What Is Exam Stress For Psychology Students? A University Psychology Student Life Podcast Episode.
- Connor Whiteley
- 13 hours ago
- 11 min read
For the past six years that I’ve been running this podcast, I’ve had to sit university psychology exams. Every year, I hear from other students that they are stressed out, concerned and they are nervous about their revision, their exams and the results day itself. Recently, I gave a series of talks at a local college in Canterbury to help 17 and 18 year olds how to cope with exam stress, so I want to share this knowledge with you. By the end of this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand what is exam stress, how to identify exam stress and how to cope with exam stress during revision, your exam and results day. As well as you’ll learn what to do if your mind goes blank during an exam. If you’re a psychology student worried about exams, then this is a perfect episode for you.
Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Third Year Survival Guide: A Psychology Student’s Guide To The Final Year of Their Undergraduate Degree. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
What Is Exam Stress for Psychology Students?
The other week I was talking with a 2nd year psychology student friend of mine and he was talking about the child development exam that no one was looking forward to. He was struggling to learn all the different theories of language development, let alone all the other theories and studies that he needed to learn for this exam. To say that he was stressed was an understatement. It turned out that he wasn’t alone because another 2nd year friend of mine posted on Instagram that it seemed easier to pass away than pass his exams.
A bit of morbid exam humour for you.
My point is that it is very normal for psychology students to feel stressed during exam time. I know I was extremely stressed during the final year of my undergraduate because I really, really wanted to get a 2:1, but I didn’t know if my academic writing was up to scratch. Thankfully, it was, but it wasn’t a fun time for me.
As a result, exam stress is exactly what it says on the tin. It is the psychological distress and feelings of overwhelm that you get from exams. Exam stress can be caused by thinking about the exam itself, the revision and a whole bunch of other factors related to the exam.
What Are Signs of Exam Stress and How Stress Might Make You Feel?
In addition, when you’re feeling exam stress, you might become more susceptible to illness (like headaches and stomach aches), you might experience mood swings and become more stressed out so you’re irritable and snappy. During my series of talks, I explained how during my GCSEs (the secondary school exams we sit when you’re 16 years old in the UK) I was very snappy with my parents, because I was stressed about my exams.
Another sign or symptom of stress is you might engage in nervous habits, like biting your fingernails, and there might be changes in your eating (because stress can suppress your appetite) or sleeping habits. Some of the other ambassadors who were supporting my talk mentioned how their chocolate consumption skyrocketed during exam season because it helped them to relax. A personal story I shared during my talks was that I was put in for the Higher Paper during my French GCSE mocks and I was so stressed about it the night before, I remembered being wrapped up in the exam paper. Then whenever I tried to look at what the questions would be everything went blurry.
I didn’t sleep well that night, and I failed the Higher Paper anyway. I actually failed my French GCSE overall, and nowadays I’m doing very well at French on Duolingo. I could easily pass my GCSE now.
Another way how stress might make you feel is like you have low energy and you can’t be productive, or you don’t look after yourself and you have little interest in anything. As psychology students, you might recognise that these signs have some things in common with depression and you can feel a little depressed because of exam stress. Here, we aren’t talking about major depression but you might be depressed during exam season. This is why it’s important to practice self-care, do fun things and don’t make your entire life about revision.
How To Avoid Exam Stress?
The next part of the talk involved me discussing ways to avoid exam stress with the students. Therefore, it’s important to note that exam stress can come from poor exam prep, so it’s important to do a little bit every day and make a revision plan. For my Neuropsychology of Ageing exam, it helped me to make a plan about what topics I was going to revise each day. My plan made me feel more in control and it made the revision feel a lot less overwhelming.
Another source of exam stress is a fear of the unknown. This is why it’s important to understand what your exam will be on and when and where it is exactly. I didn’t really experience this with my Neuropsychology of Ageing exam because I knew everything in the lectures were topics we might be tested on, but none of the student presentations or optional readings would be on the exam.
However, the day of my exam, I had a lot of exam stress because I couldn’t find where I was meant to sit in the exam hall, and I hadn’t sat an in-person exam in 6 years. I was concerned and stressed about how it all worked, what I was and was not allowed to bring into the exam hall and so on.
Make sure you find all this out beforehand.
Two final ways to avoid exam stress are try and make sure your diet is stable. This is very important because you don’t want a sugar crash or hunger impacting your exam or revision. As well as make sure to take time out so you can relax, be active and do what you enjoy. If you make your entire life all about revision, the quality of your revision will decrease and you’ll be burnt out by the time you reach your exam.
Personally, during the talk itself, me and the other ambassadors talked about this next tip in the revision skills section, but I want to explain it to you. One way to reduce exam stress and increase your sense of control is to revise your way. You might be a visual learner, your best friend might be an audio learner and your other friend might revise best using active recall. Okay, active recall is always best, but revise the way that works best for you.
It doesn’t matter how your friends revise. You need to do what works best for you if you want to succeed in your exams.
A common tip that I really liked asking my ambassadors was about the music they listen to during revision. Some students need complete and utter silence to revise effectively, other students need background music to be able to focus. One ambassador who I really like prefers to listen to classical music during revision because she fines it relaxing. Whereas another ambassador likes listening to lofi. For me, I tend to listen to “coffee jazz” or some Demonslayer lofi during revision, or if it is a really boring topic that I hate then I put on some more epic and dramatic Demonslayer music because it helps me to focus.
Do whatever works best for you. There is no right way. Only the way that works for you.
How To Avoid Exam Stress On Exam Day?
When it comes to the exam itself, to avoid exam stress, it is best if you avoid large amounts of caffeine and sugar on the day of the exam itself. This will help you to avoid any crashes before or during your exam. Also, make sure you eat a balanced breakfast and lunch so you aren’t hungry during your exam.
Some other tips include:
· Arrive at the exam hall in plenty of time so you can take a breath, find out where you’re sitting and relax before the exam starts.
· Check you’re in the right place and sitting in the right place.
· Get comfortable, relax and breathe.
· Don’t rush- think and plan before you start answering the questions.
· Read the information carefully and follow all exam instructions
· Work out a time plan and stick to it
· Decide on an exam strategy (will you answer easy or high-mark questions first?)
In the talk, I explained how focusing on these strategies helped me not to get stressed during my exams. In my Neuropsychology exam, I focused on answering the 20 Multiple Choice questions first of all to get them out the way then I planned to spend twenty minutes on the remaining five short-answer questions where I needed to write in-depth answers to each one. This helped me not get stressed because I had a plan and I was able to stick with it.
Other Ways to Avoid Exam Stress During an Exam
We’ve all been there in an exam where you’re writing along and then suddenly, your mind goes blank. It is one of the most annoying situations and it can really stress you out because time is still ticking away, thoughts start popping into your head about what if this is what makes you fail and so on. If your mind goes blank during an exam, put your pen down, read what you’ve done so far and then plan your next steps. As well as note down everything that you know about the topic and/ or leave a gap and move onto the next question so you can come back to it later.
I’ve found in the past that sometimes coming back to exam questions is very helpful because your answers to other questions remind you about related topics, so you can answer the questions you were stuck on earlier.
Another issue you might encounter during an exam is you find yourself running out of time. If you find yourself running out of time then get the main points down and any evidence even if it is just in bullets because you can still get marks for putting something down, and you can always return later if you have time to flesh these points out more. As well as divide the remaining time between the number of answers because it is better to put down the key information for each answer rather than just leaving it blank if you can help it.
Finally, for this section, you might be writing along in your exam and find that you’re getting confused. I’ve had a few times in my exam and thankfully, it normally happens before I start writing a massive tangent that shows great knowledge, it just doesn’t help me answer the question I am being asked. If you find yourself getting confused then stop writing and re-read the question and re-look at your plan, Have you gone off track somewhere?
Two Tips For Avoiding Exam Stress on Results Day
Results day can be just as stressful as the exam day itself, but it is often overlooked. Psychology students are always nervous, anxious and concerned because this is the day that they’ve been waiting for and it determines a lot about their next year and even next few weeks. If they’ve done well then it means that they can progress to the next academic year with the confidence that they can take it a bit easier in their final year or whatever the next year is for them. If they haven’t done as well as they hoped then they either need to really focus in the next academic year, or in the next few weeks, they need to submit mitigation or prepare for resits.
There are two big tips I will give you about results day. Firstly, open your results in a way that is comfortable to you. If you live at home, your parents or whoever you live with might be really excited and they might be putting pressure on you to open your results in front of them, or your friends might want to do it all together. Whereas you might actually want to open your results alone in your bed. Just do whatever you want and open your results in a way that is most comfortable to you.
These are your exam results. They do not belong to your parents or supporters or friends. Only you can decide how and when you open them.
A minor tip that an ambassador mentioned during my talks was if you didn’t do as well as you hoped, allow yourself to feel that negative emotion. Take a few hours or a day to feel bad about your results because suppressing your emotions isn’t healthy. Then move on, plan your next academic year and do not let that bad result hold you back.
The second and final tip for results day is take some time to celebrate and reflect on the past academic year. Think about what worked for you this academic year, what could have been better and use that knowledge to be more successful next year. And just celebrate and do something nice for yourself. Hang out with your friends, play video games, go out for a nice meal, just do whatever will help you celebrate. The hard work is over for another academic year and now you have a few months of freedom before the next year begins.
Enjoy it.
Psychology Student Life Conclusion
I am rather surprised that in the past six years of The Psychology World Podcast, I have never done an episode on exam stress or revision. This is something I want to change and I am really grateful that there were schools that wanted these talks delivered and that Outreach picked me to deliver the talks. It was great interacting with the students and I really hope that you found this podcast episode as useful as the students did.
I know that exams and results day can be stressful, concerning and you can really get yourself into a panic about them.
Yet at the end of this psychology podcast episode, you now have a wide range of tips and tricks to hopefully help you avoid exam stress this season.
Here are some questions to get you thinking at the end of this podcast episode:
· Do you get stressed about exams, revision or results day?
· How could you relax and practice self-care during the exam season?
· How do you prepare for exams and could you improve your practices?
· How do you cope with results day? And could improve your experience?
· What could you do to celebrate your results after all the brilliant hard work that you’ve done this year?
I really hope you enjoyed today’s psychology student life psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Third Year Survival Guide: A Psychology Student’s Guide To The Final Year of Their Undergraduate Degree. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Psychology Student Life References and Further Reading
Hitches, E., Woodcock, S., & Ehrich, J. (2022). Building self-efficacy without letting stress knock it down: Stress and academic self-efficacy of university students. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3, 100124.
Kumari, A., & Jain, J. (2014). Examination stress and anxiety: A study of college students. Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 4(1), 31-40.
Marsidi, S. R. (2021). Identification of stress, anxiety, and depression levels of students in preparation for the exit exam competency test. Journal of Vocational Health Studies, 5(2), 87-93.
Păduraru, M. E. (2018). Coping strategies for exam stress. Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal, 1(1), 64-66.
Rajendran, V. G., Jayalalitha, S., & Adalarasu, K. (2022). EEG based evaluation of examination stress and test anxiety among college students. Irbm, 43(5), 349-361.
I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page.
However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.
Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.
Kommentare