how to avoid stress and succeed in your exams
To prepare for their end-of-year exams, many teenagers and young adults are already starting to revise certain subjects. Wanting to earn a diploma can be a source of stress for your children, and to best support them, you can guide them through their home study sessions. How? By starting with giving them the right approach to revise effectively, in this new article on the Pédago’Vie blog, I’ll share some tips to give you all the tools your students need to succeed in their exams.
Exam stress learning to manage it
Constant stress is the biggest enemy of learning, memorization, and motivation. Yet stress isn’t always bad: it all depends on how you use it!
In fact, the adrenaline generated by the brain in stressful situations helps to promote physical and intellectual activity. So, we can say that a good dose of stress can make us realize the importance of what’s at stake, the amount of work to be done, or motivate us to get to work.
Do you sense that your child is stressed about their school exams? Start by explaining this: if they do nothing about this stress, if they let it build up, then the excess adrenaline produced becomes harmful. Indeed, a continuous adrenaline rush eventually activates the primitive brain, responsible for protection and survival. That’s when, instead of organizing and motivating themselves to study, they react either by fleeing, freezing, or becoming aggressive.
So, the first thing to do? Relax and breathe. Practicing mindful breathing is also an excellent way to learn how to manage stress. The article on the benefits of breathing will explain how to practice it effectively.
So, feeling stressed is a good thing, but it’s not enough. What will make the difference is acknowledging stress and responding to it. This is the time to create a revision plan, develop strategies, or organize their workspace. To help your child, start by helping them set a small, achievable goal. One step at a time is the key to a stress-free learning experience.
As is often the case, I recommend using verbal communication ondailyPutting things into words is essential for addressing issues: words defuse tension. Set up a question-and-answer session and dare to ask them: “How are you feeling? And what’s stressing you out? Is it the amount of work or how to get started? What do you need to be able to get to work or to memorize?”
Acknowledging stress, then questioning it, is essential! This concept also works very well for you during your own periods of stress.
A study was conducted in 2008 by psychologist Henry Roediger. It focused on exam revision. Three groups were formed. All students had access to eight study sequences:
- The first group simply studied the course material during the 8 work sessions.
- The 2nd group devoted 6 sessions to studying the course material, and two sessions to testing themselves to see what had been retained and understood.
- The third group systematically alternated a review session with a test session. This group had four test sessions and therefore only four review sessions. In other words, they had half the time to review compared to the other groups.
Then, all students took the exam 48 hours after the work sessions.
We observe that the group that revised the least is the one that retained the most of the course content. Surprising, isn’t it?
This experiment shows that a passive organism does not learn. To memorize, one must be active and confront what one has not retained or understood. Memory is activated when one confronts what one is supposed to know. This is what is called active engagement. Whether it is a teacher in their classroom or a student studying their notes, the principle is the same: if I want to memorize, I must test myself regularly.
Alternating between review and testing is the method to follow to revise effectively and activate your memory naturally.
Practical tips for effective revision
As we have seen, memorization is triggered when the learner engages with what they have just learned or reviewed. To prepare effectively for exams, students will need to organize their study time differently. I always advise those revising to halve their study time. The best revision method involves interspersing practice sessions with testing to see what the individual has understood, identify what they have easily retained, and what is difficult to recall.
Therefore, students will benefit from planning when they will pause their study to test themselves on what they have just reviewed. This allows them to break down the entire course into smaller segments, which is already very advantageous. This fosters a degree of autonomy in learning and undoubtedly leads to better memorization of the lessons.
Indeed, sometimes focusing on everything that needs to be done can cause stress, while defining work sequences punctuated by tests can, on the contrary, defuse it.
In fact, if you fully embrace this approach, you realize that the best revision method involves creating practice tests with real questions to verify your understanding and retention. Review your notes, scan them, and jot down potential questions as you go. This process engages students in an active, creative process essential for memorization. Finally, it allows you to visualize the exam and build confidence by anticipating the types of questions you might encounter.
A summary of the actions to take for mindful revision :
- Organize your work time so as not to get scattered.
- Instead of revising for 4 hours, advise your child to revise for only two hours.
- Divide these two hours into active testing phases.
- Ask yourself questions at each new learning point.
And off we go, towards academic success
Engaging your memory: the secret to effective revision
It’s all well and good to revise, reread your notes, and make flashcards. Learning is wonderful! But to retain what you learn in the long term, you need to consolidate it. A short but active review is far more important than a long, aimless review with your brain daydreaming.
The brain naturally possesses this capacity for consolidation, provided certain parameters are respected. Our prefrontal cortex (the part located at the front of the cortex, near our forehead) allows us to explicitly process information, that is, consciously, and to make an effort. This is normally what happens when a student verbalizes their lesson, draws diagrams, and uses colors to highlight certain information. These are good habits to adopt! Conversely, a student who simply looks at their notes or skims them doesn’t initiate the explicit learning process. If this explicit phase doesn’t occur, then the next phase, that of automatization, cannot occur either.
Indeed, any learning explicitly processed by the prefrontal cortex will eventually become automatic. This is the consolidation process. Students can verify this consolidation by testing themselves, but also by practicing reciting their notes in a more active situation. For example, a moment when their hands, legs, or arms are occupied with something else, such as throwing a ball into a trash can, throwing darts at a target, etc.
If a student can recite their lesson while performing a task requiring some concentration, without stopping every two seconds, it means they have automated the learning process. Depending on their learning style, some more auditory learners might need to practice communicating in front of a simulated audience. Others could recite their lesson while drawing, doing a craft, cooking, etc.
Better sleep for better memory-essential for serious revision
Learning is good; consolidating it is better. The consolidation of learning has been the subject of much neuroscientific research. And it has been shown that one of the biggest keys to consolidation is sleep. Moreover, sleep is truly an essential ingredient of learning.
Sleep plays a crucial role in consolidating learning and is an integral part of our learning algorithm. It has been shown that after a work session, taking the time for a nap (even a short one) significantly improves memory. This is true at any time of day. This confirms the importance of allowing young children to nap. Ideally, preschool children should be allowed to rest whenever they need to, and the necessary conditions for sleep should be created. Sleep is so beneficia,l because, while we sleep, the brain reviews (sometimes at an accelerated pace) the neural activity of the previous day or the preceding period. This is why improving sleep has already proven to be an effective intervention for children with attention deficit disorders.
To revise effectively and prepare calmly for exams, there’s no secret: active revision is key. Furthermore, it’s better to work in short, regular bursts rather than long periods. Alternate study sessions with moments of physical activty evenen simple things like doing housework, cooking, or, when the weather is nice, taking advantage of the opportunity to walk, play racquet sports, etc. This is what we call an attentional break, and it’s truly one of the foundations for enjoyable learning. And above all, never neglect one thing: sleep. Whether for yourself or your children, it’s essential to cherish these precious moments when the body rests… and the brain learns!
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