Exam stress
Exams, regardless of whether they’re at
school, university/college or for professional qualifications, can
be stressful.
Hours of preparation and revision, along with
coursework to be handed in, pressure to succeed on the day itself,
and waiting for the results to come through can all combine to make
you feel worried, stressed or even depressed. And parents,
guardians and friends can find it every bit as hard. So Samaritans
have some suggestions to make it just a bit more bearable.
It’s natural to feel anxious about something
that could have such a big impact on your future path, particularly
if it’s something that you’ve been working towards for months or
years. A certain amount of adrenaline isn’t a bad thing to
help you to perform on the day itself, but it might make it harder
to achieve the results you want. Learning how to recognise when
you're under stress is one of the first steps towards dealing with
it.
In this section you'll find information
about:
Webcast discussion: Dr Mike
Shooter and guests address your exam concerns
This year to offer some support to those
affected by the pressure of exams Samaritans’ trustee and youth
mental health expert, Dr Mike Shooter hosted a live webcast. He was
joined by student and Samaritans’ volunteer Edel Buggy (who did her
A-levels last year) and Geoff Brown, a teacher from a secondary
school in London. Together the panel offered advice on how to cope
with exams.
Students, parents and teachers emailed in
their queries and advice and got a good discussion going.
Examples of topics covered included:
- Edel speaking about the importance of spending time with
friends and talking about feelings to manage stress
- Mike explaining how parents need to be careful not to transfer
their own anxiety onto their children
- Geoff talking about the role of teachers beyond the
academic
If you missed the live webcast, broadcast in
May 2010, you can watch it again below and hopefully pick up some
tips on how to cope as well as realise that you are not alone in
your feelings:
Exam
stress video- how to cope
If time is of the essence, which is often the
case around the exam period, you can watch a shorter version of the
discussion on You Tube:
Exam stress video - how to cope - short
version
You can also read the full transcript of the
webcast here:
Exam stress video - how to cope - transcript