By Overview:
Exams bring so much stress. Anyway, it’s normal to be under stress, especially when everything depends so much on your grade. Actually, according to research, from 20% to 50%, of people who attend university every year get diagnosed with mental health issues.
But don’t worry, there is a way to help you deal with that stress and stay calm. Here are seven unique strategies to help you through your stressful exam period.
1. Practice Deep Breathing
Why It Helps:
Spending just a few minutes, deep breathing each day can really help calm you down. Focusing on your breathing helps your body relax and your mind clear. This can be quite helpful before exams or in the middle of too much study time.
How To Do It:
Find A Quiet Place: Sit comfortably and close your eyes.
Deep Breaths: Inhale deeply through your nose, hold your breath for a few seconds, and exhale slowly through your mouth.
Repeat: Do this several times until you feel more relaxed.
Mindfulness Apps: Use apps such as Headspace or Calm to guide your breathing exercises.
Breathing exercises can reduce anxiety by slowing your heart rate and lowering your blood pressure. Regular practice can make a significant difference in how you manage stress.
2. Prioritize Health Habits
Why It Helps:
Your body needs good food, rest, and movement to perform at its best. Skipping meals, pulling all-nighters, and avoiding exercise can make you feel more anxious and less capable of handling stress.
How To Do It:
Balanced Diet: Ensure that you consume meals full of good nutrients: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. Not too much reliance on caffeine and sugary snacks; they are bound to get you down at some point.
Adequate Sleep: You should get 8 to 9 hours of sleep every night. A well-rested brain works far better than a tired one.
Regular Exercise: at least 30 minutes of physical activity should be done daily. This can just be a walk, jogging, yoga, or even dancing in the privacy of your room.
Indeed, regular exercise will lift your mood and help you sleep better. The American Psychological Association mentions that physical activity will help reduce the body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol.
3. Set Achievable Goals
Why It Helps:
It helps you remain focused and motivated. Therefore, you are not sidetracked and overwhelmed when working toward small, realistic goals. The goals keep you on track and make large tasks seem more manageable.
How To Do It:
Break It Down: Plan your study time into small, easy portions. Instead of planning to read for five hours in a row, split it into one-hour sessions with breaks in between.
Specific Goals: Plan your study time with specific goals for that session. For example, “Today I’m going to read Chapter 3.”
Realistic Expectations: Determine only what is achievable for you according to the time you have. Don’t set yourself up for failure with unrealistic expectations.
According to Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University, you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. Writing them down makes your goals more tangible; they provide a clean-cut roadmap of what to do.
4. Study With Friends
Why It Helps:
If you are studying with friends or classmates, the process can be made more interesting and less lonely. It’s also a way that can help you better understand the material while trying to explain it to one another. Plus, friends, as a support system, reduce stress.
How To Do It:
Form A Study Group: Gather your friends or classmates who are sitting for the same exams.
Share Notes: Share notes and go through the topics covered
Quiz Each Other: Quiz one another to test your learning.
Encourage Each Other: Support and encourage each other on those days when you just feel like you can’t go on.
According to a paper published by Linguistics and Education, revising with peers helps one absorb their notes better and provides emotional support. Thus, it can boost not only understanding but morale in general.
5. Manage Exam Panic
Why It Helps:
Being nervous can lead to panic, one of the worst things when it comes to clear thinking and effective performance. Coping with nervousness means learning about times when you imbibe panic. This means that instead of looking at a disaster, you are seeing a problem to be solved.
How To Do It:
Deep Breathing: If you start to panic, take six deep breaths to calm yourself down.
Hydrate: Have some water to keep yourself hydrated and clear-headed.
Break It Down: Break the CIPD Level 5 Assignments down into smaller, manageable parts and tackle them one at a time.
Positive Self-Talk: Remind yourself that you are capable and have prepared well.
Breaking tasks into smaller steps can make them feel less overwhelming and more achievable. This method, often called “chunking,” can significantly reduce anxiety and improve focus.
6. Build Self-Confidence
Why It Helps:
If you believe in yourself, you feel better and thus do better. Negative thoughts pull people down, but positive thoughts lift them up. It is particularly at times when one is feeling stressed that self-belief leads you to find solutions to the problem.
How To Do It:
Reflect On Achievements: remind yourself of past successes and the times of difficulty that you have overcome.
Positive Affirmations: Stop some of your negative thoughts and think more positively. For instance, “I’m not going to make a fool of myself; I’ve prepared well and will do my best.”
Celebrate Milestones: Enjoy your success, no matter how small it may seem. The more you pat yourself on the back, the more you will feel good about yourself.
Positive thinking enhances your performance and diminishes stress. The University of Pennsylvania conducted a study and concluded that students who were optimists had better grades and health than students who were pessimists.
7. Seek Support Network
Why It Helps:
When you tell someone about your problems, it reduces them to bearable proportions. By reaching out to someone, say a friend, family member, or professional, you gain new insight and free yourself from them. There is no need to battle stress by yourself.
How To Do It:
Friends & Family: Talk to a friend or family member about the things that are stressing you.
School Resources: Seek help from teachers, school counselors, or a tutor.
Professional Help: Don’t shy away from professional help if you feel the need for it.
Social support has been proven in studies to lower stress and increase mental well-being. The National Institute of Mental Health says that social support helps you manage the situation better.
Conclusion:
Exam stress can be unbearable, but you can tackle it in proper ways. Keep breathing, eating healthy, sleeping well, and exercising. Set realistic goals, study with friends, manage panic, believe in yourself, and seek support when you need it.
Exams are important, but they don’t define your worth. By following unique strategies, you can overcome exam stress and perform at your best. Good luck!
