It doesn’t take an online Master of Mental Health Counseling to know that stress is detrimental to physical and mental health.The effects of excessive stress on a person’s mind and body are well documented, and in this day and age of wellness and mental health awareness, more and more people are doing their best to stay on top of their stress and manage the impact of the stressors in their life on their health.
However, there is a demographic of people that are frequently overlooked by the adult majority of the world that are particularly susceptible to stress – students. Being a student is a full-time job at any stage of the education system, but it’s unique from professional work in that students are expected to take their school work home with them and keep at it.
Can you imagine how quickly people would strike back if their boss demanded they go home and work after business hours? So why do we expect it from students?
School, college, and university courses demand additional work outside of operating hours, and there is a single word that is the dread of students everywhere – exams. This make-or-break quiz can either vilify or verify all the work that students have put in through the school year and has the power to define how advantageous of a start a person has gone into their professional life. In other words, it’s a lot of stress.
So how can students get through the stressful period known as exam season?
Stage 1 – Understanding and Planning
Exams are important. There is a lot that rides on the mark achieved during exams, and when exam season is looming it’s important to plan and prepare for the upcoming period of study.
The first thing you can do is understand how you learn. Everyone’s brain works differently, and although people are universally capable of learning in every way, people have a particular acuity to one form of stimulus over another. The classic four types of learning aren’t “wrong”, the fallacy is that a visual learner can only learn visually when in actuality it is merely that a person’s brain has an easier time retaining visual stimuli.
When you understand how your brain processes and retains information, you can prioritize that form of learning in your study sessions. Visual learners can create thought maps consisting of images, auditory learners can read their study notes aloud and listen back to them, reading and writing learners can read the source material and write comprehensive notes, while kinesthetic learners can create a physical project or reproduction of their topic with attention to relevant pieces of information.
Once you understand how you learn best, it is simply a matter of coming up with a viable schedule of dedicated study time.
Stage 2 – Activity, Passivity, and Rest
On entering the exam season, it’s now time to put your planning to use. Separate your time by four criteria: active revision, passive revision, obligations, and rest.
Active revision is intentional revision practice, and includes the creation of study notes, taking test quizzes, visual representations of topics, mapping information, and other such practical techniques. This should make up a good portion of your early revision, as the materials, study groups, and notes you formulate during this process will set you in due course for the next process.
Passive revision is the use of the materials created during your active revision periods. Reading through your notes, examining mindmaps, listening to podcasts, or watching documentaries are all forms of passive revision. They aren’t as concentrated or effective as active revision, but they do two important things. They allow you to expand your relaxation time as you can do these things with minimal intentional effort, and even let you leverage your “chill” time to ensure you get as much information as possible. Think of passive revision as the halfway point between active revision and rest.
Obligations are the things you have to do. Depending on your situation these can be moved or rearranged, but you should always endeavour to have these done as soon as possible so that you aren’t distracted by the knowledge that you have other tasks that need to be done.
Finally, but perhaps most importantly, is rest. Everybody needs to rest. Rest is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a healthy brain with good recall and retention. Staying up all night in active revision sessions means that when you finally get to sleep, as your brain cleans itself, it will likely wipe away much of the retention you were working towards. Rest also includes engaging in hobbies or social visits and events away from study. You need time to switch your brain off, decompress, and most importantly, sleep.
Stage 3 – Be Consistent, but Forgiving
A study schedule should represent the ideal, not the set-in-stone rule. Everyone’s life is different, and everyone’s capacity for information retention and the ability to set aside time for study is different. Make your schedule as close to your reality as you can, but when circumstances dictate or your health demands it, be forgiving when you can’t dedicate as much time as you would like to the books. Reward yourself when you do well.
Negative self-talk can deeply impact a person’s willingness to work or expend additional effort, and perceptions of “failure” can critically injure a person’s sense of momentum or self-worth. It is important to be gentle with yourself when life gets in the way of your study. As important as exams are, and as much as they can impact your career, the ability to reach your goals depends far more on your creative thinking, passion, expertise, and drive to achieve those goals, than it does on your exams. Your exams merely help you get a leg up.
Your future won’t be over if you fail an exam, but if you follow these steps, are smart about your revision, and pay attention to your body’s needs, there’s no reason you can’t do well.
We, for one, believe in you.
