Managing Exam Blues: A guide

What are exam blues? 

The stress and immense amount of pressure a student faces regarding his/her exams are called exam blues. They are often found using phrases like, ”I have to do well, I cannot screw this up.”, ”Everything depends on these exams” or so forth.  A student goes through a comparatively larger amount of stress, followed by loss of sleep and appetite.

Have you watched the dominos ad? Where a kid is delighted by his family with a pizza as he was stressing over his exams, hence going through exam blues? 

Reasons for exam blues:

Parental pressure, unhealthy competition among peers, and the student’s own expectations. An exhausting race to do well and score better grades than everyone else puts the student in a position where they feel restless. With the board examinations around the corner, students feel like this plays a deciding factor. A factor that decides the rest of their lives.

One of the most important things that matter are the surroundings you create where you manage your agenda and curriculum. Everyone has a capability and capacity, hard work adds to it. 

But worrying about things, in no way, would reveal the question paper to you, or help you for that matter. 

DO’s:

• Avoid caffeine and junk food as much as possible, just like the old saying goes “You are what you eat”
• Try waking up early as much as possible, less disturbance and a concentrated mind is the hack.
• Before you go to bed and before you wake up take ten minutes to yourself, create a plan and a to-do list for the day ahead and show gratitude to what has gone.
• Eat healthily, take nutrients in a proper manner, and exercise regularly. 

DON’T’S:

• While you’re running your race, don’t look at the person running behind or before you. Improve yourself, challenge yourself. Not others. 
• Rather than hating and beating yourself up or blaming others, take a few minutes to breathe and understand that you are growing every day, you are learning every day. Even if that means two steps forward and one step backward. You are still a step ahead. 
• Stick to your schedule, messing it up will only give you extra stress.
• Rather than revising and looking at the book till the last minute, believe in yourself, you’ve spent a productive time preparing for the exam. A panicked mind won’t help you in the exam hall, but a calm mind would definitely make you ace it. 

Good management decisions:

Watching television and neglecting time constantly, thinking you’re taking healthy breaks is the simplest way of building a pit for yourself. “Time and tide wait for none” Take short breaks, that refresh your mind and body. Having less screen time can do you a lot of good. 

How can you manage:

• Take a piece of paper, write down your activities and prepare a schedule you’re comfortable with.
• The second you prepare it, you’ll watch yourself smiling. Ta-da! Now you’re all set
• Don’t try to be perfect in everything you do
• Keep in mind that six hours of sleep is very important
• Skipping meals will do you no good, you need the energy to sit down and prepare for your exams
• Shut down or cut off negative influences, it can even start with the newspaper, don’t expose yourself to negative energies for a while.

Managing your mind:

“He who manages his mind, can manage the world.”

It is very important to remember not to burn out and stay kind to yourself. Forgiving and forgetting is human nature. 

Forgive yourself for forgetting. Appreciate yourself for remembering. But remember to stay kind to your mind because you will have only one person till the end of time, that will constantly rely on you. And who is that person? You are right, it is yourself.

Check out our article on mindfulness to know more.

Living in the moment:

Sometimes it can feel like you’re hooked onto the book. Making and checking twice if you’ve learned it all right. Rather than remembering and rewinding the points on your notebook, understand the concepts, that would do you good. There are so many options and choices you have. If plan A fails you have plan B, If not for B there are still so many plans left. You will only be left out with no plans when you decide there are none. 

Self-care and management:

Do you know so many kids score a 100/100 and still smile faintly like they’re on the edge of pain? Sometimes in the process of being so concerned and focused on the results, you forget yourself. The goal is not to look at the future, but to put in all your effort irrespective of the results. Just like they say, “Trust the process”. These grades are not the final destination. They will not make you happy. They are no factor, they are just a part of your life. Remember “happiness is a journey and not a destination” While managing it all, don’t forget yourself.

You don’t have to do what the world tells you to, what everyone is doing is different. Build your own. Find your passion and work on it. Self-care is very important. When you’re busy planning it all out take some time to yourself, and understand your worth.

You are headed to a beautiful place, I promise. 

Written by Joshikaa