Learning Support

If the thought of the next few months is making your stomach churn, take a look below on our Study Skills Survival Kit

Coping With Exam Stress: 
If you’ve been revising, then you should be approaching your exams with a certain amount of confidence:
Keep going with your revision and remember to refer to practice papers, mark schemes, and Chief Examiners Reports to really help you understand:

• What the exam paper is like – how long, number of questions, types of sections (compulsory, optional, multiple choice, etc.), spread of marks, how much time you should spend on each question, etc.
• How to get the top band marks – which AOBs do the questions expect you to use? Do you need conclusions, definitions, comparative arguments? Etc.
• What the examiners are expecting from you – defining key terms? Using specific layouts? Including particular examples? Etc.

The Night Before the Exam:
Even if you don’t feel like you’ve finished your revision, don’t study into the small hours! Get a good night’s sleep so that you wake up feeling refreshed.
Check you have all the equipment you need for tomorrow:

• ID card
• Timetable with rooms
• Pens, pencils, ruler, rubber, calculator, etc
• Watch (No Smart Watches Permitted)
• Water in a label-free bottle
• Single page of important exam revision notes in case of a last- minute need to double check
• Make sure your transport arrangements are secure, your back up plan is in place, and your alarm clock is working

• If you’re feeling nervous:
• Practice breathing slowly to force your body and brain to relax – ‘Darth Vader’ breath, or ujjayi breathing is good to learn.
• Put the exam in perspective – you can always retake. 
• Failure is NEVER an ending.
• There are people running multi-million companies who dropped out of school without any qualifications. These exams will not define who you will be, they will simply help you to decide your future path.
• Have a quick scan over your page of important exam revision notes.
• Smile. Everyone else will think you’re feeling confident. Smile again. Everyone else, in that moment, is more ignorant than you

• Don’t alter a question to suit what you’ve revised.
• Look carefully at key words such as describe, compare, explain, evaluate, etc., and distinguish between them.
• Underline or highlight these and any key words or terms in the question.

• Make a careful selection of the questions you feel able to answer.
• Avoid those questions that might reveal inadequate knowledge of the subject, or that you don’t really understand.

• Jot down the time at which you will stop answering the question and move on to the next.
• Allow time at the end for checking your answers.
• For your first answer, choose the easiest question or the one that you know enough about. This will boost your confidence and ease you into the exam.
• Be careful not to spend too long on the first answer, especially if you do know a lot about it. 

What should you do if...?
Your mind goes blank?
If this happens, it’s because your stress level is very high. Take a deep breath and (internally) talk yourself through the panic. Think back to your lessons, your revision, to the chair you were sitting on and the books you used, or the music you played in the background. The chances are it will trigger off some response. If all else fails, just start writing – anything – to break the tension and reboot your memory.

You realise – halfway through or later – that you’ve misinterpreted the question and written the wrong thing?!
If you have time, start again and finish, if necessary, in note form or bullet points. If you do not have time to start again, finish the answer you are writing rather than giving up halfway through. You may have included enough relevant information to gain some marks.

You can’t answer any of the questions?
Again, stay calm and take a deep breath. Remind yourself again of the worse case scenario (you’ll have to retake?). Take another look through all the questions – there’s bound to be one you can answer something for, even if it’s only writing part of the answer, so just start writing that and see what happens…