What to do 24 hours before the exam, how to manage the “black-out” (that feeling that you don’t know anything anymore), how to relate to the stakes of the exam or what to do, as a parent, to support your child on the verge of an exam, a school counselor explains.
Exam anxiety doesn’t appear because you don’t know, but because the stakes are very high and you don’t seem to have the necessary resources to reach your goal, explains Speranța Mihalcea, school counselor at the County Center for Assistance and Educational Resources. During this period, the counselor held meetings with the students, in physical format, but also with their parents, in online format, to explain to them what happens in our minds around an important exam and how we can control our emotions that can compromise our success.
When our brain perceives the exam as a life-threat, it triggers the fight-or-flight response, and that’s when memory blackouts can occur (it’s what counselors call a “blackout”).
However, there is a difference between constructive stress (eustress), which stimulates attention, maintains alertness at an optimal level and mobilizes energy resources, and negative stress (or distress), which paralyzes our ability to analyze, blocks access to long-term memory and makes us face symptoms such as palpitations, insomnia, tremors.
Fear of failure is normal. As well as the comparison with colleagues or the thought that your future depends on the result of the upcoming exam, explains Speranța Mihalcea. All of this should not be downplayed – so a line like “It’s just an exam” won’t help.
What to avoid as parents
Maintaining a daily routine is one of the main tips that counselors have for children who are about to take an important exam. Sleep schedule, meal schedule and exercise are important. If you are a parent, schedule relaxing activities with your child the weekend before the exam.
What counselors also recommend is to avoid questions like: “Are you ready?”. Emphasize instead that the grade will not define his value as a man, but will indicate his level of readiness at a given time.
At the first big exam of their life, secondary school graduates will be much more marked by the fear of not disappointing their parents or teachers, this thought being the main source of stress. For this reason, parents are advised to avoid the pressure of getting into a “good high school” and reassure their children that they love and support them regardless of the outcome.
In the case of young people who are waiting for the Baccalaureate, the pressure is even greater. The exam is held in several subjects, the volume of information is very large, in addition there is the pressure of transition to adult life.
What can i do? They can segment the subject they have to learn into small units, according to the “Salami” method, to help the brain to “cooperate”, knowing that large volumes of information are rejected by the brain, instead it accepts small, daily, predictable steps.
“Monitor your internal dialogue. Replace – If I leak, I’ve ruined my life. – with – I have been constantly preparing, I will do everything that depends on me rationally -“also recommends Mihalcea.
What to do before/during the exam
If fear has taken over you right before the start of the test or during the exam, you can apply one of the following techniques:
1. Box breathing – which is used by performance athletes and special forces to recalibrate the autonomic nervous system:
– Inhale counting to 4;
– Keep the air in the lungs (apnea) counting to 4;
– Exhale slowly through the mouth counting to 4;
– Keep your lungs empty for a count of 4.
Repeat the cycle 4-5 times.
2. The “grounding” technique 5-4-3-2-1 (anchoring in the present) – this method is useful for moments when the mind starts to play out catastrophic scenarios.
How do you proceed? Identify around you:
– 5 things you can see;
– 4 things you can physically touch;
– 3 things you can hear;
– 2 things you can smell;
– 1 thing you can taste or a positive emotion from the present.
Focusing on the above will bring your mind back to the present.
Techniques to stop catastrophic thoughts
When the mind calls out “I won’t know anything!”, answer yourself firmly: “I prepared myself. It is impossible to know absolutely nothing”indicates Speranța Mihalcea.
Another possibility is to honestly question yourself by asking yourself “Exactly how much will this note matter in 5 or 10 years?”the long-term perspective reducing the pressure.
How do we support young people leaving the system, at the most delicate stage of their lives?
What to do in the last 24 hours before the exam
When you only have a day left until the exam, what you can do is to give up the “panic revisions”. The brain needs rest to organize and “save” information in long-term memory, therefore it is recommended to stop overloading it, because it no longer has the ability to assimilate new information anyway.
Instead, prepare in advance the items that you will absolutely need in the gym: ID, pens (with blue ones), light clothes, water bottle.
“A tired brain functions at 50% capacity. 8 hours of sleep is the most effective anti-stress medicine”, emphasizes the counselor.
What to do if you get stuck during the exam
If you feel like you’re blacking out during the exam, a tried-and-true blackout management technique is to put your pen down for 2 minutes. During this time you close your eyes, apply the “square breathing” method and remember:The information is in my brain, I just need calmness to access it.”
Emotional preparation does not mean the total elimination of emotions, insists Speranța Mihalcea. Success is as much about what you know as it is about how you handle yourself when under pressure.
What subjects do you start with?
When it comes to the order in which it is best to approach topics, there is no single answer. It depends on your personal work style, anxiety level, how you can manage your energy, etc.
The basic recommendation would be to start with the easy subjects. You go through the test quickly, solve everything you know for sure, then go back to the complex topics, which require calculations, thinking time, etc. The advantage of this approach is that by solving the easy requirements quickly, you will increase your confidence, which will help you get rid of stress. In addition, you ensure that you have already accumulated certain points, which you cannot accumulate if, instead, you spend a lot of time solving a difficult topic and do not have time to solve topics that you knew.
How we came to mistake anxiety for school engagement
When you approach easy topics, something else happens, explains Mihalcea: the professional memory is activated (the so-called warm-up effect), the brain starting to access the understanding of related information.
It also happens that by reading all the topics first, even if you skip the hard ones and choose to start with the easy ones, your brain is already working on solving the difficult ones.
Starting with the easy subjects also involves risks, and the main thing is to relax and lose sight of time management.
When, instead, you choose to start with the difficult subjects, which also have the highest score, you have the maximum level of energy and concentration. You get rid of the stress that you won’t have enough time for the complex topic, but there is a risk of getting stuck if you can’t solve the problem, which can also affect your concentration to solve the easy topics.
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to test which method suits you (although this shouldn’t have happened, because there are simulations for the National Assessment and Baccalaureate exams), apply the two-step strategy.
This strategy involves reading all the requirements quickly at first, not with the goal of solving them, but with the goal of making a plan.
Then apply the quick attack strategy for the topics that are very clear to you and that you can solve quickly, thus securing your points according to the scale. Then move on to the subjects that you feel will require you more.
“Time is the most important resource. If you get stuck on a question for more than 2-3 minutes, check it and move on, making sure to come back to the end”counselor Speranța Mihalcea also advises the students.
