Kepping Calm During Exams

My family always jokes that I am never calm...ever. When I was younger I would disagree all the time because psssshhh, that's not true, but as I have gotten older, I have seen the error of my ways. I'm literally the joke when someone says to calm down and the other person responds "I AM CALM!!"

At all times I like to be in control and know what to expect, and when that doesn't happen, my stress levels tend to spike. One specific scenarios is during tests, and know matter how much I try, my level of calm goes out. the. window. when I walk into a room to take an exam or log onto my D2L and pull up quiz list.

I have found that for me personally, when I stress over an exam I am unable to focus as well as I would like and it tends to affect my scores. Because constant stress over these situations isn't good (crazy, I know), I have made a constant effort, especially this semester, to follow some simple steps that help me stay calm to keep my stress levels down and my test scores high.

• Be prepared

• ​don't start studying the night before, start getting prepared about two weeks out from your exam. start small, tackling one chapter or section of a time, but start going over everything about three to four days before the exam actually is.

• Get a good night's sleep

• ​8+ hours of sleep doesn't seem possible for a college student, and honestly I envy the people that are able to do it, but make sure you are getting enough sleep the night before to make sure you and your brain are ready to go.

• Have a bite to eat before leaving

• ​if we're being honest, I hate having breakfast in the morning. I usually just have a bottle or two of water until lunch time, but the days I have important exams I will throw a protein bar into the mix. my favorite is the chocolate peanut butter from CLIF because it doesn't taste like bodybuilding or absolute garbage.

• Pack up the night before

• ​getting your stuff ready the night before helps to avoid rushing around in the morning. it's okay double check your things before leaving that morning, but you don't want to risk forgetting something because you are risking being late or forgetting something you may need.

• Arrive early

• ​I am never early, in fact I won an award for "most likely to be late to their own wedding." But making sure I leave in enough time and getting to where I need to be early allows for me to get set up and take some deep breaths before jumping into my exam.

• Focus on just you

• ​one thing I am guilty of doing is constantly looking around the room, especially when people get up to hand in their test. however I learned that focusing on myself and my exam and not Kristy turning her exam in had really helped. focusing on myself and not letting distractions bother me has helped me keep my focus and train of thought through the exam time.

I hope some of these tips will be useful for your exams, especially with finals coming up. The one thing to remember is that everyone has bad days and that one exam does not define you or your worth.

all my best wishes and vibes,

Zoe

#stress