Assessment Anxiety Coping Strategies
When managing stress it is helpful to approach it on two fronts, first, tackling the task and, secondly, managing your emotional responses. The task we are addressing here is study, but the same model can be applied to other stressors.
- Share the problem with others by having a study buddy for each of your subjects;
- Organise your notes and give priority to what is essential in the course;
- Work hard yet effectively in short bursts in a clearly organised way;
- Seek expert help if you don't understand the material you must learn. Speak with tutors, latter year students or lecturers. Consider paying for a tutor if a large proportion of the material is beyond your capacity;
- Seek information on the time, place and format of the exams and plan how you will get there.
To help you regulate your emotional response to assessment pressure:
- Regularly discuss how you feel with a good friend or a family member and seek their support;
- Actively try to reduce the level of muscle tension you feel by taking breaks, getting sufficient rest, having a period of relaxation every day and engaging in exercise twice a week;
- Be positive. Remember all the times in the past when you have faced challenges and succeeded. Don't ruminate on the possibility of failure. Encourage yourself;
- Seek expert help from medical doctors or counsellors if you are worrying in ways that lead to illness, giving up, or despair;
- Visualise in your mind your plan of action for the exam, and mentally rehearse what you would do if you encounter a difficult situation;
- Rehearse how to calm yourself by telling yourself to STOP negative thinking, to take a deep breath and to start again;
- Spend some time each day on an enjoyable activity. Tell yourself clearly that this short time away from your studies aids your capacity to concentrate;
- Teach yourself to consciously relax and take 20 minutes each day to practise. This will help you to monitor your tension level throughout the day, and give you a strategy to lessen the physiological effects of stress.