Remain Calm

With Mock exams approaching, many (if not all) students will be feeling under a lot of pressure.

Maybe you feel underprepared? Or, not quite good enough to achieve the marks you would hope for. This is normal and is felt by all of us to some extent.

One of the most important things to remember is to remain calm. When we are calm, our breathing is even and relaxed, our thoughts are in order and easily accessible and we are able to make the best decisions for ourselves. This is the state that we want to achieve when we are completing revision and exams to achieve the best possible result we can for ourselves, which is all we can hope for. I hope to give you here some techniques to remain calm even under pressure.

The enemy of calm is panic. When we are in a state of panic we cannot concentrate and our breathing is ragged and uneven. We make bad decisions. We want to avoid bad decisions of course, especially in an exam.

Some tips to remain calm:

1.      Deep breathing is your friend.

We can fool our brains into believing things that are not true, we do it every day. You can utilize this to your advantage. Just by taking deeper and more even breaths, your brain and therefore your body will start to feel more relaxed. You can test this by putting a smile on your face right now, even if you are not feeling particularly happy. After doing this for a few seconds you actually start to feel a little bit happier than you were before! Try it now.

So if you feel panic start to rise, start taking deeper, even breaths, it really works.

2.      Set yourself easily achievable goals.

Failing at something leads to disappointment. Success spurs you on.

If you wake in the morning and decide you want to get fit, so you are going to run 10 miles, unless you have prepared, you are going to fail, which leads to disillusionment of your fitness goals and less motivation. However, if you decide you are going to run for 2 minutes, you will likely hit your goal which leads to reinforcement of success and will make you more likely to run for longer the next day.

The same is true of revision – never plan to cram 5 hours of revision into a single evening or weekend – plan to revise for 15 minutes AND THEN DO IT. I guarantee that once you start with this technique 2 things will happen -: you will revise for longer than 15 minutes without worrying about it and you will be more likely to START revising – the hardest part!

3.      Pretend to be confident.

Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your head. You can create a loop of negativity which can expand, but the same is true of positive thoughts. As soon as a single negative thought enters your head remove it and replace it with a confident one instantaneously . It helps to say it out loud, just maybe not on a bus full of people unless you want some strange looks!

Replace “I can’t do this” with “I can do this”

Replace “Revision is hard” with “revision is easy”

Replace “I wont be prepared” with “I will be prepared”

It sounds simple and it really is. Our sub-conscious mind believes what our conscious mind tells us. Put even simpler, we believe what we tell ourselves.

So make sure you are telling yourself the right things and try to be your own cheerleader.

Henry Ford said “Whether you believe you will succeed, or believe you will fail, you are probably right.”

So at least give yourself the best chance of success by believing you are good enough to do this! I believe in you.

4.      Know what it takes.

The worlds best sports-people, academics and business-people all have one thing in common. You cannot achieve greatness without it. Can you guess what it is?

Its not money, good-looks, charm, skill or luck.

Its determination.

Determination will ensure you succeed above any other factor. Its free, and available to every single person on the planet. People from the humblest backgrounds have achieved greatness with just determination and very little else, so make sure you have it.

Be determined to study well and prepare well and the success you wish for will have no choice but to materialize.

But above all – stay calm.

Olivia Sumpton