How to reduce Exam stress and anxiety?

Exam stress affects most students in varying ways. The stress level in school and college students is so high that they get a lot of physical symptoms due to stress.

Teachers and parents need to teach their children how to manage stress and find ways to manage it. Some students can take exams with ease but for many, it’s a task.

Here are some tips to eliminate or reduce your stress. It’s never too late to set up good study habits. Here are some helpful ideas:

Clear your room and table/desk:

Does your mother remind you to clean your room and study table? It’s scientifically correct. The more clutter you have around your room, the less you’re able to concentrate. Physical clutter overloads your brain and impairs your ability to think, which leads to stress.

Take enough breaks:

Research says it’s good to have a 17-minute break every 52 mins. A psychologist also agrees on this fact. Resting is important so that you remember what you have read. In this time period, you can read a newspaper/book/blog or do whatever you feel like doing to relax.

Time table:

Set up a time table and try to stick to it. But also remember that not to be hard on yourself if one or two items are missed. Right from waking up in the morning to sleeping in the night, get all your activities – like studying, reading a book, listening to music, watching some comedy show, lunch-dinner, exercise-playing and sleep schedule needs to be mentioned in the time-table.

Exercise:

A 15-20 min exercise like a walk, basic stretches, deep breathing exercises will help to soothe your mind. Meditation helps to relax the anxiety.

Diet:

Have a healthy diet, no junk food should be consumed and stay away from caffeine as much as possible. Stay hydrated. Have dark chocolate or hot chocolate while studying. Research has shown that an intake of a small amount of dark chocolate reduces stress hormone levels.

Concentrate on progress and not on perfection:

Do you think that you’ll never be able to achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself? Do you feel you are good for nothing? If so, you may be a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist will give you stress. Set realistic goals instead of trying to achieve the impossible.

Know your learning style:

Are you a Visual/Audio/Kinaesthetic Learner? Know your best learning style and study. If you are a Visual learner, read and write your answers on a paper or in the book or on the black-white board; if an audio learner, read them as many times you want to so that grasping becomes easy and if you are a kinaesthetic learner, walk while you read/study. This will help you to remember what you study. We all have one particular learning style and if we use it while studying, it will benefit you.

Convert the negative thoughts into a positive one:

For every negative thought find a positive thought. Ex: I haven’t studied 2 chapters yet; I know I will get questions from those two chapters only. I know I have not studied but I will go through it and try to remember as much I can.

Avoid comparison:

Never compare with other students the amount of study you have revised. There could be chances that are you’re doing just fine, but after listening to other people talk about what they’ve learned, it will only stress you out and may make you feel like you aren’t progressing as well as them. Plus, if they themselves are stressed this can affect you and other people’s stress is not what you need right now. Don’t discuss the answers post-exam as well.

Create an environment:

Instrumental music, deep concentration music is available online, light up your room, burn aroma agarbatti/essential oils to have a nice environment to study.

Hope this will help you to study and concentrate better. Team Mentriq wishes you All the best!!!!

To know more about Team Mentriq, click here

All images by Pixabay.