With an exam in prospect you can suffer from exam stress. It is very normal that people are tense before an exam. A bit of tension is good, because it keeps your mind sharp. If the tension becomes too dominant, then you speak of exam stress or exam fear. This is a form of performance anxiety and it can have a negative impact on your performance. What are the causes of exam stress and what can you do about it?
Symptoms of exam stress
You can compare exam stress with any stress situation in your life. If you feel tense due to fear or stress, your brain produces extra adrenaline. This will make your heart pump faster to produce energy for your muscles. This is necessary to be able to flee or fight in case of immediate danger. This reaction of the body to stress can cause physical complaints:
- Stomach ache
- Moist hands
- Headache
- Palpitations
- Disturbed night’s sleep
- Nausea
In addition to physical complaints, exam stress can also cause psychological complaints. The greatest fear people have of an exam is the fear of failure. Irrational thoughts like, “I’m bound to black out” or “I haven’t learned well enough” or “suppose I fail” can negatively impact performance. This can be accompanied by feelings of fear, agitation, irritation and lack of control.
Causes of exam stress
Every person suffers from tension before an exam. Healthy tension has a positive effect on performance, because it makes the mind alert and sharp. If the tension is too high, then you speak of exam stress or exam fear. The number one cause of exam stress is the fear of failure. Why someone suffers from performance anxiety can be related to several things:
- Character: if you are a perfectionist by nature, you can have great fear of not being able to comply with this
- Circumstances: if you have already failed, the fear is now great that this will happen again
- Environment: if your parents or people around you expect you to succeed, this creates a lot of pressure
What can you do about exam stress?
If you suffer from exam stress, there are options to do something about it:
Character: does your perfectionism get in the way?
- Give yourself the space to make mistakes, nobody expects you to work flawlessly
- Set achievable and realistic goals in advance
- Don’t think “everything” or “nothing”, “almost everything” is good enough too
- Realize that you can learn from mistakes
Circumstances: you have failed before
- Have you ever failed, then the chance is much greater that you will now succeed! The substance is already familiar to you.
- Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts
- Talk to family or friends about your fear of failure
- Find out for yourself where things went wrong before
- Make a clear schedule
Environment: are the expectations of family and friends high?
- Ask family and friends about their expectations, they may not be as high as you think
- Speak out your fears to them
- Treat yourself to a bit of relaxation, exercise or a day in the city with friends
- Get enough sleep, continuing to learn too long does not yield any returns
If you do not get rid of the exam stress despite everything, you can do relaxation exercises. Stress makes you breathe shorter and shallower, so that you get less oxygen. Take a moment of rest, paying attention to your breathing. Try to breathe towards your stomach. Yoga and meditation are also good ways to relax. If you are still unable to relax, then there are homeopathic droplets or tablets that can provide rest or promote a night’s rest. If you don’t get structure in your learning pattern, try using mind mapping. With this you can visualize the learning material for yourself.