Everything Exams

Feeling prepared and ready for an exam goes a long way towards increasing the confidence of students taking exams and easing any nerves they have associated with assessments. However, even when they’ve started early, put loads of effort into revising, and they really understand the material being tested, a student may still suffer from stress on the day of an exam. The good news is that there are things which parents, carers, and students themselves can do to help with this.

Firstly, the approach of parents, carers, teachers, and tutors towards exams can have an impact on the stress of students. A slight change of emphasis might be all that is needed to help a child achieve their best scores. Secondly, have you ever been in an exam and your mind has gone completely blank? There’s a reason for this and the good news is that there’s a way of fixing it. Lastly, I include a checklist of things to bear in mind in the last few days before an exam.

Praise effort not result

I have come across a number of students who have been incentivised to pass entrance exams with the promise of new phones, gaming devices and even holidays. I know such an approach is well intentioned but it doesn’t always have the desired effect. This is great if a student passes, but I’ve seen how disastrous this can be if they fail. Not only does a student lose out on a place in their preferred school but they also lose out on something they really wanted and cared about. Instead of incentivising them, this reward system piles additional pressure on their young, inexperienced minds. It can make them more anxious and the whole exam process turns into an increasingly stressful experience for them.  It may well put them into flight, flight or freeze mode which disables access to their memories and reduces the efficiency of their problem-solving pre-frontal cortex – the opposite of what they need in an exam.

To avoid this, a tried and tested way to incentivise students is to reward and praise the effort a student is making in revising and preparing for an exam. Ask them to do their best – this is all they can do. If they do their best and still don’t pass, they can hold their head up high and say that they tried their hardest. 

If a student stays focussed and positive when doing exams, then they are indeed amazing individuals who deserve our praise, and they should be rewarded for this.

Breathing exercises

A bit of exam stress is fine and helps energise us ready to work hard in an exam. Unfortunately though and as mentioned briefly above, if we get overly stressed, we activate a part of the brain called the amygdala, which prepares us for emergencies. When activated, the amygdala closes off communication with other parts of the brain, reducing access to learned memories and problem solving skills which are very much needed in most exams. Personally, I can remember getting stressed in exams a few times and, despite loads of revision, I couldn’t remember a thing about a particular subject. As an adult, I now understand why.

To reactivate parts of the brain we need access to in most written exams, focussing on the now and our breathing actually works and there’s scientific research to back this up. A simple exercise anyone can practise is to sit calmly, feel where your body is touching your chair, feel where your feet touch the ground, become aware of your breathing. Breathe in slowly whilst counting to 4, then breathe out counting from 5 to 10 at the same speed. Repeat this a few times until you feel more relaxed. A breathing exercise like this can be used in the few minutes before an exam starts or any time during the exam when a student panics and struggles to remember material they know they have revised. This is a mini introduction to mindfulness. Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness, focussing on the now and especially your breathing out, helps to reactivate parts of the brain shut down by the amygdala. 

This is something which needs a bit of practice so work on this before an exam. It is a powerful life skill which would be a valuable, lifelong investment for any individual to work on.

Just Before the Exam…

Here is a quick reminder here of things which will help make an exam day go smoothly:

• Sleep well the night before – it goes without saying that staying up late to do last minute revision is counterproductive. Warm baths, comforting stories, hugs and soothing words are my favourite. Studies have shown that lower levels of sleep affect cognitive performance.
• Eat a good dinner the night before, full of slow release carbs, and a candidate should eat a normal breakfast on the day of the exam. Sometimes, I’ve found that ‘butterflies in the tummy’ make breakfast unappealing for children on the day of an important exam, which is why food the night before might be important. Perhaps pack a healthy snack too, just in case. The brain essentially eats food when it is working well and there are many studies out there demonstrating the difference a good breakfast makes to cognitive performance.
• Have plenty of fluids and pack a water bottle to take along, if it’s allowed. Once again, studies have shown that levels of hydration have an impact of cognitive performance.
• Prepare everything the night before so that you can leave early, with plenty of time to spare – and don’t forget the lucky mascot if you have one!
• Parents, remind your child how much you value them for who they are now and the effort they’ve put in to prepare for this. All they can do is do their best after all, whatever the result.
• Parents, remind your to do the breathing exercises below on the way to the exam, whilst they are waiting to begin, and if they get stuck in the exam itself.
• One more thing for parents to arrange is a lovely activity for their child to do just after they come out of the exam, to take their mind off the experience and put a smile on their face 😊