Take Time: How to manage exam anxiety and cope with pressure

Identify your triggers

The skills you will find most helpful in managing exam anxiety will depend on what factors may be contributing to this. Exam anxiety may be related to:

• Negative past experiences of exams
• Lack of adequate preparation, or knowledge of exam-taking techniques or study methods
• Unhelpful thinking about the exam situation (for example, I am going to lose control, I cannot do this, I cannot remember anything, I am going to fail)
• Excessive pressure to achieve and/or perfectionism, thus setting unrealistic goals
• Poor self-care, including insufficient sleep, unhealthy eating, lack of exercise or relaxation.

Taking some time to understand and identify what is contributing to your particular experience of anxiety can help you develop an effective plan to deal with it.

Plan ahead of time 

• Find a quiet place to study without distractions.
• Set-up your study space. Make sure it is not too cluttered and has everything you might need.
• Find out as much as you can about the exam so you can prepare for it.
• Ask your teacher if you are unsure of what will be asked.
• Learn to make ‘mind maps’ and use them to collect ideas and thoughts, use bright colours to help remember important links.
• Make a plan of what you want to work on in each study session. Break it down into small tasks and work on one task at a time.
• Take regular short breaks – use this time to relax, get something to eat or take a short walk.
• Ask for help — if you are having trouble with something you are studying, ask a teacher, friend, sibling or parent to help.
• Maintain a book where you write only pointers of all the answers. On the day of the exam, only skim through that.
• Use a highlighter, coloured pens or post-aids to mark out important pointers. 
• Audio record your own voice. If you find any specific answer tough, hearing your own voice repeatedly will make learning a lot easier for you. 
• Make mnemonics to learn certain tough terminologies. For example, how we learn the colours of the rainbow by learning the acronym: VIBGYOR
• It is also very important to identify if you are an audio or visual learner and draft out your study material accordingly. 

On the day of the exam

It is believed that studying anything 20-30 minutes before the exam, is a major cause of anxiety faced during the examination. Avoid doing the same, and also avoid asking your friends about what is important and what is not. Studying last minute is going to make you more anxious and the possibility of remembering is minimal.  

• Do not enter the examination on an empty stomach
• Sleep for at least 6-7 hours prior to writing the exam
• Do not study anything 30 minutes before the exam
• Stay away from negative people who will add to your stress
• Keep yourself well hydrated, carry juice/Electrol with you, sometimes it can be very handy
• Check your stationery well in advance to avoid last-minute hassles
• Practice deep breathing exercises if you feel very nervous
• Open and close your fist if you are anxious and feel any kind of stiffness
• Ask for permission to stand up and stretch, sometimes your muscles can get tensed if you are stressed, stretching can help you destress. 

In case the situation is beyond your control, ask for help.

Coping with pressure

Internal pressures stem from pushing yourself too hard, or from worrying about your ability to meet others’ expectations of you and those that you have of yourself.

Understand your pressures

Think about all of the pressures you have. It might be  helpful to jot them down.  Are there issues that come up regularly or is it a one-off situation that is worrying you? Acknowledging them, even if you can’t avoid them, can help you prepare for them.

Get organised

Organising your time can help you feel more in control.  Make a list – getting things out of your head onto a list can help clear your mind and help you see things more clearly. Work through the most important thing first. Once you have completed it, the others will feel easier. Do not forget to cross it off your list – it is satisfying seeing the list shrink.

Take it slow

When we have a lot of pressure and are getting stressed, we can find it hard to be productive or concentrate. Do not try and do too much at once, give yourself time and concentrate on one thing at a time. Even if you do not complete it all at once, recognise the progress you have made. It will make it less daunting to carry on next time.

Vary your tasks

We all have things we do not enjoy, but we still have to do them. Vary your tasks between those you like and those you do not. This helps you stop putting things off or leaving them all to do at once.

Accept things you cannot change

There are some things or situations that we cannot change. Recognising this is not easy but, once you can, it means that you park them and put your efforts into the things you can do something about.

Every individual at some point of their life feels anxious, confused and stressed during a specific situation. What we need to do is often rationalise with the situation and accept that it is only a temporary phase. 

(Alisha Lalljee is a psychologist, special educator and psychotherapist practising in Bandra, Mumbai)

For all the latest Parenting News, download Indian Express App.