How do I manage my stress and anxiety levels during examination season? I always had trouble with controlling my stress and ended up making careless mistakes during the exam.
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Hey @blue ! Thank you for your question. We all have been there before. Walk into the exam hall, heart beats abit faster, head still trying to recall those important facts - praying it doesnt fall off my head. Open paper, thoughts begin to unfold rapidly and starts to sweat (either psychologically or physiologically) =D
Exams is definitely a stressful period, as it is a make or break in many ways.
Could try some of these:
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What works for me when I was a student was to either to mentally simulate that I am at the examination hall when I do past exam questions. That means abiding all the time limit being imposed.
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You could also get your friends to do a quick fire questioning round for revision. The idea is for you to get used to the elevated stress level. You could then use that to create emotional attachments to the things you have learnt. There are numerous studies on that too. Just quoting 1: “Substantial evidence has established that emotional events are remembered more clearly, accurately and for longer periods of time than are neutral events.” (The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory)
The idea here is to realize the source of the anxiety. Is it due to the lack of mastery of the subject, or in general the lack of familiarity to such stressful situations (afterall it is only once a subject term!)
Here are some other resources you can check out too!
Youth mindline: Exam Stress
Performance Anxiety: Performance Anxiety: Symptoms, Diagnosis, & More
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heyo!
yah exam stresses are no joke, but maybe what’s good that you could try is to sit down and do some organising, could be simple things like these ↓↓ where you set a date or time for when you want to get certain things done.
- What to study ( be specific so that you don’t study so many things at once)
- Drink water
- Doing chores
- Watching some videos that you enjoy.
So when you feel stressed out and can’t seem to progress, at least you can refer back to your list to see that you have everything laid out in front of you and can feel like you got things under control that you know that you can feel more rested.
You don’t have to get everything done at once, but pacing yourself is good. Do one thing at a time.
Know that no matter what mistakes you make, they do not define you. You are more than your grades alone, so do not be discouraged if you made a few mistakes, there is always room for improvement and growth! Have a blessed day blue 
Specifically for the exam itself, I found it helpful to
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Drink enough water - this helped me think clearer during the exam but you’d also need to time your toilet breaks properly
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Wear a jacket - being warm and comfortable also helps
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Eat some sweets? - this is probably people-dependent. Some say sugar makes them sluggish but sugar gives me that energy rush
Hi! i think this is a very common thing faced by students, esp since everything is so fast-paced and competitive in Singapore! here are some things I do to help cope with exam stress!
1. Deep breathing
- right before the paper starts! It helps keep me grounded : )
2. Getting all the materials i need ready + packing my bag the day before
- so i dont have to rush in the morning/ before the exam!
3. Eat, sleep and drink loads of water
4. Exercising and moving my body.
- other than eating, exercising was the only “joy” i had every day when I was studying for my big standardised exam 3 years ago. It requires a little bit of discipline, but it really gives you some dopamine and makes me feel a lot happier + more active throughout the day!
5. Study w friends
- for moral support (super important)
6. I give myself pep talks haha.
7. Fear-setting exercise!
I find that it helps with rationalising my thoughts
Basically list down:
- what you’re scared of (what’s the worst that could happen)
- how do you prevent the worst from happening
- how can you repair/ fix the situation if the worst happens?