Exam Season – work smart, stress less – University College Welfare

Exam season can be stressful, but there are plenty of techniques and self help methods you can utilise to ensure a healthy exam season.

Remember, being nervous and a bit stressed is perfectly normal, and doesn’t necessarily mean you have an anxiety disorder. But this doesn’t mean that anxiety disorder coping mechanisms can’t apply to you, so here I’ve uploaded some self help booklets and interactive modules you can work through.

Self-help Booklets and Workbooks

Audio resources

“The most relaxing song ever” (apparently). Use it to help you sleep or before an exam.

Coffitivity is a website where you can play background noise such as noise you’d hear in a cafe. Sometimes music can be too distracting, but silence can be too! Background noise helps productivity and concentration.

https://coffitivity.com/

RainyMood is a website that plays the sound of rain, and you have the choice to add music to the same track. Again, great for relaxing and for falling asleep.

http://www.rainymood.com

Body – Mind Relaxation Audio Programme

(https://www.dur.ac.uk/counselling.service/selfhelp/relaxation/)

Progressive Muscular Relaxation (29:37 mins)

Visualisation (19:09 mins)

Letting Go (14:01 mins)

Do Nothing

It’s hugely important to be kind to yourself, and remember to take a step back and bring yourself back to the present, mindfulness style. This doesn’t have to take long! Here is a website that forces you to ‘Do Nothing For 2 Minutes’, created by Calm, a mindfulness company. It plays the sound of waves on a beach, and knows if you’ve touched your mouse or keyboard, forcing you to sit and listen as the timer counts down.

http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/

iPet Companion

This is amazing. Animal sanctuaries in America and Canada have installed cameras in their cat sanctuaries. You can even play with the cats over the internet! Pick a shelter, control the camera to look around the room and play with the cats (cannot guarantee they’ll wake up to play, but you can give it a go).

http://ipetcompanion.com/

Useful Tips – from StudentMinds.org

Keep it in Perspective

Lots of people will tell you this, because it’s true – exams aren’t everything. Whatever happens in your exams, you can still be successful in life afterwards. So if you don’t do as well as you’d hoped, try to keep things in perspective.

Employers don’t just look at your exam scores. They’re just as interested in your attitude, your transferable skills and how well you’ll get on with other people.

Exam success doesn’t define you as a person. There’s so much more to you and your personality than how well you can tackle a highly specific exercise that is in any case almost never a perfect gauge of your ability in that subject.

Think about how far you’ve come already. You’ve already done incredibly well to get to uni, and stopping or failing exams at this point isn’t ‘throwing away’ your past success.
Once you’ve done an exam, try to forget about it. There’s nothing you can do about it, and worrying won’t change your mark.

Get that Organised Feeling

Picture your exams as a time-bound project. Are the exams 60 days away? That’s your 60-day challenge. Best of all, there’s a definite end point.
Work out the basics: which exams you have, how the marks are allocated, and how much you have to learn for each one.Don’t expect to learn everything; but having in mind where you’ll get the marks can help you prioritise.
Break your revision down into small chunks, and form a plan. Once you’ve got a plan, you won’t have any more dilemmas at the start of the day about what to work on.
Schedule in plenty of free time to unwind, and protect this time. Nobody can work all day every day. Give yourself plenty of rest and you can do the same amount of work in half the time or less.
Equally, don’t panic if you go slightly off schedule – tomorrow is another day.

Get into some Good Habits

Take frequent breaks. Psychologists say we can only concentrate properly for 30-45 minutes. There are lots of online services like Pomodoro that help you take regular breaks. When you’re on your break, do something completely different – move away from your desk, walk about, or make some tea!
Eat well. Keep blood sugars level to avoid highs and lows of energy, by eating slow-release foods like bread, rice, pasta, fruit and veg.
Drink lots of water. People often underestimate how much hydration helps!
Think about when and where you work best. Some of us aren’t morning people, and not everybody finds themselves productive in the library. There’s no one best place or time to work – it’s about what works for you!
Keep active. Even a short walk will do. Exercising is one of the quickest and most effective ways to de-stress. Fresh air will clear your head and perk you up.
Sleep! Try to get about 8 hours’ sleep a night. If you’re stressed about not being able to sleep, there are lots of ways you can overcome sleep problems.
Find activities that help you relax. Maybe it’s a hot bath, watching a TV show, or a creative activity. Schedule this down-time into your timetable.

Avoid these Bad Habits

Don’t set yourself ridiculous goals. Nobody can revise 10 topics in a day! Avoid setting the day up to be a disappointment.
Don’t cut out all the enjoyment from your life. It’s tempting to decide you’ll just knuckle down to work and “focus”, but this is counterproductive – it’s impossible to focus without giving your brain rest by doing other activities.
Avoid stimulants. Caffeine, alcohol and drugs impede your energy and concentration in the long term. It’ll also make it more difficult to get that much-needed sleep.

Get Support from Family and Friends

Don’t be put off by peers saying they’re doing huge amounts of revision. As already mentioned, that’s probably not actually working out for them. One of the key reasons we feel exam stress is from comparing ourselves to others. It’s important not to forget that your exam results are just a small part of who you are.
If you can, discuss with your parents what they’re expecting you to achieve. Parents with steep or unrealistic expectations will just add unnecessary pressure. It’s helpful to let them know what you think you have the capacity to achieve, and to insist that the best way to get there is to have support from your parents, not pressure.
If you’re feeling really worried or anxious, chat to a good friend, family member, or tutor. It helps to get it out of your system, and they may well be able to help think about practical strategies to deal with exam stress.