If you are currently a student or learner, you are probably studying hard for your exams. But have you given sufficient attention to preparing your body and mind for the task ahead?
Research has consistently found that the best and most dedicated students are prone to suffer the most from high levels of stress when it comes to exams. These students often report the highest incidence of “hitting a blank” in an exam, when high levels of stress and anxiety have the effect of blocking memory recall.
So what can you do about this?
1. Make sure that you have a reasonable and achievable study plan.
It is important that your study plan is realistic, otherwise this will be an additional source of stress when you find that you are falling behind. Put a plan together that is sufficiently flexible and affords you with enough breaks. Our brains are not designed to work for hours on end without a break. The ideal length of time for peak attention is 50 minutes.
2. Make sure that you are getting enough sleep, exercise and that you are eating a balanced diet. A lot of students start to cut corners on these when they become focused on their studies. This can be counterproductive as our bodies need to be looked after if they are going to deliver optimally in terms of energy, mental acuity and health. You don’t want to be sick and tired on the morning of an exam!
3. Your internal conversation with yourself is of vital importance in the weeks and days leading up to your exams. Because our thoughts directly affect our moods, a diet of negative self-talk will cause you to feel anxious and stressed, which will directly affect your ability to perform at your peak in your exams. Talk to yourself asif you are your own motivational coach. Use positive self-statements such as “I will give this my best shot”, as well as neutral statements such as “I will approach things one day at a time”. it is important, though, that you only say things to yourself that you actually believe to be true as the unconscious mind will reject statements that we know to be false.
4. Practice relaxation training, meditation and/or mindfulness to help to control and focus the mind.
In future posts I will talk more about preparing yourself for the day of the exam.
One reply on “How to prepare yourself psychologically for the upcoming exams”
I find with the google and other distractions, I struggle to concentrate for longer than a few minutes at a time. I addressed this by turning off all electronic equipment and focusing for 25 minutes, with a 5 minute break, then repeating. It does wonders.