Helping Your Student Survive Exam Week

More than half of another term year is gone. The days pass, the months vanish, and soon the academic year will be over. Do you find yourself anxious just thinking about what your son or daughter will be experiencing during Finals Week? Keep in touch with your student to provide encouragement. Knowing you are interested and care about them is important! Here are some recommendations for managing Exam Week.

Dealing with anxiety. Your student should expect a certain amount of anxiety. Anxiety is normal and natural. Actually, a little anxiety helps heighten awareness and can enhance performance. It is important to know that test anxiety is performance anxiety – have them focus more on the process (of studying) and less on the outcome (the text itself).

· Take time to relax. Encourage your student to cope with excess anxiety, before and between exams, through rest, exercise and relaxation. For example, urge your student to take long walks or bike rides. These are excellent ways to release nervous energy and maintain stamina for the duration of their exam week.

· Adopt a positive approach. To avoid becoming too anxious, tell your student to look at the exams as the application step of their study efforts, instead of a threatening new experience. Encourage them to avoid negative self-talk.

· Anxiety is contagious. Advise your student to keep away from people who are highly anxious before exams, because their nervousness may tend to increase your students (Yes, that includes you too).

· Plan rewards. Send your student a treat box. Fill it with nutritious snacks. (It’s okay to include their favorite funk food too!) Tell them you want them to reward themselves when they’ve completed an exam or a good study session.

Schedule study time for exams. Urge your student to prepare a general schedule. Tell them to write down the time of each exam and plot a chart of the hours actually available to study. Remind them that their hardest course will require the most study time.

• Start early. Schedule study periods to avoid last minute cramming.
• Allow large blocks or time for studying. Longer study periods allow them to “grasp” relationships and concepts.
• Use shorter time intervals for review, self-testing, and reinforcement. Odd moments, such as time in the shower or walking across campus, can be used for periodic recall and review. Encourage them to run through the information frequently; this will ensure that they remember it and it will broaden their understanding.
• Schedule breaks. Remind your student to respect their concentration span. It may be difficult to study for several hours at a time, (especially if they haven’t studied much all semester). They should start out in small increments of time with short breaks. Starting the exam period with impossibly long study periods is likely to leave them exhausted before it is all over.

The night before the exam. As your student approaches their first exam, and the time between exams, promote the following points:

• Spend the last hours calmly reviewing what they’ve learned. Urge them to try not to tackle new material then.
• Avoid staying up all night. Students are able to understand and remember more when they are rested than if they postpone rest. The shorter your student is on sleep the less clearly they will be able to think and write what they know on the exam.
• Cram selectively. The night before an exam, when a student is more anxious than usual, is one of the least effective times for study. Their ability to deal with concepts and synthesize material is greatly reduced, and even their ability to memorize is impaired by marked anxiety. Cramming only serves to make them more frantic about the exam and, hence, less prepared to do their best. If your student does come up to exam time unprepared, push them to use their last minute studying as a review of key concepts, instead of trying to learn it all. They should be realistic about what they can accomplish: urge them to set priorities based on what they expect to be emphasized on the test.
• Don’t go to the movies. Your student shouldn’t get involved in any activities that might either interfere with what they’ve been learning or make them feel so guilty that they come home to study far into the night to make up for lost time. Encourage them to review and relax.
• Make sure your student has everything they will need to take the test. Do they have/need a scantron, a pencil, or blue book?

The day of the test encourage your student to:

• Eat well and get plenty of sleep the night before.

• Moderate stimulants. Coffee, tea and Coca-Colas all contain caffeine and are relative safe ways to help stay awake. But you want your student to avoid caffeine jitters during an exam!

• A good head start is advantageous. Tell your student to arrive with enough time to arrange working conditions and build a calm, alert attitude. Reinforce to your student that it’s best for them to sit in a location in the exam room where they will be distracted as little as possible.
• Don’t talk to others about the exam material just before going into the exam. Remember anxiety is contagious! Encourage them to feel confident about their preparation and then there’s no need for them to self-doubt.

Offer your student the following relaxation techniques to utilize during the exam:

• As the papers are distributed, calm down by taking slow deep breaths.
• Make sure to read carefully any instructions on the exam.
• As they work on the exam, focus only on the exam, not on what other students are doing or thinking about past exams or future goals.

• If they feel anxious during the exam, take a few minutes of time out and calm themselves down, by stretching their arms and legs and then relaxing them again. Urge them to try this a couple of times. Then tell them to take a few slow deep breaths, and do some positive internal self-talk. Have them repeat to themselves, “I will be OK, I can do this”. Then encourage them take their time and get back into the questions.
• If the exam is more difficult than they anticipated, tell them to try and focus and just do their best at that point. It might be enough to get them through, even with a reasonable grade!

Remember, anxiety is normal and natural. Everyone has anxiety. Encourage your son or daughter to put forth their best effort. With good preparation and strong support our students will have the confidence to overcome anxiety and survive final exam week.