The Exam House —

Exam nerves

Exam nerves

Our next exam blog is about GCSE and A level exam nerves. Especially true for candidates for our GCSE and A level exam centre. The exam Expert who we interview in another blog explains this well in his book. Do look it up.

We all know what it is like to get nervous before an event. Sporting or otherwise. It is well known that harnessing the nerves improves performance. Here are a few points about cracking GCSE and A Level exams

Here we are going to use a sporting analogy to work through the pre exam warm up.

  • Recognize that nerves are wonderfully normal. Do not fight them. Relax into the exam nerves .

  • Nerves are often associated outside of the event. Such as the worry of traffic. Limit the nerves by getting there early and controlling the things that you can control.

  • Several days prior make sure sleep hygiene is as good as it can be. Use ASMR if you feel this appropriate to get restful sleep.

  • Visualization. Imagine yourself taking the kick or in the exams, answering the questions fully.

  • Rehearse

  • Breath slowly and calmly. Close your eyes and visualise yourself tackling the questions.

  • Enter the exam with the general strategy of success. Ie. Do not sweet the detail. The detail will look after itself

GCSE and A level exam nerves

During the GCSE and A level exams:

Focus on the tasks at hand rather than the overall end result.

Stay positive by physically forcing a smile. This will unleash the hormones to keep you in good spirits While you might find yourself enjoying the process

Tackle the exam like you do not care of the outcome. You are there to maximise your effort.

After the GCSE and A Level exams:

It is important to successfully wind down. Remember that is not the hardest or my difficult day of your life what ever the outcome. Develop a sense of prospective. Know full well that there are more opportunities ahead.

Do not dwell of the things you thought you got wrong. Focus on the positives knowing you did your best and what you got right.

Finally remember that GCSE and A Level exam nerves are natural. if you do not have them before the exams then there is properly not prepared as you should be. Negative thoughts can spiral out of control. Negative thoughts are dangerous and you need to protect yourself against them. Find ways to enjoy the process and remember that there is no such thing as perfection .

A little more on the mindset of exams can be found here. Exam Mindset.