How to deal with Examination stress

Examinations are often the most stressful period in a teenager’s life. Every exam can feel like a life-and-death situation that will determine your college applications, future, and so much more! So it’s no surprise that the amount of stress this causes can be quite detrimental to not only the student but rather the entire institution of education. For most students, this exam pressure can lead to a lack of sleep, stress, no eating and so much more. And most importantly, cold feet are also one of the biggest reasons for bad performance in the examination.

Large blame for all of this lies in our education system itself, not only is it rigid and backward in its thinking and allows for no room for improvement and can be a huge reason for stress in a teenager’s life. While this certainly means that the education system requires reform above all else for the foreseeable future exams are going to be the unfortunate reality. So, it is imperative for one to deal with this stress so that they can put their best foot forward during their exams. I find that the best way to deal with this stress is to be very well prepared for an exam, as my teacher once told me,” You’ll only be scared of an exam if you are not prepared for it, I remember when I was stressed for a math exam, it was because I wasn’t prepared for it and I ended up failing it, and it’s the subject I teach! That’s when it hit me the big secret to all of this is to really just be so prepared that you are willing to take that exam because you know that you’ll do wonderful in it and you can’t wait to show that off and while this certainly isn’t universal it helped me and my friends a lot over the last few exams as we studied until we weren’t scared of that exam anymore.

Another tip that really helped me was to listen to some music from your favourite artist! While this is certainly not universal, I personally love to listen to some calming music before my exams, not only does it take the pressure off but I also feel extremely confident and almost hyped to give the exam. Also, it is a must to have a good breakfast before any exam, trust me, you need those calories to sit through that hours-long gruelling test.

These tips certainly can be useful but the most important aspect of it all is to understand that it really is just a piece of paper and a piece of paper can never decide your future. For most of us, when we grow up we won’t remember if someone scored badly in their IGCSE or A-level exams because it doesn’t matter. The important aspect in all of this is your learning and if you were able to go in that hall and give your best then the rest truly doesn’t matter.