How to Prepare Yourself Mentally for University Examinations?

Examinations are always scary, always. Whether you are appearing for your Master’s degree examination or your graduation’s mid-semester examination, mere anticipation of the exam day can make you palpitate with fear. There are two types of students, one who will go page by page, word by word to memorise all his answers so that nothing is left behind, and the other who will procrastinate till the very last, just to skim through the topic and puke it all out in the examination. There is a third type too, rare, these students study for their examinations right from the first day in college, they will cover each subject over a period of time and will only revise during the examination. If you identify yourself as one from any of these three categories, congratulations! You will still be anxious before your examination.So, the big question here is how to deal with pre-examination anxiety?

If you follow the right psychological approach, you will be able to keep your cool during examination days and even score well with that extra confidence. Here are a few things you can do to keep calm and ace your examinations.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

This is the most difficult step yet the most effective one. Just a day before the examination, you feel that your adrenaline levels are very high, you are excited, your heartbeats racing and thus, you are unable to sleep. Studies have shown that being awake for 21 hours straight will reduce your mental capacity to someone who is legally drunk. This high is not a good one, mind it. You can’t afford to keep yourself all night when there is an examination tomorrow because you won’t be able to recall whatever you have learned and the body will be tired, making you lose your focus and deeming you inefficient.

Focus on what you know instead of worrying about what you don’t.

The most common concern of a student during the examination is whether he has covered all the important topics or not, or, the fear of missing out on an important topic only to see it in their question sheet. However, you need to understand that not everything can be memorised. By the time you reach your examination, there is no window to cover all the topics of all the subjects. You either start skimming everything and get nothing out of it or you panic and still get nothing out of it. The right approach here should be to focus on what you know and remove what you don’t from your mind. Sharpen your knowledge and revision what you have learned. This will keep you relaxed and confident and you will know in the examination which answers you are going to answer first and which one you are going to pass.

Say No to Caffeine during Examination Days

A lot of students, including me, have a dependency on caffeinated drinks, especially during the examination days. This can do more harm than good. Student depend on caffeinated drinks to keep them up during those long hours of studies and preparation. Caffeine can make you feel good for a short time but when it wears off, it takes away your energy, your focus and too some extent your feel good factor. Stop drinking caffeinated drinks at least two weeks before your examination commences.

If you keep just these three steps in mind, you will see a considerable change in your mental state before examination. Do well, All the best!