Managing exam stress
Everybody's stress 'threshold' is different. A situation that is too much for one person to tolerate may be stimulating to another. Controlled at the right level, however, stress can work to your advantage, because it can help you to produce your peak performance.
What's the best way to revise?
- Take time to plan a revision timetable that's realistic and still flexible, and linked to your exam timetable, so you revise subjects in the right order.
- Get hold of the right information from the start. Make sure you know how you will be examined, and what you'll be examined on. Catch up with anything you've missed, so that you've got all your notes up to date.
- Find an environment that's right for you
- There's no 'right' way to revise, it's largely a matter of what suits you best.
- Switching between methods helps you hold your interest and absorb information better.
- Mix dull subjects with more interesting ones, for the same reason.
- If it's hard to get started, begin with something easy.
- If you have a problem with concentration, you can improve it by starting with short bursts of study, then adding an extra few minutes to each session. Don't try to study for longer than 45 to 60 minutes at a stretch.
- It may be less stressful to do the work than it is to worry about it.
- If you find it hard getting motivated, set yourself measurable goals for each revision session, and tick them off when you've achieved them. After each session, acknowledge the achievement, and reward yourself with something.
- Have break between sessions, or if you find things getting on top of you.
Download our workbook on exam stress and sleep to help improve the way you manage anxiety and arrive at your exams well rested and prepared.
Exam anxiety and sleep (Word 39k)