Examination Stress Help

• Try to balance work and your time off.
• Try to take some exercise everyday. This helps you "switch-off" mentally, relax body tension and feel more alert.
• Try to "switch-off" mentally at other times by doing something absorbing.
• Watch out for disabling thinking, e.g. "everyone else seems well organised and able to cope, while I'm struggling", and challenge this, e.g. "I have succeeded in exams in the past".
• Try to stop working an hour before bedtime. You may find it helpful to do some muscular relaxation, which is particularly useful for relieving stress

The week before an exam

• Check the structure of the exam paper - multiple choice or essays, number of questions to attempt, marks allocated to each question, and then allow time accordingly.
• Revision: Vary subjects and their difficulty so that you don't get bored or disheartened. Set realistic targets of what to achieve in the hours available. Spend as much time on recall as on reading material. Practise answers in exam conditions.
• Take preventative action on predictable health problems, e.g. to avoid allergies, period pains, stress headaches.
• Try to avoid additional stress - e.g. don't end a relationship or see the bank manager.
  

The day before the exam

• Check the date, time and place of the exam and arrangements to get there.
• Check equipment needed for exam.
• Review revision cards.Don't attempt to learn new material.
• Think through the exam situation - a mental rehearsal - and review strategies to adopt if disaster strikes.
• Use relaxation techniques to ensure adequate sleep the night before.
• Avoid foods that might lead to digestive upset the next day.

The exam day

• Stick to normal daily routine as far as possible.
• If you can't eat beforehand, take glucose or sweets in case you get "light-headed" in the exam.
• Use relaxation techniques.
• If good for your confidence, briefly check revision cards to confirm your recall ability.
• Plan your journey to arrive on time.Bring a watch.

In the exam

• Read right through the paper, plan your time, decide priority order of questions, and plan your answers. Ensure answers are relevant. Don't waste time being stuck, but change to another answer. Attempt the right number of answers (more marks are gained in the first half of an answer than the second). If time at the end, check over your work.

• If you panic in the exam, allow yourself a limited amount of time to use relaxtion/breathing control techniques to calm down. Don't indulge yourself by thinking about the panic. Aim at getting on with the next answer, or part of it, not at finishing the exam. Put into play strategies rehearsed in your planning for the exam.

Dealing with exam panic

Stage 1: The "STOP!" Technique

If you think panic is starting, allow yourself up to 5 minutes to deal with it. You probably feel tense, so concentrate on trying to relax some muscles and breathing techniques to calm down. In doing this, it is possible to halt and reverse the process of increasing tension and stress. The STOP! Technique is a quick and effective way of doing this. It's aim is not to achieve complete relaxation, but to reduce unhelpful tension to a manageable level. The technique takes less than a minute and can be done without other people noticing.

• Say STOP! to yourself
• Breathe in gently
• Breathe out slowly, relaxing SHOULDERS, ARMS AND HANDS
• Pause
• Breathe in again
• Breathe out slowly, relaxing FOREHEAD AND JAW
• Stay quiet for a few seconds
• Carry on with whatever you were doing, deliberately moving more slowly.If you have to talk, speak a little more slowly and with your voice a little lower than usual

you will find that, in spite of your feelings, the tension will lessen.

Stage 2

Once you have calmed down, you may want to suck a sweet or glucose (particularly if you feel light-headed or nauseous). Then try to define the immediate trigger of anxiety. Is there a different way of approaching the problem? If you are completely stuck, it might be worthwhile attempting a new question, or a different stage of the problem question. Try not to think about the actual panic, once you have acknowledged that it is there.

Stage 3

If panic persists or returns when you start thinking about its trigger, try again to relax your muscles and breathing, and try to clear your mind of the problem - either by blanking it, or by imagining something pleasant for a minute or two. Once your mind is relaxed, bring it back to the immediate problem and just aim to do enough to get past the problem point, so that you are then free to get on with the other parts.