FINALS: DEALING WITH THE PRESSURE.

Spring Session college students and high school students face finals this month. I’ve blogged extensively on exam prep and exam writing–this week I’m going to talk about the pressure of exams and ways to keep that pressure from hindering your best performance.

The biggest pressure, of course, is how much is riding on finals. For Grade Twelve students, finals help determine acceptance into preferred programs; for college students, finals can influence acceptance into programs, continuation of funding, or fulfilling course requirements for fall.

That’s enough to provoke a bit of anxiety. The fear is fear of the consequences of not doing as well as you would like. And that fear can hinder focus, concentration, and even motivation.

We don’t want that those performance traps to catch you during these last weeks.

What to do? First, name the fear. Write down your fear. Maybe it’s not getting everything done or bombing on the day of the exam. Write it down. Then write down what you will do if the worst case comes to pass. One of my colleagues with three degrees and a profession used to list alternatives, such as cleaning houses. With that contingency planned for, they then planned how to minimize the chance that the worst would actually happen.

Having listed your fear and your contingency, analyze each course and what you know about the final. Is it cumulative, as is the case for Grade Twelve external exams? Or is it weighted more toward the latter part of the course? What has the instructor emphasized? If you have any classes left, ask the instructor, “What will be on the exam?” Sometimes they tell you. 

Now you’re in a position to strategize and to decide for each course what is most important to go over. This is especially important if you feel you cannot cover absolutely everything in the time that is left.

Getting your head in the game means asking yourself what is most challenging for you–and making up questions that cover those areas. It means asking yourself where you are strongest and making sure that you have your outline of strong points at ready recall. This can be a real confidence builder.

For areas that need extra attention, write out your questions on topics you feel uncertain about, and source out tutorials or strong study buddies.

Then write practice exams. Whether you access them through the internet, from past course exams, or through the learning centre, going through practice exams provides you with information about strong and weak areas and also helps you polish your exam-writing strategy. When you do a practice exam, do it under the actual time constraint so that you will be able to pace yourself well during the real exam.

If you didn’t do well on a practice exam, take a breath, endorse yourself for writing it, then analyze where you lost points. It could be that you misinterpreted the instructions, or your answers didn’t cover enough points, or you spent too much time on some questions and lost time on higher-scoring sections. It could be that you spent too much time outlining an essay question. Plan how you can revise your strategy.

Or it could be that content was covered that you weren’t expecting. It is very unlikely that this will happen, but it is possible. Here, make sure that the practice exam fully meets your particular course. Review the syllabus again. Check with the instructor about this area. You likely have time to catch up enough information to gain some points if the area does come up on the exam. 

And keep to your life structure. Get up at your usual time. Breaks. Small reinforcers for effort. Stretch. Get outdoor time. Build in a social element–a ten-minute check-in call with a friend. Play with the pet. Walk. Get enough sleep and wind down before going to bed.

You can do this. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about getting through, and doing a creditable job that reflects what you can do.

Keep me posted! [email protected]

The information in this blog cannot take the place of support from your own mental health professional or community health resources. Reach out to them. And IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS PLEASE DIAL 911.