Exam stress

About exam stress

Studying for and sitting exams can be a difficult and stressful time for some young people. You might begin to feel that you can’t cope with your revision, or you might feel under pressure from your family and school to get certain marks and grades. You might worry that you won’t get the marks and grades you need for college or the job you want. A lot of young people and adults feel like this before a test or exam and there are lots of things that you can do to help calm nervousness.

What is it?

A little bit of anxiety can actually be a good thing. It helps to motivate us and encourages us to take action and do something. There can be a lot of pressure on young people to do well in exams and problems might begin when the worry and anxiety over the exams stops us from doing the things we need to do and interferes with our enjoyment of day-to-day life.

You might:

• Feel worried and, or sad.
• Get lots of headaches and stomach pains.
• Not sleep well.
• Be irritable and bad tempered.
• Feel like you are struggling to fit everything in.
• Lose your appetite.
• Stop enjoying activities that you used to enjoy, such as sport, exercise and seeing friends.
• Feel upset about missing out on other things.
• Find it hard to concentrate.
• Worry about the future.
• Find it hard to relax.
• Think of the worst-case scenario e.g. ‘I’m going to fail’.
• Find it difficult to prioritise tasks.
• Be frustrated by the amount of revision that needs to be done.

Causes

Often it is the negative thoughts about exams that can cause the feelings of anxiety, leading us to think things such as ‘I can’t do this’, ‘I’m useless’ and ‘I’m going to fail’.

If there are also other difficult things going on in your life, such as your parents separating, you’re being bullied at school, or other such worries then this can make the anxiety worse. It’s important that you tell someone if these things are affecting your ability to study – talking to a parent, teacher or friend is a great first step to improving the situation.

Sometimes our worries come from things that we are struggling with. You may be finding things difficult to learn or might be worried about falling behind. In this case, talking to your teacher may helpful. They may be able to run extra classes or give you other content to look at.

What can help?

• Try not to put extra pressure on yourself. Remember all you can do is try your best.
• Try to think positively. It can be difficult to change negative thoughts into more positive ones but try to think ‘it’s going to be okay’, ‘lots of people feel like this before an exam’.
• It can be easy to get sucked into studies and to feel alone during this time. Reminding yourself that others are going through this too can help you to feel a little less alone.
• It can also be easy to lose sight of the end goal. Reminding yourself that exams don’t last forever can help you to feel empowered and help things to feel less permanent.

Study Plans

Planning your study time can help.  Set yourself a routine, such as a set time each day and for a certain length of time, and pick a time of day which works best for you.  It could be that you learn best when you first get home from school, so you could plan to spend 45 minutes studying when you first get home, and then another 45 minutes after your evening meal.

BBC Bitesize has some really helpful tips and information on planning your studying.

Where to study

Depending on how best you learn, where you choose to revise may vary. You may find that you can work easier when in a quiet space or you could find being amongst others helps to motivate you more.

Studying in dim light can lead to headaches and reduced vision whilst also impacting on our mood so make sure where you study has good lighting.

The place where you choose to revise should also have enough space and surfaces to work on as well as having enough room for you to stretch and move around.

When we are revising, we can often forget to look after ourselves. Making sure that you have snacks and water nearby whilst studying can prompt you to eat and drink.

For those who choose to sit whilst revising, having a comfy chair can not only affect how you feel when studying but also how much you do. However, some people prefer to stand whilst revising. Recent research has showed that this may have various health benefits.

How to study

There are lots of different ways to study and how you study will depend on how you learn best. Finding the right technique for you can help to reduce worry. See the below for some examples.

You could:

• Highlight content into colour coded topics.
• Draw pictures to help you to remember various concepts and ideas.
• Watch podcasts or videos on the topic.
• Create flashcards with questions and answers on them. You could even use these to test yourself or your friends on key topics.
• You may find doing mock tests helpful. The questions on these exams may be asked in a different way in your real exam.
• Rewrite your notes out multiple times to help you to remember them.
• Teach someone else about a topic. This could help you to recall concepts and ideas.
• You could create your own quiz with questions that focus on topics that you are struggling with. You could answer the quiz without your notes and then check your answers against them.

Study tips

It can be easy to put things off until the last minute, but this is likely to only cause more worry. It can be helpful to work out how close the exams are and how much time you need to revise. Plotting this in a calendar that you have visible may help to reduce worry.

You are likely to have a many different subjects to study. Study sessions should be planned so that each subject has enough time and attention given to it. Giving yourself enough time to read through and digest this info is important.

Sometimes you need to give some things more attention, this might be because you find them more difficult. It may help you to write a list of your subjects and assign time to them.

Working out how much work you have to do and then splitting your work into sections can be helpful. If your work is in a file, you may find it helpful to put page markers throughout the file so that it splits your revision into chunks. You could also do this to books. You can then work through these sections in different revision sessions.

Ways to increase concentration

• If you find working in silence easier, you may find using noise cancelling headphones helpful. They can help you to stay in the present and aid you to focus on tasks.
• Various studies have shown that listening to music whilst studying can be beneficial. Some people would rather listen to instrumental music whilst studying whereas others may be able to revise with songs with lyrics playing.

Eat regular meals

Try not to skip meals; eating a well-balanced diet is essential for our concentration and learning. A good healthy breakfast is really important to start your day and can help with your memory and concentration.

Sleep well

Try to go to bed at a regular time and aim to get between 8 and 9 hours of sleep a night.

It’s a good idea not to use your mobile phone, tablet or TV just before going to bed and once you’re in bed, as the light from the screen can cause you to feel more awake and disrupt your sleep.

Have regular breaks

Taking regular breaks is really important and can help with concentration. You can try things like:

• Reading a book
• Spend time with friends. It’s easy to feel isolated during exam times, so try to spend time with friends doing fun activities and chatting
• Talk about how you feel. It’s important to talk to people about how you’re feeling and not keep things bottled up.  You might be surprised that some of your friends are feeling the same as you about exams; they could also be stressed, worried, anxious, having stomach pains or feeling underprepared. These are all normal feelings that many of us feel during stressful times. When you share how you’re feeling with other people, it can make you feel so much better straight away, as many people have felt the same and will understand.

Personal Experience

I really struggled with exam anxiety when I was doing my A-Levels. I found myself obsessively revising, unable to take breaks due to fear of failing my exams and subsequently found basic forms of self-care impossible to juggle. I struggled to eat, sleep and felt in a constant state of panic so much so, that I never truly felt in the present moment and was consumed with fear. I thankfully received support from my college who were able to implement adjustments to help me be able to sit my examinations but this was still a really difficult time for me.

More Support

For most young people the stress and worry goes away once the exams have finished, but if you find that the anxiety and worry continues and begins to interfere with your life, stopping you enjoying things, it’s a good idea to get some help and support.  There’s lots of ways you can do this:

• Talk to a family member, friends or your carer.
• Speak to a GP.
• Chat with a teacher, mentor or counsellor.
• ChildLine provide a free advice line.

• If you would like more info on exam stress, you may find the Young Minds website helpful. They have lots of tips as well as discussing when exams are over.

• Student Minds also have info on exam stress.