Coping With Exam Stress

By Heddy Smith, counsellor and psychotherapist.

Principal Instructor for Standing Tall UK.

After the holidays many students go back to school knowing that exams, tests or a heavy academic workload are ahead of them in the spring term.  Managing stress levels is a challenge for most adults but wisdom, self-awareness and experience can help keep it at bay. So how well do students know themselves in the ever-changing decade of teenage years and how do they learn to manage their nervous responses in this pressurised term?

Heightened levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) are released when one perceives a difficult challenge ahead. Its use in the short term can be of benefit to motivate and sharpen the mind to deal with the exam, but all too often cortisol is present for weeks beforehand. Sadly our nervous system cannot identify the difference between a mortal physical threat and exams, plus if it is present for too long it can create a negative effect on the body and mind.

Students trying to study can find that they are now hampered by stress. Symptoms include: difficulty sleeping, constant tiredness, forgetfulness, lack of concentration, a feeling of anxiety and irritability, excessive worry, increased heart rate, poor appetite, muscular aches and pains, waves of panic, listlessness, loss of interest in activities, low self- esteem, heightened general fear, feeling isolated, high reactions to emotions, despair and tearfulness.

Groups of students often project or transfer stress within the group, nature’s way of using body language to warn the group of a threat or danger. This can be difficult for any one student who cannot understand why they are feeling stress, as they know they are prepared for the exams. The group around them has now inadvertently triggered their nervous system to respond, causing the above negative effects.

Understanding how their body reacts to stress and how in a group students can begin to lower the cortisol levels is an essential part of the management of stress. Learning healthy coping strategies, accepting the pattern of our stress hormones and having the confidence to know that they can gain back control is key to harnessing the ability to manage stress before it can manifest into young people finding ways of coping that are not healthy and sometimes addictive.

Learning to manage and understand stress is a life long learning experience, so now is the best time to start.  Knowing that stress is natural and that you can learn to manage it is a relief to many. With understanding, practise and awareness it can become our friend and ally in the face of a challenge and when the challenge has passed, self esteem and pride can be found in its wake.