How to get over exam stress or exam fear?

Feb 19, 2017
5 min read

Image source: Pixabay

People keep telling you not to take stress but doesn't it sound quite stupid?

You have the most important exams from next few days and taking stress is nothing new.

Well, it's not easy. But I'll try to make it easy for you by helping you out. But before I start, you should know, from where it all begins?

Since, everybody wants to get into the best colleges of country and to achieve a seat in it, they hunt for scoring good in exams. This pressure leads to insomnia, nervousness and stress. It results in nothing but a wastage of time.

Students, you must know that you can't prepare well until and unless you are not stress free. You can try the following points to get rid of it:

1. Topics to be prepared first:

It is the most important thing while beginning with your preparations. Since, you have very less time and so much to prepare, it leads to stress. First thing, you need to keep in mind is that you finish up with those topics which take less time.This will enhance your confidence. But how? If you have 20 chapters in your syllabus and let's consider, 8 chapters are easy and take less time. Then you'll end up completing 8 chapters in so less time and now you have only 12 chapters left to prepare. This will make you content in a respect that 1/4th of the syllabus is over.

Taking another side of the story. If you start with a long topic which take so much of time then you might end up preparing for only 2 chapters and now, you have 18 chapters to prepare. Thus, it'll become stressful when you'll see the syllabus again.

So be careful while putting priorities for your chapters!

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2. Make short notes: Make sure, you make notes while studying anything. Sometimes, you end up preparing for a chapter and when you jump into it after a week and you're not able to remember anything for it, it depresses you. Also, causes restlessness and reduces your confidence. That's the benefit of making short notes. You check it and it directly clicks in your brain.This will reduce the condition of stress which is caused by the tension of forgetting things you already prepared.

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3. Keep encouraging yourself for little achievements: Achievements? Yes. With achievement, I mean the completion of your desired topics. If you decide to study something and once you accomplish it, start cheering yourself up. "Yay! I did it. I can do so some more," keep repeating these words. Yeah! It boosts up your confidence and inspires you to study more and more. Stress, Stay away!

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4. Go for a walk: When nothing goes well, then sit quietly for few minutes. And go for a walk. While you're on walk, don't let yourself into what and how to prepare. Try looking at sky, people, nature around you. Think about any cheerful moment of your life. This will distract you from stress and also, relaxes you. Listen to soothing music, if it works. Make sure, your brain relaxes. And I'm sure, it'll.

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5. Never design a target: This is the major mistake students do. Never design a target, I repeat, NEVER. Once you are not able to achieve your target and the watch keeps reminding you that the day is coming to an end then it'll always make you stressful. So, what you have to do is: Wake up and you should know, you have to study. That's all. Just start it. Start freshly,keeping in mind the fact that you've to complete your work. Nothing else! No stress will come your way.

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6. Sleep well: You may wonder if I reduce my sleeping time from 8 hours to 6 hours then I can study more. Wrong. It’s completely wrong. You satisfy your stomach by eating food, you have to satisfy your brain by having sufficient rest. If your brain is relaxed then it'll give you output, if not, then your brain is tired and it won't let you read and understand the things. You may feel tired every 15 mins. Thus, stress. So, sleep properly. If you feel you need it, then go for it!

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7. Proper breaks: Yes. Proper breaks. Do I need to explain why? It distracts you from continuous frustration of exam. Break works as refreshing material for your brain. So, take break of about 15-20 minutes after every hour. Remove the misconception from your mind that it wastes your time. It doesn't. It actually prepares your brain to function better. Therefore, take breaks if you want to avoid further stress conditions.

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8. Have coffee and do what makes you happy:

When you face headache then close your books. Don't force yourself continuously and have a coffee. Once you're done with coffee, do what you like,for few minutes. Like, watching tv, surfing through social networking sites, listening music, playing outside, etc. But these activities should not exceed the time limits, otherwise it'll create problems for you. You may end up with questions like I wasted my whole day. So don't let this situation come. Do it when needed. It cheers you up and keeps the stress away.

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9. Stay away from negative people: Aunties? Neighbors? Relatives? You know, these people are actually synonym of headache. They keep telling you what to do and what not. Why the hell they are lecturing me when they had so much of knowledge? Don't stress much and ignore such negativity as much as possible and be happy! They'll keep advising you 100s of things which will perplex you in the end. Don't let that happen. Ignore.

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10. Talk your heart out: If nothing works out, then go and talk to your close ones. Your mom or sibling or father or any close friend, they'll understand. Be very straight with what you feel, it'll relieve the burden from your heart. Their support and love will easily reduce stress.

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11. Distractions away: With distractions, I mean, your favorite addictions. Addictions like Facebook, whatsapp, TV, TV seasons, play stations, and many more things. These things are pretty good to relax you but over dosage of it,kills your time. Since you know, there are lakhs in India and obviously, your competition, is making use of this time. Keep distractions to distract you from unwanted things like stress. But don't keep it to distract you completely from your study time routine. Let your preparations go smoothly.