A bit of advice for stressed-out students

By Young Healthwatch volunteer, Jemma

 

In the New Year, thousands of school children across the UK will be sitting tests and mock exams. If you’re in this position and are currently struggling to meet expectations or cope with exam anxiety and pressure, I hope I can offer a bit of advice as a sixth former, having experienced GCSEs. This is because, trust me, it gets stressful, especially if a formal examination setting is relatively new to you and there seems to be impossible amounts of work to revise on. There are little ways you can make life easier for yourself and change up your revision techniques, if staring at a textbook or your notes for hours doesn’t seem to be helping.

However, before we go to that, it’s important to understand the negative effects of revising to the point of burnout. Sitting at a desk for hours on end without a break not only has severely negative health consequences, such as increasing the risk of conditions like diabetes, obesity and varicose veins from remaining in a sedentary position for too long, but it can also have other repercussions. Poor mental health, low self-esteem, depression and anxiety. It can damage relationships with friends and family. Physical and mental exhaustion. And, if you’re still willing to put yourself through all of that for a number, over-studying can also affect performance in exams, as it has a great impact on your memory retention. You won’t be able to perform your best in a test if you’re barely functioning.

Hours of studying ≠ grades. That being said, do revise; consolidation not note-taking. Be smart about it and keep things fresh. I can tell you now: making notes doesn’t matter half as much as your understanding of the exam content and your ability to answer practice questions successfully. As a last minute crammer, for me over-studying was never an issue, I always felt unprepared in exams, but I scraped through alright because I figured out what worked for me. It’s not an instant process, but I would recommend starting by having a quick look through the exam specification. It gives a basic foundation for you to break down topics into achievable chunks and means you’re not wasting your time learning unnecessary information. Plus, there’s always that one random question on a test about a specific point that no one knew.

From there, for subjects such as the sciences and maths, practice questions all the way. You’ll find that most past papers ask similar things, and notice patterns with the way in which you answer questions, which could mean the difference between losing and gaining a mark; the difference between a pass and a fail. If you run out of time before the exam, I would split screen the exam questions and answers on a device like a laptop or iPad, and not waste time writing anything down: test your knowledge with the question on the left, then look to the right to check if you’re correct.

For anyone taking a language, I’m afraid that’s a long haul and a lot of revision to commit things to memory. But learning answers for the oral way ahead of the exam period will really help a week before the exam when you need to know everything. It’s a proven fact that the more you relearn and remind yourself of information, the better and quicker you’ll retain it. Furthermore, if you put time into knowing your oral answers, that helps in other areas like reading and writing, and you’ll be more confident if you’re someone who feels a lot of pressure and forgets things when speaking, because you’ll know what you’re saying.

Finally, for those taking an essay subject like philosophy, English literature/language or history (why you crazy person?), writing facts or points out and planning essays can be of use. Personally, I had a whiteboard for history which I’d use to write down all the topics really quickly, and check if I missed anything out. Learning phrases and key quotations and repeating them helps too.

If you take away one thing from reading all of this, hopefully it’s not that exams are scary. Millions of people have been in your shoes. And I may sound like I knew what I was doing, but it took me a long time to get there, and I have to admit that I’m still getting to grips with sixth form. Moreover, we all have other things going on in our lives as well as school, it’s all a balance. If you don’t get the results you’d like, know that you’re more than a grade or a percentage; if you think you could be improving how you’re doing in a different way, don’t be afraid to change.

Good luck to all, and thanks for reading :)