Dealing With Examination Anxieties: How to Deal with It
Three main targets are suggested:
- Stop avoiding the issues.
- Learn to handle anxiety more effectively.
- Strengthen exams and revision skills.
It is best to use all three approaches simultaneously. Just sitting practise exams, for example, without finding ways to reduce your worry and accompanying thinking and imaging may not be enough. In the same fashion, there are definite skills which have to be used in exams and these can be relatively easily learned and developed. However, just relaxing and learning new skills may ignore your need to actually confront the avoidance.
Here are some helpful hints:
- Explore the critical nature of your thinking. Dispute your negative beliefs about yourself. You have got this far; why should you fail now?
- Try a relaxation exercise.
- Combat the avoidance. Look at old papers - design your own questions - make yourself rehearse with other people and your tutors.
Many of these tasks can be undertaken with self-help and they may also be helpfully tackled in conjunction with a Counsellor because sometimes it needs someone else help to get us to face a difficulty. Also new skills develop more easily when you have a chance to talk it out. The University Counselling Service also runs anxiety management workshops from time to time. To enquire about these or individual counselling sessions contact the Counselling Service.