Still Feeling Stressed?

A smart person learn from mistakes, mistakes made either by himself or by others. How often have you done your corrections seriously? Most of the time, students did their corrections for the sake of doing it rather than doing it to learn from the mistakes made. The logic for not taking corrections seriously is that the same questions would never be tested again, so why bother. Though it is true that the same questions wouldn't be used again, the same type of questions would be tested again (this is especially true for Maths questions). Thus by not learning from the previous mistakes, the same mistakes will be repeated when the same type of questions are being tested.

Another work smart tactic is NEVER to memorise facts BLINDLY. Learning should never be mere memory work. We should enjoy whatever we want to learn and when we enjoy learning it, it won't be difficult to remember the details and thus eliminating the need to memorise anything. For those who enjoying reading 'Harry Potter', they wouldn't have problem remembering the unusual names of all the characters in the book nor would they have problem remembering the sequence of events, why then should they have problem rememebering the names and dates in their History text? If we can read our History text or Literature novel like we read 'Harry Potter' then learning these subjects would definitely be easier and more interesting.

Students who are concerned about their exam fall into 2 main categories: Those who didn't perform well in their previous exams and are worried that they would perform just as badly and those who did pretty well and are worried that they wouldn't perform just as well. Whatever the reason, worrying about the outcome is not going to be helpful in any way, then why worry? However, there are things that you can do to reduce this anxiety.

a) Believe in yourself. You wouldn't have reached the level (or stream) that you are in now if you didn't have the ability to do it. Therefore, if you have prepared for the exams properly you should do fine, meaning that there is no need to worry excessively.

b) Don't try to be perfect. It's great to succeed and reach for the stars. But keep things in balance. If you think that "anything less than 85 marks means I've failed" then you are creating mountains of unnecessary stress for yourself. Set realistic target for yourself, rather than to try to achieve those set by others. Aim to do your best but recognise that none of us can be perfect all of the time.
c) Take steps to overcome problems. If you find that you don't understand what you are learning, getting stressed out won't help. Instead, take action to address the problem directly by either consulting your teachers and tutor or getting help from your classmates.

d) Don't keep things bottled up. Confiding in someone you trust and who will be supportive is a great way of alleviating stress and worry.

Avoid panic. It's natural to feel some exam nerves prior to starting the exam but getting excessively nervous is counterproductive as you will not be able to think as clearly. The quickest and most effective way of eliminating feelings of stress and panic is to close your eyes and take several long, slow deep breaths. Breathing in this way calms your whole nervous system.

If your mind goes blank, don't panic! Panicking will just make it harder to recall information. Instead, focus on slow, deep breathing for about one minute. If you still can't remember the information then move on to another question and return to the question later.

After the exam don't spend endless time criticising yourself for where you think you went wrong. Often, our own self-assessment is far too harsh. Congratulate yourself for the things you did right, learn from the bits where you know you could have done better and then move on.

Different people can endure different level of stress, in fact what causes one person to feel pressured won't be true for someone else. In other words, one person's stress is another's excitement. It's very much like the stress on a violin string. If there isn't enough, it produces a dull, raspy sound. Too much tension makes a shrill, annoying noise or snaps the string. However, with the right degree of stress it can create a magnificent tone. Similarly, we all need to find the proper level of stress that allows us to perform optimally and make melodious music as we go through life.

'Stress is an unavoidable consequence of life. Without stress, there would be no life.'

'It's not pressure itself which is the problem but the way in which people react to that pressure.'