Exams and study stress

Exams and study stress

Exams are pretty much always stressful. But it’s completely possible to manage some of the stress that’s brought on by exams if you use different strategies. If there’s stuff you’re not strong on, or you’re really stressed out, there are people who can help you.

This will be useful if:

You have to do exams
Exams stress you out
You have trouble planning or concentrating on study
You need help with some stuff you’re studying
You need help planning your time

There are a whole bunch of things you can do to help you get through exams the best way you can.

Manage your stress
You’ll be less stressed if you’ve got an idea of how the lead-up to your exams is going to look, so plan what you’re going to study and when, and stick it up on the wall, or on your desktop. Break it down into manageable chunks and start working through it at the rate you planned. It’s probably more boring at the start, but it’s far less stressful. Plan some break times and days off too!

Take the pressure off
Deal with pressure and expectations by realistically assessing how you think you’ll go, and working to do the best you can. If other people’s expectations are pressuring you, talk to them and try to get them to back off. If you’re putting too much pressure on yourself, try to realise failure isn’t fatal. It’s likely that the worst that can happen is that you take it again, with a massive head-start from the work you’ve already done.

Do it together
There are other people studying for the same exam, and they probably don’t like having to lock themselves away to study any more than you do. Get together with them and take the books outside from time to time. If you’re not as strong in certain areas, it could help to talk to other students as well. If you are good at it, share the brain-wealth.

Go easy on the substances
All of them – caffeine, cigarettes, coffee, no-doz, alcohol, marijuana, Ritalin, Dexamphetamine and any other drugs. Any drug you think will help you study is actually a short-term fix that’ll probably make you feel much worse and cause you to underperform later.