No matter how well prepared you are, you’ll always get a bit anxious, a bit stressed, before a big test or an exam. It’s perfectly natural; it’s the ‘make or break’ moment of all you have been striving for. However, as Lou Holtz once said, oh so wisely, “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
Without realizing it, we can sometimes sabotage our performance with our attitude towards any main event – in this case, the event is the exam. If you distance yourself from it though, you will realize that changing minor behavioral patterns can make all the difference in the world. For example:
Get enough sleep.
Yes, and it means that you should not study during the night, but instead get plenty of sleep before the exam. If you are stressing a lot about not knowing some material, it would be better to wake up earlier and have a look at it once more so that you will be reassured.
Don’t panic.
Well, here you are, just hours away from taking the exam and panic settles. How do you recognize it? “Oh my God, I’ve forgotten everything that I’ve learned”! Does this outrageous thought sound familiar? You don’t know what questions you’re going to get, and you fear you have not done enough. Fight that fear. Relax. You have done enough. Panic can only bring more panic, so take a big breath and let it all out.
Improve your nutrition habits.
Are you ordering fast food late (sometimes very late) at night? Skipping breakfast? Sometimes even forgetting that you must eat altogether? For some unexplanatory reason, students’ dietary routine changes radically to the worse as closer as they get to an exam. At a time when nutritional energy boosts are very much needed, try putting together a ‘Exam nutriment program’ in advance, so that you can revisit it when needed and save time on wondering what to eat.
To be still – do something that you love doing before the exam.
If you love listening to music, do so! If you enjoy watching a TV series in the morning – do so! Do everything that is making you feel on the top of the world – because when you are entering an exam while being motivated, there is a 100% guarantee that you are going to nail the exam.