How to Manage Exam Stress
Working towards exams can trigger a build-up of anxious thoughts and feelings. However, there are a few simple measures that can be taken to manage the stress we might experience and ultimately learn to reduce it. Here are some of Oppidan’s suggestions:
01. Get organised
Start your revision early. Break down your work into manageable chunks according to subject and topic and create a timetable to track and monitor your progress.
Create a clean and tidy study space dedicated just to revision: somewhere quiet and preferably a desk instead of a sofa or your bed. Try to keep your phone in a separate room.
02. Take frequent breaks
For time management, our mentors find the Pomodoro technique works well, taking a 5-minute break every 25 minutes; others prefer working for 45 minutes and having a longer 10–15-minute break. Everyone’s different, so find what works best for you.
When you take a break, get up from your desk and go for a walk, a chat or make a cup of tea, and reward yourself after working with some exercise or downtime.
03. Keep things in perspective
Exams aren’t everything: although it may seem like it at the time, future universities and employers don’t just look at your grades, but also consider a number of other factors, such as your hobbies, attitude and future potential.
Keep the focus on yourself: try not to compare how much revision friends say they’re doing, but have faith that you know what is best for you.
Stress isn’t always bad: think of the feeling you have before you play in a music recital or walk onto the sports pitch. Positive stress, or eustress, can actually be used as a tool to encourage motivation, rather than an obstacle to be avoided. What matters is our relationship to it: if we’re constantly wishing our stress to go away, it can actually amplify (psychologist Carl Jung famously said ‘what you resist, persists’). Instead, try to welcome low or medium levels of stress as something that’s ultimately trying to help get you to where you want to be.
04. Calming exercises
Too much stress, however, can be unproductive. A great way to combat this is mindfulness meditation, which has been proven to help calm ruminating thoughts, reduce stress, focus attention and improve memory. If you’re new, Insight Timer has over 100,000 free meditations to explore.
There are also many wonderful breathing techniques to try: 5-6 slow, deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth dials down the ‘fight or flight’ response we experience with heightened stress levels in around 3 minutes. There are easily-accessible tutorials for alternate nostril, deep-belly, box and 4-7-8 breathing on YouTube, which can be great to perform in revision breaks.
05. Be kind to yourself
It can be helpful to keep a list of your successes throughout the process. Whatever the outcome, realise that you’re doing your best and that’s all that matters.