Coping Creatively with Exams

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Coping Creatively with Exams

• Mara Dall
• Psychologist
• JCU Counselling Service

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PACE yourself

• This is a marathon,
• not a sprint!

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Exam time is stressful

• Good stress management strategies
• Good time management strategies
• Good anxiety reduction strategies

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Look after your physical health

• Eat properly
• Drink plenty of water
• Get enough sleep
• Get regular exercise

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Be prepared!

• Write out a plan
• Allow down time for
• exercise
• rest
• fun (just a little!)

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For each subject

• Make a list of key topics
• Tick off each one as you cover it
• Make sure to cover all topics even briefly

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Get focused

• Just stick with key points
• It is too late to read everything about that
  topic!

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Summarise

• Then summarise the summaries
• Get it down to 1 page just before the exam, and
  use that summary to refresh your memory

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Know your own learning style

• Different students prefer auditory, visual,
  kinaesthetic
• Use more than one modality as much as possible
• Use colour, diagrams, mnemonics
• Process information, dont just copy

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Stay alert for clues

• Use old exam papers
• Go to the last lecture
• Listen for hints about what might be included,
  and what the lecturer thinks is important

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Prepare possible answers

• This helps you process the information
• Helps you remember, as well as think about and
  really understand key points
• Even if that question doesnt come up, you will
  most likely find a related question

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Managing stress/anxiety

• Yerkes-Dodson curve relationship between stress
  and performance
• A little bit of anxiety is good for you!

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Fight or flight

• Normal physical response to stress
• heart rate, blood pressure and breathing
  increase
• blood and oxygen taken away from internal organs
  and brain

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How to deal with it

• Exercise will help!
• Learn to relax tense and relax muscles
• Remember to breathe!

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Cognitive strategies to manage stress/anxiety
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Self-talk

• What are you saying to yourself?
• What can you say to challenge the negative
  self-talk?
• If/when this doesn/t work, try the opposite
  exaggerate fears and fantasies!

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What picture do you have of yourself?

• The picture of yourself which you have in your
  imagination shapes your life.

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In the exam room-Strategies for getting unstuck!

• Visualise yourself calm, coping, confident
• Remember to breathe!
• Change your energy
• stretch,
• do some slow breathing, say encouraging things
  to yourself,
• use a helpful image.

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Practical tips in the exam

• Plan your time carefully
• Decide which questions you will tackle first
• For complex answers, write out a plan or use
  mindmaps
• If you mind-blank, just start anywhere
• ANSWER EVERY QUESTION

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For further help

• JCU Counselling Service is open 900-445
• (sessions by appointment)
• Drop in sessions (20 min) on Tuesdays 1100-100
• Thursdays 200-400
• (no appointment needed)