Perfect fit for you: Examophobia

Exam Fever – Prevention Tips.

Does just thinking of Exams give you jitters?

In most cases, exam stress is caused by the fear of failing an exam and it can also be caused by low motivation levels, competition from peers, high expectations from others and most importantly lack of preparation and planning.

Ways to help eliminate exam stress

Before an exam

• Study at the time you feel you can concentrate better, Get enough sleep.
• Try answering questions from past exam papers.
• Always ask for help if there are things you don’t understand, and especially if you are feeling, stressed out.
• On the day of the exam, avoid talking to friends who get stressed easily. You know the ones with cue cards outside of the exam hall, frantically trying to remember key dates and equations. They will do nothing for your stress levels.
• Write down everything you feel like you need to do and try and tick one thing off. Just the act of feeling like you are in control of your revision can help.
• Watch a film, a TV show, play cricket or listen to some music that makes you feel good.
• Drink some herbal tea or a hot chocolate. It’s a well-known fact that hot drinks are known to soothe the soul.
• A shower or a bath can help relieve stress.

During an exam

• Students who panic in an exam should take deep breaths.
• If a question causes them to freeze, then they should move on to an easier question. Come back to the difficult question later.

After an exam

• Avoid the exam “post-mortem”. You don’t need to know how other people fared in the exam. You’ve done your best, you can’t go back and change your answers so the second you step out of the exam hall, focus on your next exam.

Always remember that scoring low marks or failing an exam is not the end of the world. Each time the going gets tough, think of the quote we all have probably read, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’’