How to deal with exam stress: a mind focus
It’s that time of year again, it’s the start of spring, the easter holidays are looming, and schools are on the final countdown to the start of exams. If you are in school, college, or university, no doubt right now, you are constantly being told about the importance of exams, success, and the drastic influence that one exam will have on your life. You are advised to use your time wisely, to revise, given endless mock tests to practice, and some teachers no doubt are even putting fear into you around the negative effects of not achieving a certain grade. They say don’t they that knowledge is power, but unfortunately, knowledge is only helpful to have when your mind is in a position to help you retain information, process new learning, and recall it.
We know parents and teachers do all of the above because they care and want you to achieve, but unfortunately, all the constant pressure and focused talk does, is create stress which leads to, for some, difficulties with focus, concentration, memory, ability to retain information, and procrastination. All the things you do not need to support a successful mindset. Unfortunately, exam dates are fixed, the syllabus of what you need to know can not be changed, and the fact revision is necessary, but what you can do, to support yourself or your child, is ensure you are protecting and promoting the well-being of your mind to create the best conditions for mental focus and success. Here’s how and why.
A little bit of mind knowledge for you…
If you are reading this as a child, teenager, or parent, here is one interesting fact you probably don’t know, but first, let me briefly explain a little about our child and the teenage brain. All humans have two parts to their brains. We have our intellectual mind (the boss of our mind) which tells us what it wants us to do and how it wants us to do it so we can be successful. We have our primitive emotional mind (which is like a fire marshal). The fire marshal picks up on any signs of danger and tries to override the boss to protect us. In the middle, we have our anterior cingulate cortex ( in simple terms, the secretary of our mind). The secretary of our mind takes on board all the information from either the boss or fire marshal and uses this information to tell all the different parts of your mind and body what to do and help you to function.
Now back to the interesting fact, up until the age of 21 years, your mind is continuing to develop, learn how to process emotions, develop ways of coping, and manage different situations, which means up until the age of 21 years, your fire marshal (emotional mind) is bigger than your boss. In a nutshell, this means children and adolescents are more likely to experience stress, anxiety, anger, and sadness, are more likely to be more reactive to these emotions, and be more susceptible to stress, as their emotional mind is stronger. When we compare this knowledge to the fact that as a child or teenager, you are constantly informed of the negative impact of not achieving a certain grade, or the importance to dedicate a large proportion of time outside of school revising, and then your parents or as parents at home you are feeding into this same energy, it is no wonder 75% of children, adolescents, and even adults report high levels of stress and anxiety around exams.
As I said earlier, whilst we can not change the date of exams, the fact we have to revise, or that we have to do exams, thankfully, there are things we can do to help our mind deal with the stress and anxiety and help our boss (intellectual mind) to be in control so it can help us to be calm, focused, and primed for learning and relaying this information in an exam.
How to build your mental focus for exam success and to manage stress and anxiety
Sleep is not just for rest its also for learning
Did you know that sleep is not just for rest but also helps your mind process new learning? In your mind, you have a part called the hippocampus. The hippocampus is like the scrapbook or social media account that holds all your memories of what you have done. When you go to bed at night, sleep helps your hippocampus to process this new learning and store it as a long-term memory, ensuring memories become firmly stuck down in your scrapbook or saved on your social media, making it easy to recall the information when you need it.
It is estimated children and teenagers need between 8-12 hours of sleep each night. When you think this is before we consider the amount of new information being taught in school, college, or university in such a short time frame, and the stress of exams, this only highlights the utmost importance a good night's sleep can have on not only helping to manage with stress and emotions but also to help with revision and learning. Although it may seem like the best thing is to pull an all-nighter or prioritise revision oversleep, evidence shows this hinders your ability to learn. Pulling all-nighters or not getting the right amount of sleep reduces your ability to learn by 40%. The impact of this is it creates a vicious cycle of staying up all night or late, not getting enough sleep, feeling tired, not being focused or having concentration, struggling to retain the information you need for the exam, over-revising, and ultimately being stressed to the point you want to pull your hair out.
In conclusion, make sure you are prioritising and getting enough sleep. Sleep is equally important as going to school, college, or university to help you manage stress and anxiety and give you the mental focus you need for success.
Positive thoughts equal positive vibes
The above leads quite nicely to the importance of knowing your mind and being able to be in control of your thoughts. How we think, what and who we listen to influences how we feel and behave. For example, if we relate this to exam time, if others repeatedly say you are doing well, you will be successful, and to keep going you will feel and think positively, you will feel confident, and this will help you to feel motivated and calm, helping with your focus and concentration when you revise, and feel comfortable to take breaks and do things you enjoy for yourself. If others repeatedly say you need to improve, you need to work harder or inform you of the consequences of not getting a certain grade on your future life, this causes you to think negatively about yourself, and your capabilities, and worry about the ‘what ifs’ of the future. For example, not being able to do your desired course or career causing high levels of stress, anxiety, low mood, irritability and frustration, ultimately meaning you can not focus on what you need to learn, and you become drowned by your own thoughts, lack motivation, and procrastinate or avoid.
There are two ways we can support ourselves to manage this. The first is changing the way you think and your attitudes about a situation and yourself. Here is a great way to help you feel calm, and happy, and focus your mind. The next time you start to experience anxiety or stress, visualise two images in your mind. Start by visualising that 'moment of anxiety' on one photo. Visualise how you look and feel. Then put that to one side and visualise a second image, the 'image of success'. An example of this could be walking out of the exam once it is finished, or picking up your results. Now visualise that moment of achievement, how you will feel once that exam is all over, how you look, what emotion will be on your face, knowing that you have done well, you have done everything you can, and it is all over and done with (remember to keep it positive). When you feel that stress and anxiety building, visualise these two images with the photo of anxiety in your full focus but the moment of success image tucked in behind. Then switch these images over in your mind, so the moment of success becomes full in your focus and the moment of anxiety is in the background, not to be seen. Take time to focus on visualising this moment of success, how you feel, how you look, and embrace the positive thoughts and feelings which come from this photo. This will help to create more positive thoughts, and a more positive outlook and attitude helping your body and mind remain calm, manage stress and anxiety and keep you focused on your goal during exam preparations.
Another thing we have to be mindful of is what we listen to. Our sense of success, how well we are doing, or our capabilities can be heavily influenced by the opinion of others and social media. If we hear positive or negative feedback a lot it will influence how we think about ourselves, our skills, and our capabilities. Whilst teachers and parents do not mean to, if they constantly talk about the prospect of failure or needing to do more, the fire marshal in our mind will pick up on this fear and tell our secretary to prepare to protect our body and mind by being stressed, over revising, or procrastinating as a form of avoidance to protect ourselves. To help yourself in overcoming this positive affirmation can be a great tool to refocus your mind back to the positives and your strengths to help focus your thinking and support your mind to stay focused. To do this, write down five positives or qualities about yourself, or positive statements. For example, I can do this, I am confident, I'm intelligent etc. Put these sticky notes and place them somewhere like a mirror or on the notes section of your phone. Each day take 5 minutes to read these statements aloud to yourself or read them as frequently as you need. What this will do is shift your mind’s focus back to the positives and help your boss regain the control and focus it needs to help you learn, concentrate and, most importantly, remain calm and in control.
Balance time to revise and ‘you time’ balance is key
We often assume that knowledge is power. As I mentioned above, however, knowledge is only helpful if our mind is in a position where it can help us focus and concentrate to retain new information, and process and recall information. What this shows us, is that we have to ensure we are engaging in activities which support us to maintain the ability of our mind to focus, be attentive, concentrate, and problem-solve.
A little bit of mind science for you again. In our brain, we have a part called the hypothalamus. In simpler terms, the chemist of our mind. When we think positively or negatively it will produce chemicals to cause our body to feel, react, and behave in a certain way to support. At the moment, if you are thinking negatively about yourself or exams, stressed by the whole situation, you will be telling your mind this is a dangerous situation, therefore the chemist will start producing adrenaline and cortisol leading to you overthinking, causing your heart to race, be unable to focus and feel stressed and anxious. Thankfully, there are three things we can do to help to change what chemicals our chemist produces to support us to feel calm, happy, and motivated. These are; to ensure we continue doing things we enjoy. Continue to engage in our hobbies and interests, and take time to chill and relax. As mentioned above, have positive thoughts about yourself and the situation, remember you are in control of your thoughts and not that your thoughts are in control of you, continue to have a social life, and ensure you are communicating with others who are supportive of you. All of these things will encourage your brain chemist to produce serotonin which helps us to feel calm, happy, and motivated, but most importantly, help the boss of our mind to stay in control. When the boss is in control, it will continue to give the orders and direction our mind needs to deal with exam stress and anxiety and maintain mental focus.
Daydreaming is not unproductive, allow time for mindless activity
In the past, have you been told to stop daydreaming or lying around as it is unproductive? Well, guess what, I am glad to tell you that daydreaming and taking time to do nothing and relax actually helps our mind to learn. When we daydream or do what I like to call a mindless activity (an activity that doesn’t require a lot of effort, focus or attention, for example, doodling or colouring) it tells our mind it is time to relax so we start to release stress and anxiety. Often this quietens and slows down our thoughts and helps our mind to more effectively problem solve any issues and think creatively to guide us towards what we need to be doing to support ourselves. For example, have you ever misplaced an item at home or forgotten something? You take 5-10 minutes to relax, have a good night’s sleep, doodle in class, or go for a walk, and you can remember where you put that item or what you needed to do. There is your example of the power of daydream. It is estimated we need to be doing 4-5 mindless activities a day to help reduce stress and anxiety and to continue to support our mind to focus and learn. To do this, I would recommend you plan out your day, strike a balance between learning and 'you time', and start planning those 4-5 mindless activities a day, into your routine to help you through your exam preparation time.
Knowledge is learnt when your mind is strong and powerful
Whilst it may feel, at the moment, cramming as much knowledge into your mind is the most important thing to do. I hope this blog post has helped you realise whilst knowledge is important, in order to effectively use this knowledge we need to prioritise taking care of our mind to retain and recall information required for exams. A calm and happy mind will create the mind focus and success you need during exam preparation time and in pursuit of your longer-term goals. In comparison, a stressed and anxious mind will cause you to feel sad, tired, unmotivated, lack confidence and hit burnout. I truly hope the information today will help you start identifying those skills and strategies you can use to help you on your journey to success. If, however, this is something you still feel you need support with, feel free to get in contact with me via my website, www.liveharmonyhypnotherapy.co.uk, or follow me on Instagram or Facebook (@live_harmony_hypnotherapy) to find out more about my new package, 'Preparing for Success' due to be released tomorrow, on how I can help you to manage stress and anxiety and support you to develop the tools to succeed and maintain a focused mind.
30th March 2023