Throughout the academic journey, be it school or university, each student has to sit exams to show that they have understood the course and can apply their knowledge to a variety of problems. The examination period is almost always associated with a feeling of stress, which can interfere with students’ well-being and academic progress. This article discusses methods to minimise academic stress before and during exams to help students perform to their full potential and achieve their best marks.
1. Reframe stress into a positive emotion
Stress is often perceived as a negative emotion. Sometimes students think that if they stress about their exams, then it means that they don’t have sufficient subject knowledge. This commonly induces a cycle of renewed stress and can impair the well-being of the student. One of the solutions is to change your mindset and reframe academic stress into a positive emotion (as counterintuitive as this might sound). Accept that some academic stress is unavoidable and it is actually a positive emotion as it shows that you care about your studies and that you want to do well. Would you rather be a student who didn’t care about their studies at all? Academic stress can also be a driving force that motivates you to study and to do well in your tests.
2. Plan ahead
Academic stress is often caused by an overwhelming feeling of how much work needs to be done to succeed in exams. In most cases, this is an overestimation of the actual amount of material, which can be simplified in a logical manner by making a revision plan. It is essential to make a list of all of the topics that you need to revise and plan ahead of your exam dates. Action beats stress.
Create monthly and weekly revision planners by using my free templates (https://www.york-weaving-education.co.uk/resources). This system will allow you to see how much time you have left before exams and how long you have for each topic. You will find that by planning your revision ahead, you will have enough time to revise all of the topics, and this in turn will naturally reduce stress.
3. Avoid peer competition
It is a classic scenario when some peers (without being asked) tend to overshare their academic progress and show off their revision achievements: “I have done 10 essays this week, or all of my revision notes, or 3 past papers in one evening”. These type of comments always used to stress me out during my academic studies. It is important to realise that you don’t know how much work they have actually done (and people tend to exaggerate).
Every student has their own personal academic journey, and revision varies from student to student. I would recommend avoiding discussing revision with peers like this. Instead, talk to a friend or a family member who doesn’t do the same course, so they can provide some extra support during your examination period.
4. On the actual exam day
Treat exams as an opportunity to show off all the hard work that you have put into your studies. Theoretically, one could always do more work, however, it is important to accept that you have done as much revision as possible to the best of your ability and given limited time. The exams questions that come up on the day are also out of your control. So go for it and do your best in the exams. When I adopted this mindset and approach, I genuinely looked forward to my university finals.
Please drop me a line if you want to discuss anything further. I wish you all the best of luck in your exams!
Comments