9 Tips to Overcome Board Exam Stress and Anxiety – MIT Gurukul
Board exams are crucial milestones in an Indian student’s academic journey. The two nationally conducted exams in grades 10th and 12th are seen as the hallmark of a student’s intellectual capacity and form the basis on which admissions to higher educational institutions is sought. Overseas universities and colleges also view these two exam results while considering admissions for Indian students to their undergraduate courses. Whichever curriculum the student is studying, including the IB international baccalaureate, the 10ty and 12th exams hold importance for them. Thus, these exams cause anxiety, concern and often fear among many students since the pressure to perform well in them is huge. The expectation of the family and school are other reasons that may increase the anxiety in students. This can lead to lack of sleep, confusion in learning and ultimately forgetfulness, negatively impacting the board result.
To overcome the anxiety and be able to focus and score well in the board exams, students can follow few steps that will help them ace the educational concepts and obtain marks to their satisfaction. Some of these are outlined below:
- Begin the revision early – The syllabi for the 10th and 12th grades are completed by schools in a manner that leaves enough time for students to revise them before the board exam. An early revision schedule will facilitate the student to go through the entire syllabus, read it multiple times and devote more time to concepts that he/she fins difficult. This will also give them opportunity to take personal mentoring by the teachers in the last few weeks before the board exams.
- Setting a timetable – Making a time table with allotted number of hours for each subject is a good way to score well in the board exams. By marking chapters and their revision hours on the timetable, a student can do justice to every subject and get an overall high score.
- Planning study hours for each day – Breaking down the study timetable as per hours and days of the week will help the student track the revision progress. The student can also mark necessary break times in the study schedule that are a must for the student to relax, rejuvenate, and return to study with a fresh mind. Nutritious meals and some meditation can also be planned and these too help boost the mental capacity to retain the learnt concepts.
- Use active learning methodologies – Flash cards and memory cards, pie charts, diagrams and brain road maps are good ways to learn effectively. These paint a visual image of the concepts and make learning fun too. Co-learning with peers and holding friendly quizzes especially for the short and one word answers also form good ways to learn fast. Top CBSE schools in Pune and IB schools use these memory tools even as part of their regular teaching methods.
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- Get enough sleep – Quality sleep for seven to eight hours is a must for s student preparing for the board exams. Sleep freshens up the mind as well as the body, makes a student alert and sharp, which helps in fast learning. Sleep is like nature’s medicine that boosts positive mood and optimum health too. Lack of sleep can actually interfere with good learning.
- Exercise – Exercise makes the body secrete positive hormones, builds body and mind agility, removes toxins from the body, and increases focus and concept retention. A good exercise schedule is therefore a facilitator of learning well and scoring high in the board exams.
- Avoid social media distractions – The best schools in India, such as the MIT Gurukul, emphasise throughout their academic year about the ills of excessive social media usage and advise students to refrain from it. This holds true even for students preparing for the board exams. Constant distraction in social media, or WhatsApp chats with others makes the learning process ineffective, and the student needs to keep going back to the same concepts many times to learn them. An attentive study schedule away from social media distractions is the best way to ace the board exams.
- Speak with someone – In the case of an episode of anxiety or excessive fear, the best way is to reach out to one’s loved ones including family and friends, or to the school teachers and counsellors to discuss one’s anxiety issues. By speaking about it and seeking advice and guidance, a student can get back with renewed confidence to the study and score well.
- Pray – Prayer can be a great morale booster, builder of confidence and connection to a higher power in whom the student has faith. Prayer can be done with a positive intent and one can pray for oneself as well as one’s friends, which also builds a sense of belonging and peace.
The above is a list of things that students can follow and help themselves with while studying for their board exams. The list is not exhaustive; students can add things to the list per their choice and what best suits their personality and study styles. Accomplishing good grades can also be achieved with the school teachers and parents’ love, help and cooperation. While the teachers are always there to solve doubts, teach the concepts once more and help formulate answers for the exams, parents can help by constant encouragement and showing faith in their child’s abilities. Ensuring a nutritious diet, fun family time and listening empathetically to the child can also be done by the family. We at MIT Gurukul are always available to students and their parents for a friendly discussion or a session whenever there is a need to boost the self confidence of our students who may be facing exam anxiety. Please contact the respective class teachers to fix such discussion schedules.
