Yesterday, we had our oncology exam, hopefully our last major exam as medical students, before we go to junior clerkship, which will start on Monday. It was one of the hardest exams we have taken ever since our stay in the college. Everyone of us could just shake heads while exiting the examination room, and anxiety was apparent on our faces.
Many of us experience the so-called “exam anxiety or stress”. This is one of the problems, especially among students. I think it is just a natural occurrence because it’s man’s nature to fear failures. Sometimes, anxiety can also be our drive for excellence. We get anxious, and anxiety pressures us to do better. But as the saying goes, “too much is bad.” If you worry too much, you get mentally blocked. Mental block is not just an effect of caffeine overdose, or a sleepless night, but also anxiety over the exam per se can cause it.
What makes us worry about an exam? It might be that we are less prepared, we have experienced past failures, we negatively think that we might fail, or we are just plain worrywart. I have to admit that I felt all of these before, during, and after the exam.
Exams are physically and mentally demanding, so when we get anxious we are stressing out ourselves more. So how can we avoid exam stress? Here are some practical ways to help us minimize exam anxiety.
1. Have your own study habits and make sure that they will work for you. No two people have the same study habit, one’s ways may not work on the other. The importance of having your own study habits is it makes everything organized, and when organization can make you relax and concentrate more. You will less likely miss out the important things you should learn.
2. Avoid cramming. Cramming means pressure, and pressure means anxiety. When you cram, you tend to forget other important things to learn. Again, thinking that you can’t do everything with just couple of hours or days, you will be anxious. The ideal way not to cram is allotting at least 2 hours per day for studying, depending on the demands of your course.
3. Set your learning objectives or list the topics you have to read. This way, you will have better focus and know which are the must-knows. It will also help you not to stray away from the necessary things to learn.
4. Take some time to relax, have a good sleep, eat well, etc. especially the day before the exam. You can relax well if you have finished reading all the necessary readings. Relaxation is also a preparation. Remember that you are fighting with exam stress and you need to relax.
5. Prepare your the needed things for the exam the day before so by tomorrow you won’t need to look for it. I think you will agree with me that time ironically plays with us most of the time. The more you look for something, the more you have difficulty finding it.
6. During the exam, take some time to read the instructions and be sure you have understood them thoroughly before you start answering.
7. Repeat the questions to fully understand it but be sure not to stay too long on one question because you might run out of time. Skip the questions you hardly understand well and move on to the other items you know. You can go back to the unanswered questions later.
8. If you have enough time, review your answers. Some questions tend to be “tricky” and usually it takes a review to realize that they are actually designed that way. Through reviewing, you can also see if you have missed some items.
9. If you feel panicky during the exam, take some deep breaths and do a little stretching to relax your muscles. It might also help to have something in your mouth, like a chewing gum or a candy.
10. After the exam, take some time to relax - hang out with friends or classmates, treat yourself, watch a movie, go online and visit some interesting Celebrity Blogs or anything you can do to divert your attention away from the exam. Avoid opening your books to clarify your answers, especially if you are not so sure about it. If you are with your classmates, you can make a “no-talking-about-the-exam policies”.
Summing it up, better preparation and confidence are the key to avoid exam stress.
So how do you deal with exam stress?
Tags: Education, Life, School, Tips
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Jan 25, 2007 at 17:31:04
I just sleep and/or drink coffee.
Jan 25, 2007 at 19:33:40
I do some Tai Chi stances, listen to music or simply sleep.
Jan 25, 2007 at 23:18:34
I wish you had posted this when I was studying in college and I had found it. Because I was always the extreme case in this regard. I used to worry too much earlier and get tatally stressed out and this would have a negative effect on my studies. Later, in an effort to not feel this way, I would try not to be anxious at all and again, this had a negative impact on my studies.
Jan 28, 2007 at 13:33:05
The American Institute of Stress and The Centers For Control have both reported that up to 90% of all illnesses are due to stress. For close to 30 years I experienced several life threatening illnesses. In 1997 I found the Institute of HeartMath and discovered that all of these illnesses were due to stresses I had been experiencing in my life. Learning and practicing HeartMath’s scientifically substantiated tools and technologies literally saved my life. Additional information on HeartMath and how to prevent, manage and reverse the effects of stress, in-the-moment, achieve better health, more energy and improved mental and emotional clarity, and improve performance and relationships can be found at http://www.emotionalmastery.com.
Feb 25, 2007 at 16:10:00
Stress is a highly subjective state characterized by a combination of responses in the body. Stress affects virtually all bodily systems causing many negative side effects. When stress reduces productivity it becomes distress. Anxiety – characterized by feelings of apprehension and fear contributes to distress when symptoms become excessive and unmanageable. It is difficult to identify causation between stress and anxiety as both conditions work to multiply the level of one’s distress. Together stress and anxiety can hinder the quality of life and a person’s ability to function overall.
Symptoms are not always characterized as distress. Stress relief becomes necessary when symptoms become unmanageable or endured for prolonged periods. Anxiety does not always cause distress and can even be advantageous to some extent, with people pleasuring from limited levels of fear (such as “thrill seekers”). However when anxiety reaches the point of distress especially when coupled with other negative side effects, it must be treated. Has anyone heard of Theramood patch product for reducing stess and anxiety.
The Theramood Transdermal Stress Relief Patch is a fast acting effective treatment. Unlike other stress relief or anxiety treatments, the Theramood patch is based on a natural formula that eliminates symptoms without sedation. Utilizing key ingredients such as 5-HTP and L-Theanine, Theramood enhances mood, encourages relaxation leading to immediate improvement in one’s quality of life as well as other important health benefits. Theramood delivers these effective ingredients to the circulatory system by absorption through the skin, help Theramood to work quickly. The results of reduced anxiety and stress relief are prolonged as the patch releases the active ingredients at a consistent rate over a period of time
Apr 22, 2007 at 00:18:11
When there is a disparity between the
actual experience and a person’s
expectations, a person experiences
stress. If the person does not have very
high expectations, he or she may not
experience stress. I found informations
at http://mshn.org/