Exams and panic go alongside most of the time. It’s the final exam stress that mostly leads to this.
At least, that’s what the I, as a student, seemed to think. As the final exams month approaches, the pessimism and despair grows in our minds and, from then, keeps on increasing.
In these situations, it is especially essential for the students to find out ways and methods to reduce final exam stress and prepare themselves mentally, physically, and of course academically for the days that seem to be approaching fast and with a constant nagging feeling of anticipation and anxiety hanging above.
This post deals with the final exam stress that students might face, it gives my own experiences and tips on how to calm down before an exam and settle your nerves to perform your best. I also figure that there is a term “exam depression” and this has unsettled me to no extent because no student should ever have to go through this kind of depression that comes from facing your exams.
One of the most important course subjects that schools nowadays should teach would be how to prepare for stress, especially one that you face while giving your exams because that seems to be a major problem in the modern educational system.
I’ve always been one of those only-study-when-the-exams-are-next-month kind of person.
I don’t really study at all during the whole year, I just study when the exams are close enough, and boy do I study hard enough. It’s like I’m completing for all those days I spent doing other things than getting one-on-one with my syllabus.
But it works. Not to brag or anything, but I give it my all in the exam times and come out pretty satisfied with my results. And I make my parents happy. What more is there to ask?
So, without further ado, lets get started on this extensive post about dealing with final exam stress.
How to Prepare for Stress?
Symptoms of Stress
I can tell you quite a few symptoms that students might witness in themselves if they’re taking excessive stress and those might be: sleeplessness (or bad sleep patterns), stomach aches and digestive issues, headaches, and more, depending on the individual.
Sometimes, stress is inevitable if you’re dealing with final exams and are required to study and give it your two hundred percent just to find out that it wasn’t as easy as you’d thought and you aren’t able to cope up with the mental pressure that everyone seemed to be putting on you.
Final exam stress can be pinned on us by various factors that seem to surround us in exam times, namely, peers, societal expectations, parents, teachers, and above everyone else—we ourselves. We students too hold so many classy expectations from ourselves and thus end up setting slightly unrealistic goals that discourage us in the long term.
Stress happens. It happens to everyone.
One of the best things to do then would be to learn how to prepare for stress and moreover, differentiate between the two kinds of stress that might be present within our minds.
Understanding Eustress
Hans Selye, a Hungarian-Canadian endocrinologist, distinguished stress into two kinds: Eustress and Distress.
And I really liked this concept of eustress and distress because I’ve always been a stresser, the one who just needs to worry because they need to be in charge of everything…and so whenever something does not go according to me, I stress.
Can you relate? When you can’t complete a project, you stress. You stress while you’re doing it and you stress even after you’ve done it because now you’re anticipating the results. This is major distress, the form of stress that’s negative for your mental health and ends up making you unhappy in the long run.
This stress, when concerns exam time and studies, takes a worse form and turns into exam depression.
There is a good aspect to stress, too. They can benefit from eustress and perform amazing in their final exams, beat depression because they know they’d be working for a cause, and get an applause as a by-product.
Eustress is the kind of stress you take when you are completing the project (from the example given above.) You know you have to give your best in this thing that’s coming up and leave no room for the boss to point out any flaws, so you handle the stress in a tough and efficient manner. You don’t work with the stress, you make the stress work for you.
And because the whole project was depended on you from the very beginning, now you perform better because you know how important it was.
It’s like constructive criticism, as I see it. You take the negative thing (the opinion of people) and turn it into something more helpful for you (by finding rooms for improvement.) Similarly, you take the negative element (stress, which is, most of the times, harmful or health) and turn it into something beneficial and more useful for yourself.
And now when we actually come to look at it, I think eustress is a great thing. I don’t see distress or desperation or anything like that, I see an opportunity to take up the final exam stress with a warrior mindset, to look at our tasks and subjects, to think rationally and take them up one-by-one.
What you only need to learn in all this process is how to employ eustress to your advantage.
If we just learn and understand eustress, its implications and how to actually make use of it, then the problem of exam depression is half solved in itself!
How to Prepare for Stress?
Of course, final exam stress will still remain even after we’ve managed to deal with all our distress and convert it into eustress. That’s why they’re the finals. Here are some additional ways to manage final exam stress and stay calm and collected while studying for your exams, in a way, not just prepare yourself for the exams, but also to teach yourself how to prepare for stress.
#1 Study the Whole Year.
For some students it might be a little too late now to say this, but nonetheless, studying the whole year and not just at the end for the exams is the best option. We don’t necessarily need to remember anything because I think we all just end up forgetting it (unless revision is done smartly) but the least we can do (and should do!) is to take regular notes in class and study just to gain the knowledge and educate ourselves.
I don’t even study for the school, or the grades. I study for the education. On that note, you can look at look at this post: Don’t Let School Interfere With Your Education. 15 Unique Ways How to (Over) Educate Yourself.
#2 Don’t Forget to Take Your Own Care.
Sometimes you might be so absorbed into studying and taking notes that you’ll forget to take care of your own health and well-being. Just know that it’ll get you nowhere. You’ll end up with distress and will go on panic mode right before the exam. So, hydrate, exercise, eat a healthy diet, and take time out to do some activity that you enjoy everyday.
You need to enter the exam with a sound mind and we’ll talk more on that later.
#3 Stay Motivated.
You can’t always study because, of course, you can only cram so much before the cup fills over the brim and the water trickles down. I’m not saying this will happen to you too, but chances are that it will indeed, if you only focus on reading and writing and taking notes and listening to lectures all the time.
You do have to stay healthy to see the results, you know.
Watch YouTube motivational videos (no, not the distracting ones that go on for an hour), and look at Pinterest. Pinterest, I’ve felt is a form of social media that doesn’t distract you much.
#4 You Will Do It.
It comes from believing. Seriously, it all comes from believing. You need to believe you can love the process and like the problem before you actually go ahead to solve it.
I can’t stress this enough. Believe that you will score the desired results.
Manifest.
Put all your strength into it.
5) Either Pull Up Late-Nighters, Or Wake up Early.
You can’t, under any circumstance, do both. You either stay up late studying or you wake up early. I personally like the time of the 5 a.m. It has just got something to it.
The main thing I want to highlight with this point is that so many of us become greedy while studying and wish we could stay up all night to study, and then also wake up early, (if you even slept a wink during the night) and I need to tell you that compromising with your sleep is never a good choice.
And it’s not just so you don’t get bad sleep habits or your stress levels don’t spike. It’s unhealthy. The human body needs minimum seven hours of sleep and it’s unhealthy and unproductive to function without that.
Remember that.
6) Switch Off Your Phone
Don’t look at what the others are doing, no matter how tempting it sounds, and your phone is your biggest enemy here, especially internet and social media.
When you’re studying, turn off your phone, as a steadfast rule, because when you look at it, you get tempted to open up Instagram or Facebook and check out what your friends are doing, how they are studying, and though this is friendly and all, you simply don’t need it.
Just do what you do best. Study.
Managing final exam stress is nice and all, even if you’re relying on internal sources for all the motivation and the push. But sometimes you might have to look for it in other, external sources too, and there might be some resources you might need to discover that you needed.
Look at these 5 resources to deal with final exam stress that can inspire, help, and calm us down along the way.
Resources to Deal with Final Exam Stress
So, wherever I looked, I found tips and tricks to deal with final exam stress, and all of them were pretty much all the same. So I decided to come up with these simple resources that helped me find solace and calmness in the exam times, and save me from the exam depression that many students seemed to face in these times.
#1 Podcasts or Instrumental Music
Some great examples of podcasts that I listened to while preparing for my exams and eliminating final exam stress weren’t related to studying at all. But yes, they were motivational, and some peaceful, and I liked listening to them and they gave me a sense of comfort regarding what I was doing.
Listen to them, maybe set a timer when you’re falling asleep. Calm It Down, by Chad Lawson. Goal Billionaire.
#2 Study Stationery & Motivation
Sometimes visual study stuff and stationery is a pleasing treat to the eye.
I especially like all the aesthetic collages and manifestos that seem to be going around on Pinterest. Seriously, when you’re tired from studying and studying all day and want some rest that isn’t a nap, then you can look at other motivating things, some that will give you a sense of accomplishment for achieving what you did, and encourage you to keep going on.
I’m a fan. I’m a perfect fan of aesthetic stationery, designer highlighters and post-its and notebooks and journals and bookmarks and so much more.
These aesthetic stationery items seem to always motivate me in a whole different way because I want to use them and I love using them in my books. I don’t know if it will be the same case with you, but I do hope that you’re into it too because though it “wastes” time, it’s fun.
#3 Books and Blogs
Some books help you a lot while studying. I know you probably wouldn’t want to read some more, after you’ve just finished completing the chapter and are now tired beyond belief, but some non-fiction, self-help books that teach ourselves how to prepare for stress might defy those rules.
Look at their book quotes when you might be feeling tired or demotivated. Here are some of those:
The Ikigai, by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, by Eric Jorgenson
Check out Brianna Weist’s blog.
#4 Work Mixed With Play
Make all work feel like play. Do it like it’s fun, which, truthfully it can be, if you want it to be. The thing is, we don’t have to take exams as the big monster over our heads. We can just take them as opportunities to show what we’ve got, to score the highest, to motivate ourselves in a way.
Exams may feel like work to some, but we can indulge in play while we study so that we stay interested, and connected, and active the whole time.
I think some of you might not understand what I mean by how you could mix work with play. So here’s an example: Building blocks? Have you ever played with building blocks? I like them a lot. Even though I’m grown up and all, I like playing with them as a way to learn things. Makes me active by giving my hands and brain something to work on.
#5 Om chanting. Yoga Music.
The soft peaceful chant of oooommm is guaranteed to reduce stress levels or even exam depression and help you take on final exam stress like a pro. If you’re feeling tired, or demotivated, or lost in all the overwhelming syllabus, just put up the chant music and lie down with your eyes closed.
Take deep breaths. Don’t think about anything. Tame your mind. You’ve got this. The exams are difficult, but for now, just don’t think anything. Focus on the sounds.
So, this was a list of five resources to help you deal with final exam stress so that you can prepare yourself for far bigger and harder challenges than this (though sometimes it feels like this is the end of the road).
Though final exam stress seems inevitable, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have to prepare ourselves for it, especially right before the exam. All your hard work and learning can be toned down if you aren’t careful with how you spend the day and the few hours before the exam.
That is when the panic is at its peak. Right before the exam.
Aside from everything else, one of the major things you need to learn is how to calm down before an exam. Here’s how:
How to Calm Down Before an Exam?
As we all know, panic is a student’s worst enemy in the examination hall.
But that doesn’t validate the onset of panic in our minds even before we’ve reached the exam hall. In fact, I should say that we shouldn’t panic at all. And I’m sure you’ve heard of this before, all from your teachers and parents. Guess they were right.
So how do you actually avoid panic right before the examination? And how do you calm your mind and racing heart down as the question paper is placed in front of you?
Know these tips beforehand:
#1 Take Deep Breaths
First and foremost, don’t start the paper off in a hurry.
Take deep breaths as you reach the exam hall and make sure you’re comfortable. We don’t want you hyperventilating inside, right? I send a quick prayer to God; if you’re an atheist, tell yourself that you can do this. You’ve been doing this since long. You’re fine.
#2 Sleep, Check
Before the exam day, sleep early and set an alarm up for early morning the next day. Go through as much syllabus as you can right before the exam to set everything in once again for the last time.
Then proceed with your normal routine as if it is any other ordinary day of the week.
#3 Do the Important Topics First
It might be so that even three or four hours aren’t enough to complete the entire syllabus in the morning. In that case, you need to only look at the important topics, ones you’re not so confident in. If you’ve still got time left, proceed towards the less important, un-revised topics.
#4 Don’t Over-cram (is that even a word?)
Cramming is never done.
If you cram it all up in your brain, without understanding any of the things you’re doing, chances are you might feel stuck in the exam; because you studied it all last night, but you can’t remember it now at all. (This has happened to a friend of mine, and I’m pretty sure she had been up all night studying for our paper of Business.)
#5 Healthy Diet, Check
Especially before the exam, eat a healthy diet. Shower in the morning to freshen up, groom yourself a little (if that helps you in calming down and will given you a sense of comfort in the foreign examination hall). I’ve noticed this especially on exam days that I get this weird stomach ache and don’t want to eat anything at all. That’s valid, but you should still make sure to take care of yourself.
#6 If There’s Some Topic You Missed, Don’t Fret Over it Now
If there, by some chance, remained a topic untouched, or unlearned, then you shouldn’t worry about it at all now, at least, not unless you have enough time to do it now. Aside from that, any kind of regret might end up ruining your whole paper.
#7 Just Go With the Flow.
When you enjoy studying, and like working, then exams feel like play. It’s just like you’re sitting in the hall, the clock is ticking loudly above you, everyone is silent save for the pens scribbling onto the paper, and you feel relaxed because you prepared for this.
You’ve spent countless early mornings and countless late nights to pull this up, you’ve given up on TV, your favourite activities, all those things others around your age were maybe doing.
You deserve to kill it here in this exam.
So, you have to make full use of it and write this exam like you were born a master into it.
Conclusion
No student should ever have to suffer exam depression. I’ve said that earlier and I feel the need to say it again. Exams are to be seen as open doors, not to be feared and disliked. Final exam stress, as I said, is going to strike one time or the other if you actually care for your results. You’ve got it within your hands to make complete use of the eustress.
You need to learn how to prepare for stress by making sure to put aside specific time for routinely habits so that exams don’t disrupt the flow of life. Working with a timetable is a given in these times, because time management is, of course, one of the most essential skills you might ever learn.
If you still feel like you’re unable to handle the stress being put on you, and you need a way out or for someone to lessen the burden, don’t hesitate before confiding in a trusted adult. Tell them what is bothering you and see if they can help you.
You can do this! But you should know in the way that you won’t be able to achieve perfection so you shouldn’t strive for it and then beat yourself up for not living up to standards. Forgive yourself for not being perfect.
