How I overcame exam stress

Many a student must have googled "how to deal with exam stress" in search of tips on how to handle the malady. A quick Google search or a chat with your tutor results in the obvious pieces of advice, such as "study in advance", "have a schedule", "don’t go out drinking the night before", and "make sure you go to bed early."  

I tried to follow this advice the best I could but I still felt extremely tense the day before the exam and on the big day itself, which I always Doomsday. I knew I had studied enough to get a passing grade so I shouldn't have to worry. However, every time I saw the Educatorium building or the Olympos Sports Centre, I'd get really anxious.  

I'm happy to say that his problem no longer troubles me. I've barely felt that way for two years. Not because I now have much more experience with exam weeks but rather because I've learned how to put things into perspective by imagining real doom scenarios that would be a hundred times worse than taking an exam. The fear I feel about an exam disappears almost immediately and, instead, I feel extremely relaxed. Whenever I notice that stress and fear are taking over, I start to imagine situations in which it would actually be "appropriate" to feel like that. It's always related to the people I care about the most.

Every exam week, I realise I am extremely lucky for having parents and friends who care about me a lot. That's something you absolutely can't take for granted. So, every time I’m staring at my laptop with Remindo's start screen in front of me, I realise how little influence an exam has on my life and how many things would have a significant impact. And, just like that, the exam is not a challenge anymore. 

Honestly, you should try it. The tears are guaranteed to well up in your eyes (especially if you're about to get your period) once it dawns on you that you are privileged for even being in the position to take an exam in the first place. Call me an emotional wreck but how bizarre is it that the place where we are born is random, something we have absolutely no influence over?

Allow me to give you some additional life advice in case you're not currently feeling at your best: remember life is a sine wave. If you're at rock bottom, the only way to go is up. If you think things can't get any worse, you're probably on your way to a new summit, little by little. So, cherish that summit — after all, the X axis indicates the time. As for me, I can already predict I will reach my next summit, high as a kite, on New Year’s Eve and I will hit rock bottom most probably on Valentine's Day.