It’s that time of year again. The time of year where many of us are faced with the daunting task of writing finals. Throughout our education, all of us have written quizzes, tests and finals. Regardless of the importance or size of evaluation, one thing is certain; the accompanying stress and pressure. During this dreaded time, the added pressure and stress of succeeding only dampens our chances of success. Hopefully, this blog gives you insight into the reasoning behind this stress and ways to better manage it. Ultimately, being able to control this stress will lead to success, better mental health and a greater relationship with yourself and those around you.
While writing this blog, I remembered a YouTube video that my middle school math teacher showed the class before our PATs. Despite the pressure and stress that I felt that day, this video truly helped and to this day, it has stuck with me. If you want to see the video for yourself, click this link. Or you can continue reading this blog!
First of all, the days before an evaluation may be stressful. However, small quantities of stress can actually serve as motivation to keep pushing and get the test over with. In addition, stress is a sign that shows that you actually care about the evaluation. But remember, the key word is small. Higher quantities of stress can take a toll on your mental and physical health. These large amounts of stress will only affect your memory, leading to choking – the moment where your mind goes blank during an evaluation. Now, let’s address some of the most common fears that many students have during evaluations and ways to combat them, with some memes scattered throughout the blog!
1. The Fear of the Unknown
Oftentimes, uncertainty causes stress. Being unfamiliar with the types of questions or some of the concepts can evoke worry in many individuals. However, to mitigate this fear, you can do several things.
- Recreate the test environment. Recreating the time limits, having the same restrictions and doing similar problems to the ones you will be faced with on that day are great ways to test your abilities.
- Ask your teacher questions. Don’t be afraid to ask what types of questions there will be, the number, the time given and many more. This will clear some of your worries and help you significantly when studying.
- Use old worksheets and past evaluations as review. Over the semester, you will have gathered an abundance of old quizzes, tests and worksheets. Actively looking through these will help you gain a better understanding of the concepts and further prepare you for the evaluations. If you still need more practice, there are a ton of practice problems on the internet for students, try some of those out! By completing these in addition to your old work, there is no reason to worry!
2. “Luck is for the Unprepared.”
The second fear many individuals face is the feeling of being under prepared. From time to time, many individuals feel as though they are not ready for the test. They feel as though they have not prepared enough or the concepts are still not registering completely. Here are a few tips to getting rid of this fear:
- Review, review, review. While this may be obvious, study! Preparation is crucial to success. During the semester, looking over your notes and making sure the concepts are fresh in your mind is crucial. By doing this, you are reviewing and helping yourself better prepare.
- Focus on studying concepts you don’t understand. Take a look at your notes and work from throughout the semester and figure out which parts you don’t understand. This way, you can spend less time on the material that you know and more time reviewing the things that you struggle with.
- Create a schedule. Creating a schedule that provides a set time devoted to studying will be extremely beneficial for time management. However, remember to use this time well and make sure that your brain is actively working to learn and understand concepts.
- Be confident. “Fake it ’till you make it,” right? Having confidence in yourself and your abilities is the key to success.
- Write out your fears. By putting them on paper, all of your fears will be out of your mind and allow your brain to solely focus on writing the test. Furthermore, by doing this, you will understand how irrational and small these fears are, decreasing your stress.
3. The Future…
Another fear that I want to touch on is the fear of how important the evaluation is. The mindset that a test will determine your entire future can excessively stress an individual out. To help with this, you can:
- Think of the long term effects. Understand that in the future, even in a couple of years, this evaluation will be insignificant. In addition, regardless of your score, you are still the same person and at the end of the day, these marks don’t determine everything.
4. Fear of Imperfections
This fear is common among countless individuals. Many students are afraid of failure and getting a score that is lower than their expectations. However, there is one way you can combat this fear. This is:
- Acceptance. Understand that mistakes are part of the process and accept this. You have to come to terms with the fact that the result you get is the outcome of all the hard work and time you put in. Understand that in the future, you will have a better skill set that will allow you to improve even further.
5. Fear of Past Failures
The final fear I want to talk about is the fear of past failures. If you have made mistakes or done poorly on past evaluations, you may think the upcoming evaluation is no different. To help with this fear, you can:
- Block out negativity bias. Oftentimes, many individuals recollect their failures and negative experiences rather than their victories. This is known as negativity bias and forces many students to believe that since they have made mistakes in the past, they will do the same again. However, this is not true. You have to understand that every evaluation is different. Not only will this help reduce your stress, it will allow you to have a more positive mindset. Therefore, by blocking this out and focusing on the evaluation ahead, you will emerge victorious.
That’s all! I truly hope that this blog helped you understand why you may feel stressed before evaluations and how to deal with these fears. If you are struggling with any of these fears, try out some of these tips and let me know how it goes. Good luck on your finals if you are writing any, you’ll do great!
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