Tips for Managing Exam Stress!
It’s that time of the year when deadlines are here and so are exams! Exam stress can be very upsetting, students report feeling anxious, stressed and agitated. Students also report lack of motivation, scared of failing, and not sleeping properly. No wonder you feel overwhelmed when you are revising for exams. It’s important to know that you are not the only student who is feeling this way, It is normal! You will see throughout this blog that there are tips on how to deal with anxiety and stress, the advice counts for exam stress too. Revisit the blog posts and remind yourself of the tips. If you haven’t read them before, check them out now.
Quick tips;
DO
- Stay hydrated
- Eat well- ensure you eat breakfast on the day of the exam
- Sleep well
- Put together a revision timetable with regular short and longer breaks
- Meet up with friends and revise together
- Use flash cards
- Use past exam paper questions to practice
- Use mindfulness
- Talk to your teachers
- Talk to friends and family
- Study in peaceful environments- agree with your parents how they can help you, for example, allowing you to have quiet time, taking younger siblings out for an hour to give you some space, agree they won’t disturb you until your next planned break etc.
- Manage your time in the exam- see how many questions you have and allocate time to each question. If you have time left over at the end you can go back to questions you would like to add more to.
Check out the exam stress PDF from childline beat-exam-stress.pdf
DONT'S
- Don’t leave revision to the night before the exam
- Don’t revise all the time, have things to do to look forward to, i.e. seeing friends, cinema etc.
- Don’t just revise for the subjects you enjoy
- Don’t spend too much time on your phone, before you know it you will have spent 2 hours on social media!
- Don’t get distracted by TV- Turn the TV off!
- Don’t look around the exam room at your peers, this will only make you panic more
- Don’t get stuck on a question, move forward so you utilise your time and then come back to it
- Don’t panic! Easier said than done! Breath- take deep breaths to calm you, look at the questions and answer those you feel are easier to begin with, this will help to calm you and make you feel in control
Check out the video Exam-stress- Revision v's Life which has lots of tips direct from a student studying for exams.