Issue link: https://www.hub.camaf.co.za/i/948159
16 2023 EXAM STRESS GUIDE CHAPTER 5: THE BIG DAY HAS ARRIVED Exam day preparation 1. Stick to your normal daily routine as far as possible. 2. Try relaxing techniques, e.g. put on your favourite music while you get dressed. 3. If you lose your appetite, take glucose or sweets with you in case you feel light- headed in the exam. 4. Glance at condensed notes or "buzzwords" if you must, but do not revise any new topics. 5. Make sure that you leave yourself plenty of time to get to the exam room, but minimise the waiting time outside the room itself. 6. Take a watch. 7. Avoid meeting with friends before or after the exam if that will make you more anxious. In the exam 1. Try not to panic. It is normal to feel nervous prior to starting the exam, but getting excessively nervous is counterproductive as you will not be able to think clearly. 2. The quickest and most effective way of eliminating feelings of stress and panic is to close your eyes and take several long, slow deep breaths. Breathing in this way calms your whole nervous system. 3. Read the question paper through once. Then read through again, checking how many questions you have to answer. Look on both sides of the exam paper to make sure you do not miss any sections. Plan your time, decide priority of questions, and plan your answers. 4. Don't waste time being stuck on questions that you are not comfortable with; start with your strongest questions first. This will help boost your confidence. 5. If your mind goes blank, don't panic! Panicking will just make it harder to recall information. Instead, focus on slow, deep breathing for about one minute. If you still can't remember the information, then move on to another section and return to that later. 6. Aim at getting on with the next question, or part of it, not at finishing the exam. 7. After the exam, decide whether you want to mull over it with friends or whether it would only raise anxiety. Don't spend endless time criticising yourself for where you think you went wrong. Often our own self-assessment is far too harsh. 8. Congratulate yourself for the things you did right. Learn from the bits where you know you could have done better, and then move on. 9. Go and treat yourself - you deserve it.