How to Avoid Burnout During Exam Season
Whether you’re a ‘prepare weeks in advance’ type of student, a ‘leave it until the last-minute’ student or the very risky ‘wing it’ kind of student, exam season can still be incredibly stressful.
It’s a time when you can often feel there is a lot of pressure, be this pressure from teachers, from family or even from yourself. People learn in different ways and this is absolutely fine, but quite often exams are focussed on a specific type of learning: Memory recall.
How can I possibly remember all this information!?
No matter how clever you may be or how hard you work, exams tend to come down to how much you can remember. Is this a bit unfair? Yes maybe, but this is how exams have been and most likely will continue to be throughout your academic and even professional lives.
This focus on that singular exam period can often make people feel incredibly stressed. Personally, I am much better at coursework, presentations and projects. It has never been my strong suit to put pen to paper and recall as much information as possible and I used to get incredibly stressed during exam season. This level of stress only jeopardised my performance and left me anxious and filled with nerves. Ultimately by the end of exam season, I was burnt out, frazzled and absolutely shattered, leaving me little room to enjoy the much-needed end of exam celebrations!
Finding a balance and managing your stress:
It took me until I was at University to recognise how unhealthy this cycle of ‘stress, worry, stress some more, get that stressed you perform poorly, worry about that and then burnout’ was! Thankfully, I addressed this and began to create a plan to avoid burnout during exam season.
Not everyone is like this, I have friends who manage exam season really well and breeze through, but for those of you who have a tendency to feel that little bit queasy at the mere mention of the word ‘exam’, this one is for you!
1 . Know your weaknesses and use them to your advantage: Understand that memory tests might not be your strong suit. Tailor your revision to this and find ways that can help improve this area, such as flashcards and teaching the topic to others.
2. Set yourself boundaries: When you are stressed it can be so tempting to work, work, work 24/7. Set yourself boundaries and stick to them, so you know when the clock hits 4 pm you’re done for the day!
3. Plan ahead: A great way to avoid last-minute stress and eventual burnout is through planning effectively. Make sure you have a revision timetable in place and give yourself plenty of time to focus on topics you might be weaker at.
4. Give yourself breaks: This is so important. Throughout the day make sure you’re standing up every hour at an absolute minimum. Take a walk around the house, have a hot drink, do some exercise, message your friends, anything at all! Continuous revision for long periods of time will be nowhere near as effective and will leave you feeling tired and drained.
5. Don’t compare yourself to others: As I said, some people are just brilliant at exams and this is something you need to accept. Try not to compare yourself to others and focus on your own little wins!
6. Talk to people around you: Communicate with your support network, be this friends, family or teachers. Let them know when you’re having a bad day or when you’re worried about something. This will take some of the weight of your shoulders and also let people know how to behave around you that day.
7. Stop putting pressure on yourself: When it comes to exams it can be super tempting to pile the pressure on and give yourself unrealistic expectations. Instead, try thinking about what you want to achieve and praising yourself for completing some steps towards this goal.
8. Plan something nice for after the exam: Once the exam is over, try to plan something fun! This could be anything from going out for lunch, seeing friends, or just coming home and enjoying a good book. By giving yourself something positive to look forward to you are replacing the negative feelings for the exam with positive ones for the celebrations!
9. Don’t talk about the exam after it: This can be the worst things to do for people who worry and can often cause you to sit and over analyse every single question. Asking people what did you put for question a, or how did you find it, is only going to make you second guess all your answers when in reality you can’t do anything about it now. Instead, come out of the exam, congratulate your friends for getting through it and then all make a pact to move on with the day!
10. Check in with yourself every day: Every morning and every evening try to journal how you are feeling. This can be as simple as a one-word description or it can be a full account of your day. Doing this helps you to see how you are feeling and ensure your mood isn’t slowly getting worse the closer to the exam it gets.
These are my top ten tips that I followed every day throughout the exam season to ensure I didn’t burn out and remained positive and happy.
Being a hard worker is an admirable skill, but be sure not to put too much pressure on yourself. If you are proud of what you’ve achieved and know you’ve done the best you can that is all that matters.
I hope these tips have helped!
Best of luck with your exams and stay positive!
OTHER FEATURED ARTICLES