From the Leader of Learning and Curriculum
Top 10 Tips for for Students Dealing with Test and Examination Pressure
Know Your Material
The more confident you are about the topic(s) in your test, the less stress you will feel come exam time. Make sure you stay on top of your schoolwork and homework throughout the term. Follow up with your teacher, or another subject matter expert, if there are things you don’t understand well before the exams. Trying to understand new concepts the night before a test is very stressful.
Practise
Make sure you do practice papers if they are available or practice questions. This might include multiple choice, short answer or essay-style questions. Always study in the way you will be tested. Work out a plan-of-action so you know how long you will allocate to each question type, what question types you will start with, and what you will do if you encounter things you aren’t sure about.
Fuel Your Body and Your Mind
In the days leading up to an exam, ensure that you get enough sleep. Being tired makes it harder to concentrate and remember. Fuel your body and mind by eating well and drinking plenty of water.
Manage the Physical Signs of Stress
Familiarise yourself with how your body feels when you are stressed. Do you get headaches? Tension in your neck or shoulders? Does your heart race faster? What happens to your breathing? Whenever you feel these effects, quickly start some relaxation exercises. A good one to try during an exam is to breathe in deeply for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, and breathe out for 8 seconds. Do this a few times to calm yourself down and allow yourself to refocus.
Be Prepared on the Day
Make sure you have packed or prepared everything you need for the test the night before. Have a plan for how you will get to school on time – including a backup plan if necessary. Eat a nutritious breakfast and make sure that you are hydrated.
Visualise
Use visualisation techniques to help reduce your stress on the day. Every day in the weeks before the exam, last thing at night and first thing in the morning, visualise yourself calmly walking into the exam room, preparing your equipment, reviewing and completing your exam paper and feeling good about how you did.
Involve Your Parents or Carers in Your Schoolwork
Throughout the term, talk to your parents or carers about what you are studying. Show them your bookwork and homework. The more they understand about what you are doing and how you are going along the way, the better they can manage their expectations. They may also be able to help you study by testing you on what you are learning.
Talk to Your Parents or Carers About Realistic Goals
Keep talking to your parents or carers about what you want to achieve in individual subjects, at school, and in other aspects of your life. Focus more on the learning and developing skills instead of just marks. Involve them in helping you to identify where to concentrate the most effort to achieve your goals.
Understand Expectations
Many students feel like they are not meeting their parents’ expectations. Often this is a result of poor communication about expectations by both parties. Making sure that your parents really understand what your report means may help them to understand what you are actually achieving.
Ask For Help
The most important way to deal with stress is by talking to people and asking for help. Don’t try and go it alone. Teachers, parents and friends are support structures, so keep lines of communication open (that means talk to them!) and let everyone know how you are feeling and what help you need.
You can learn more about how to deal with examination pressure in the Managing Stress and Test-Taking Techniques units via the ELES Study Skills Handbook using the link via COMPASS Favourites.
Mr Justin Hodges, Leader of Learning & Curriculum
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