Exam preparation stress: characteristics and how to deal with it.

The keys that characterize exam preparation stress, and how it should be managed.

We have all experienced it, some more than others, but no one is spared from this overwhelming feeling that appears before having to take an exam, both the weeks leading up to it and the day we have to do it.

Uncertainty and fear emerge in our minds. No matter how much we have studied, we always have that feeling that we do not know everything we have looked at or, even, we fear that at the moment of taking the exam we will draw a blank.

Exam preparation stress is common in every student and there is nothing pathological about it in itself.However, if we are too stressed, it can become a real problem that will keep us away from passing the exam. Below we will understand how it appears and we will learn how to manage it.

What does exam preparation stress consist of?

When approaching the time of exams, the logical and normal thing between the students is to study, to try to prepare them the best possible thing to not to find with the unpleasant surprise of not knowing to do anything the day of the test. Studying requires effort, concentration, spending hours and hours learning and reviewing the contents. However, no matter how hard we study and how much we know, no matter how much we study and know the contents, it is almost inevitable to feel a bit nervous and even stressed..

When we study we cannot help but feel a wide repertoire of emotions, doubts and fears, all of them mixed with the uncertainty of whether or not we are going to pass the exams. Although we may not have any cognitive difficulty in assimilating the contents, our state of mind can play a trick on us and excessive stress can make it impossible for us to read in depth and understand the lessons, which is why it is so necessary to know how to manage our own emotions during study periods.

But we should not think that stress is bad, in fact, we need some to be able to perform well academically. Stress is nothing more than a normal response of the organism to a problem or a demandIt is an emotion that mobilizes us to find a solution to the situation in which we find ourselves. The relationship between stress and performance in exams comes in the form of a curve. At the beginning, the more stress we have, the more activated and motivated we will be, having enough "arousal" to be able to study and sacrifice our free time efficiently.

However, there comes a point where the more stress you have, the worse you perform. Too much stress can break our concentration, making us unable to understand what we are reading or even making it impossible for us to write notes and outlines of the lessons we are reviewing. In other words, our arousal drops, we become blocked and nothing enters our brain.. In this situation, all we do is waste time and, on top of that, the feeling of lack of control and self-doubt translates into loss of mental health.

Not having any stress can be a problem, because it does not activate us to start studying, but having too much stress directly makes it impossible to do so. Having just the right amount of stress, the normal amount, is necessary to be able to pass the exams, being stressed enough not to leave studying for later but not too much so that nothing comes in. Managing our emotions both during test preparation and the test itself will be key to our performance.

How to manage the stress of preparing for a test?

As we have already mentioned, it is normal to have some stress during exam periods, especially if there are many exams and some of them are taken on the same day. Exam preparation is not something emotionally neutral and everyone feels stress during this time, although some more than others.

Be that as it may, it is clear that good preparation for exams, with time and the acquisition of good emotional management tools will help us to perform at our best on test day. Let's look at a few strategies directly related to taking exams.

1. Writing down doubts and fears

Before even starting to study, a very good way to deal with exam stress is to take a piece of paper and write down the fears, thoughts, emotions, expectations and doubts we have about how the exam will go. All these cognitions cause us stress, an emotion that we feel but we may not even realize what is causing it. In order to cope with them we first have to name them, identify what they are and ask ourselves if they are that bad..

The fear of failing the exam is a real and meaningful fear, but it is not an event that has already happened. It may be that the worry about failing is exaggerated and that we actually have evidence that we will do well. For example, if we have been to class every day, have our homework up to date, have made notes and have started to review the syllabus two weeks in advance, we may have a good chance of passing. Keeping this in mind will give us confidence and reduce some of our stress.

It may happen that it is just the opposite, that is, that we have skipped some classes or that we do not always have our homework up to date. In this case, we have reason to worry, but we must turn the stress associated with the exam into we should turn the stress associated with the exam into energy that will get us to get down to work and do what we have to do: study.. If we start early it is quite likely that we will be able to learn everything that goes into the exam.

Whatever our case, we must accept and understand that it is normal to feel nervous, what we should not allow is that our thoughts and fears of something that has not yet happened do not allow us to study because, if so, it will fulfill the worst case scenario, failing the exam.

2. Planning

Once the thoughts and fears associated with the tests have been detected, it is time to prepare for the exams. Many students start studying without organizing or planning a study guide, which is very counterproductive. Disorder and disorganization invite frustration and increase stress, which, as mentioned above, makes it difficult to study if it reaches excessive levels.

Planning is a student's best ally. Scheduling which syllabus to read each day, when to make summaries, as well as writing down doubts and investing more time in those topics that are not so clear to us is the best way to increase the chances of passing the exam, besides it will give us confidence to see that we have made an effort to organize ourselves.

If we do this, the day the exam arrives we will be much less stressed and there will be little chance that we will draw a blank. Greater organization translates into a greater sense of control which, in turn, means less stress which will not make it difficult for us to understand what we are being asked nor will we have momentary forgetfulness of the content.

3. Watch who we ask questions to

Asking questions to other colleagues can be therapeutic and de-stressing, since we will see that other people also suffer stress before taking exams and that they may have the same doubts as we do. It is possible that some of them have developed techniques to manage stress and want to share them with us, as well as explain in detail the doubts we may have or show us mnemonic techniques and ways to better assimilate the content.

However, asking other colleagues can be a double-edged sword. It is beneficial as long as we ask the right people.Those who know how to manage their emotions well and try to see the approaching exam in an optimistic way. On the other hand, those who have a more negative, victimizing perspective and who at the slightest question they are asked what they do is to vent and rant about the teacher are people we should keep away.

We must be careful with whom we ask doubts, since far from reducing our stress, they may increase it by making us believe that there is no solution, that the exam will go badly and that we must put ourselves in the worst case scenario. This is not true. The solution lies in studying. Excessive stress is a factor that can influence our performance, but not a definitive conditioning factor. We should stay away from people who blame external factors for their academic performance and who do not study as they should.

4. To practice the evocation of learning

Why wait until test day to check if we know the content? One of the things that almost no one does and that, ironically, is the one that can yield the best results is learning recall, which consists of trying to see if we are able to retrieve the content we have been studying.. Many students limit themselves to reading and outlining the book, but not to recalling the content they are supposed to have learned, which is exactly what they will have to do on the day of the exam.

The best way to check if we are able to remember what we have studied is by doing mock exams and essays. These tests help us to see if we are able to remember, with or without clues, what we have been reviewing and to be sure that we know the syllabus. In case we have difficulties to do so, it will mean that we have to review the syllabus a little more, as well as to rehearse even more the subject matter.and rehearse the exam even more.

By doing this we will not only reduce our stress since we will gain confidence that we really know the syllabus, but we will also have more chances to get a better grade. Only with practice we will make sure that the exam goes as well as possible, avoiding that we are left blank at the time of the test.

5. They are exams, not the end

There is no doubt that exams are stressful tests, but they are neither death sentences nor diagnoses of terminal illnesses. Obviously there are exams and exams, some being more important than others, but the vast majority have in common that they can be retaken or that there are ways to make up for a failure. Yes, there are exams in which we play all the grade of a subject and that, if we fail, may involve repeating a course or having to pay again, but to err is human.

Many times an exam is failed not because we have not studied but because there was so much fear of suspension that, in the end, this fear has come true.. Beyond the exam there is life, and we should not think that failing it is synonymous with being a failure. It is true that we should have studied more and learned to manage our emotions better, but now that we have failed we can see it as a learning experience and know what not to do for the next one. They are exams, not the end of our lives.

Bibliographical references:

• Crego, A.; Carrillo-Diaz, M.; Armfield, J.M., & Romero, M. (2016). Stress and Academic Performance in Dental Students: The Role of Coping Strategies and Examination-Related Self-Efficacy. Journal of dental education, 80(2): pp. 165 - 172.
• Karpicke, J., & Roediger, H. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science, 319, 966-968.