Sorry if this has already been asked. Admittedly, this isn't for me, but for my younger sister who is going to be sitting her GCSEs in a couple of months (if you don't know what they are, basically, they're pretty important exams that you sit over a period of a couple of months, and you're tested on loads of subjects). Anyway, I knew that she was worried (we just had Easter break and I hardly saw her, she was in her room studying all the time), but I didn't realise how bad it was until today, where she took a mock exam in Maths and panicked so badly that she felt sick and dizzy and couldn't complete any of the questions even though she knew the answers. As you can probably imagine, we're all pretty worried. I sat the exams myself two years ago but I wasn't nearly that stressed and honestly, it's hard for me to give her advice when my reaction to stress is to completely shut down, which is what I am doing right now with my A-levels, and that is not what you should tell a panicking 16 year old. Our mother is taking her to the Doctor's soon to see if there's anything they can do, but in the meantime, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading, and sorry for the long post.
- Get her to write a list of the subjects she's struggling most work - Get her to write a list of the subjects that are most important to her and her future - Get her to weigh the two up and get a list of the top 5 subjects (note that 2 of these 5 will need to be math and English for A-levels if she's taking them) - Then work out the areas of study in each of these subjects she needs to work on most - Revise those ones the most but make sure the other ,more known, areas are intermittently tested - Go to any catch ups available - When revising, only revise each subject for about 20-30 minutes and then take a 10-15 minute break. - At GCSEs, only do about an 1-2 hours of revision a day and suggest having weekends off unless there was a specific set piece of homework - Make sure teachers are aware of anything the doctor says and then they can help and make available adjustments (such as sitting in a smaller room for the exams) Hope this helps.
Yeah, that's true, pretty sure she isn't taking many breaks at all... Thank you! I'll see if I can do anything!
I feel her pain. Seen a lot of people break down during exams. I am an instructor and I tell my students to listen to me carefully in the class and forget about books when at home. Studies are not about how many hours you have put. Its about understanding concepts. I have seen people studying just two hours and acing that exam. While there are some , who stress a lot and forget studying in the process. That does not help at all. Or probably, she has taken the exams too seriously. Just tell her to relax. I am sure she will do amazing in the exams considering how much hard work she has already put in.
I get really bad exam stress too, so I can understand. The ways I try to counter it are: -Write out everything I need to revise -Make a schedule for revision and stick to it -Keep to very good sleep patterns (no going to bed really late) -Drinking and eating enough -Taking regular breaks (one method I used was: revise for 20 minutes, break for 5, revise for 20, break for 5, revise for 20, break for 15 - and during those shorter breaks, I just read a few pages of a comic or a fiction book to let my mind relax) -Do practice exam questions - This is the most important, because you get used to reading the style of writing used in exams, which means when you're in the exam you can relate it to practising. If all else fails, beta blockers have helped people through very stressful exams before, although they should be a last resort.
Thank you so so much to everybody who has contributed! I am taking everything you have said into account and passing it on to our mother (she's better at this than I am) as well as keeping it all in my own mind. Honestly, I am so grateful to you all for this, it's really nice of you to offer advice
