Coping with Exam Stress
Its is normal to feel stressed when facing important exams. Exams at Sixth Form can feel especially stressful as your performance in them determines whether or not you will be able to go to your preferred university, or gain that dream job. So it is common to feel overwhelmed and anxious about them. However this information page can give you some tips and tricks to not only manage exam stress, but to use it so that it helps rather than hinders.
How to make friends with stress
We all know that stress can be bad for our health. It is well reported that exposure to stress can increase the risk of illness, disturb sleep patterns, and be the trigger for developing mental health illness. When we experience stress our body switches on the fight or flight response, which prepares us for action. This means that:
- our heart beats faster
- our pupils dilate
- blood flow more quickly to our organs
- our muscles tense up
This can cause some quite worrying symptoms such as tunnel vision, lack of appetite, feeling nauseous, feeling cold and clammy, difficulty concentrating, aches and pains.
These may sound familiar if you have ever experienced prolonged stress at any point. But I think that short-term stress has a bad reputation.
What If I told you that short term stress can actually be your friend and you can use it to your advantage when you are taking exams or completing assessments.
There is a type of stress called eustress that is good for us. This type of stress causes the body to release chemicals which.
- boost our motivation
- focus our attention
- increase our reaction times
- and drive us towards completing future goals
I don’t know of any student who wouldn’t want these effects when they are about to sit an important exam or complete a complex piece of coursework. In fact, optimum levels of eustress can actually improve performance when under stressful situations.
In short, one of the ways in which you can prepare for exams is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. If you feel nervous and jittery before tests and assessments, or during a particularly busy period of work at college, remind yourself that this is just your body’s way of getting you prepared to perform at your absolute best. Once underway with the test, exam or assessment, this stress will help you to focus and remain alert and motivated whilst you write.
See if you can change the way that you think about stress and use it to your advantage.
Below is a short video which shows you three easy ways to manage exam or test stress. The other video is a TED Talk with more information on the benefits of stress.
(disclaimer –If you have suffered with prolonged high stress levels then please do seek some advice and get some support. Click on this link to find out how and where to get help)
