Exam stress in block exams

Dr. Jess 😉

Helloo
I am studying for my block exams and this is my first time doing them. I am super scared. I am sooo scared that i will absolutely flop these exams. Maybe im being a little over reactive. But still. if anyone has tips to not stress in exams, because when I stress in exams I literally forget everything, please let me know.

AngelWings

Breathing exercises: Arrive a minute earlier and simply take some slow deep breaths to calm the nerves. Sometimes you can add affirmations (some calming or encouraging phrases) e.g. “You’ve got this!”, “I can do this!” or “The stress is melting away from my fingertips.” (and imagine that it is).
Memorising techniques: Let’s say that you mind blank in exams from exam anxiety. You’ll need a more memorable way of recalling the content. There’s plenty of psychological ways to do this, but here’s a quick list of some personal favourites (fairly sure this was once taught in Psych U3/4, but not sure if it still is):
a) mnemonics: make some silly sentences or a silly song containing the content. The more nonsensical, the better.
b) acronyms: make words with the first letters
c) method of loci/ memory palace: imagine a familiar place and allocate content to parts of the place e.g. your bedroom and you’ve got to remember ancient Chinese history. You might imagine the Chinese emperor lying in your bed with the year on their forehead.
There’s lots of different techniques and these specifically may not work for you, so do Google a few and see what works best for you. 🙂

P.S. I’m a total stresshead too.

FH ⭐️

AngelWings yeah these memory techniques are still taught in psych.

i second the method of loci. i thought it was so stupid, but we had to remember 20 random countries in psych and associate them with different places around the school, and i can still remember those countries, so i can say the method works very well!

Rey_of_sunshine

Very important to note though that if you have aphantasia (inability to visualise) the method of loci is not very effective