Beat Examination Stress
Do you sweat as the date of your examinations approaches? Is the lack of calmness causing you to under-perform? Here is some advice to tide over those anxious moments!
Steps
- Start studying well before the exam. Make sure your schedule provides for sufficient revision time. As any good test-taker will tell you, the revisions are more important than the first time study.
- Focus on understanding the concepts rather than mugging. Use mnemonics if rote learning is the only way out.
- Think about the time after the exam. Visualize the happiness on your face when the stressful period is over. This works very well.
- Keep reminding yourself that your hard work will not go to waste.
- If you are afraid of tough questions, it helps to know that most questions are of average difficulty and designed to be answered correctly by most examinees.
- Designate a "study buddy", a classmate who is an expert in a subject you have trouble in, that you can come to with questions.
- Get plenty of sleep. It's way more stressful to memorize lots of information or comprehend complicated concepts on less than 6 hours sleep.
- Eat healthy food, since it's often easier to function on nutritious food than junk. While sugar might be a quick source of energy, sugar lows happen pretty fast and the let-down can often be severe.
- Exercise. Physical exercise like running, jogging or skipping for 15-20 minutes everyday will make you feel stress free and mentally fit.
- While taking notes, use as many diagrams, graphs, figures and illustrations as possible. This helps to make several revisions at the last moment!
- Ask a senior or more knowledgeable person to prepare sample tests for you. If practice tests are available online or in the market, go for them. Many questions are similar to or verbatim from practice material.
- On the day of the exam, feel happy! Think positive and keep cool! Good luck!
Tips
- Just before your exam think about all the hard work you have put in. Maintain a positive attitude and trust that your hard work will pay off.
- On the day before the exam go and see a movie or a play. You could even go to a fair. This works only if you have put in lots of work in advance. This tip works because your brain has created the necessary pathways to store and retrieve information that you have learned. So relax and watch a movie.
Warnings
- If you find yourself getting very stressed about an upcoming exam, don't be afraid to talk to somebody. This can be a parent, a friend or a helpline. It's better to talk to somebody before you let your nerves affect your health.
