Taking An Exam: How Do You Prepare For It?

Taking an exam is in many cases a stressful experience. You often have to put in a lot of effort to succeed. In addition, some of us can only hope that we don’t experience an anxiety attack, blackouts or other unexpected things while we are taking the exam.

Taking an exam: the moment you have to show what you have learned

As soon as the date of the exam is announced, some students feel the pressure immediately. We create stress when our body prepares for action. 

To be more specific, the sympathetic nervous system intervenes to respond to challenges. However, since the challenge lasts longer than the sympathetic nervous system can handle, the parasympathetic nervous system steps in to restore the hormonal balance, among other things.

These two systems will work against each other until the end of the actual exam. Around that time  , our body will have gone through all kinds of fluctuations that adversely affect our health. For example, we will have had a lot of adrenaline and cortisol in our blood for a long time.

However, the purpose of the stress response is to prepare our bodies for short-term threats  . The body cannot handle this reaction for a long time. This can eventually affect the production of lymphocytes (white blood cells), among other things, making it easier to get sick or get infections.

Our immune system thus becomes more vulnerable to all kinds of disorders. The body’s own antiviral or antibacterial effects are affected. In fact, it’s quite common among college students to get sick while studying for an exam or right after.

Important tips for taking an exam

Preparing ourselves psychologically for taking an exam is not an easy task. As we have seen, such a test can affect our physical health. Nevertheless  , the psychology behind this is fundamental.

Students may experience mental blocks that make them feel like they are not fully prepared for an exam. This means that the way we study and/or the time we devote to it affects everything .

Studying is a process with different phases

As a general rule, students do not start studying immediately when they sit down at the desk to begin.

The first contact with the information is actually an essential step by which they help their brain assimilate and encode this information. Thus, it is stored in memory, thereby increasing the chance that they will remember it later.

It is important to make use of this first contact. This will help us to really process the information. With this we may be able to absorb the information faster and thus save ourselves a lot of unnecessary stress.

In particular, we will not feel that we need any more time to study. It can also help us set up our study schedule with more accuracy.

Support is very important

Whether it’s clearing up doubts with a teacher or studying in the company of fellow students taking the same exam,  working as a team often makes us more efficient. So we will have to gather support before taking an exam.

Students would do well to seek support or exchange ideas with others. Explaining study materials to others can also help them remember the information contained therein.

Diagnostic test

Exams often have certain structures that we need to get to know if we want to make the best use of them. For example, by knowing in advance how many questions will be asked during an exam, you can paint a mental picture of this.

Mimicking an exam can therefore have a very positive effect. If a student does this – for example by taking a diagnostic test – he will feel during the exam that he knows what to do with this situation.

Relaxation is also important

As we have already seen, the high levels of stress that can be caused by tests can take their toll later on. Because these levels increase on the day of the exam itself, it is helpful to have some relaxation exercises already mastered on that day. This prevents you from getting a blackout, for example.

These exercises should mainly consist of breathing exercises that give us more oxygen. Your lungs will also be able to take in more air. This in turn prevents you from feeling the well-known palpitations during the test moment, for example.

These tips can help you make an exam a more portable task. However, this does not mean that we should reject stress as a whole. After all, it helps us to react quickly to unforeseen events. That in itself can be very useful on the day of the exam!