Physics and Chemistry, might not be sufficient considering the tough competition.  While, the coveted centum maybe the dream for quite a few parents, low scores, or rather, even failure is not the end of the world.  So your child may be down and out now for scoring low marks. He might have worked hard, or he might not have. It’s not the end of the world. He might be younger than you , but listen to some pearls of wisdom by  RJ Balaji to parents of children about exams, failure and life.  Your child may have got low marks, or worse, even failed. But give him a shoulder to cry on today, and support to aspire for a better future, and it would probably give him/her the reason to succeed in life tomorrow, says this RJ.