Finding Calm in the Storm: Tackling Exam Stress

This week, we asked members of the Project Access community to share how they manage stress and productivity during exam season. We offer you tips, advice, and resources that can help!

You have probably already received tonnes of advice throughout your time in school about time-management, stress, and exams. As students we get through this particular tunnel-vision period at least once a year. But there is light at the end – exams thankfully don’t last forever 😌 

Stressed from stressing?

Ironically, feelings of stress over longer periods of time can impede our ability to work well and hence create additional stress. Don’t let stress make you stressed! Our Head of Marketing Signe shares her take: “write down an exhaustive list of what you want to get done, but make sure to divide it into different sections on your most prioritised tasks. It’s okay to not get everything done as long as you get the most important couple of things done! And, most importantly, even when feeling stressed and short on time, remember to allow yourself breaks.”

Small progress is still progress

And then there’s procrastination. I am personally no stranger to procrastination and it, unfortunately, does not magically go away once you hit university. To combat those times when procrastination is the only thing keeping you from tackling your to-do list, follow the rule that doing something is better than doing nothing at all.

Got something really easy to do? You could for example review your notes for 5 minutes, complete a single math exercise, or perhaps re-organise those worksheets you’ve let pile up on your desk? Anything that can get you feeling productive again will boost your confidence and make the bigger challenges seem more doable.

Break it down 

The age-old rule for time management is to break down your work. Small. Manageable. Chunks. There is nothing worse than seeing an exam deadline and not knowing where to start. But try working backwards from the deadline in order to map out the individual ‘blocks’ you need to complete in order to finish the assignment/exam.

Alexander from the PA Austria team recommends keeping a plan for each day up until a deadline, crossing off each day to visualise how little time is left. Another way to visualise your workload is to block off your time even when you have no plans besides revision. I like to use a digital calendar to allocate time slots so that the day feels less sporadic. Even when you don’t have ‘plans’ you can treat your day as if you do. 

Your space matters

Besides organising your work, nice study space and a cup of tea can do more for your productivity than you’d imagine. I like to start my day with arranging my surroundings in a way that I like so that my environment not only limits any distractions (i.e. putting away your phone where it is less visible) but can help make working easier because my surroundings have everything I need. Prepare water, snacks, and anything else you might be tempted to get out of your seat to grab. A well-lit area that keeps you from dozing off and a comfortable chair for longer sessions are both productivity essentials for me. 

Getting rid of mental clutter is important too. If your mind is full of worries, make sure to clear your head before you get started. Kasia, who manages our Prep-Programme, recommends TRE (which you can check out here): simple exercises for releasing tension in the body. She also shares: “I find guided meditations so de-stressing, especially those that include breath-work!” You can also check out some of the popular mindfulness apps if you haven’t already (listed in the last section) as well as prioritise including light exercise in your daily exam-prep schedule. 

Reward yourself!

It’s important to give yourself credit for your achievements, and to have a balanced day of work where studying isn’t all-consuming. One way to reward yourself is to include smaller rewards throughout the day. Signe rewards herself in the evenings after finishing her work: “I set goals for myself so as to award myself with free time during the evenings. In that way, I really motivate myself to get things done so that I can go out and meet my friends or go to the movies later that night and actually get some time off.” 

With everyone spending copious amounts of time at home currently, you should properly distinguish between work and non-work time. When you relax, really focus on relaxing rather than spending your off-time feeling guilty about not working. This way, you can get more out of your leisure time and spend your work-allocated time more productively. Alexander adds that it’s vital not to work during leisure slots, even if you haven’t managed to finish everything.

Finally: some useful apps and resources

Here are some of my personal favourite websites, applications, and browser extensions – hopefully some will be particularly useful for those of you who are preparing for exams! 

Stress

• Headspace / Calm: the two most popular meditation apps that both provide great de-stressing tools, meditation plans, exercise programmes, and more. Also great for ensuring that you get enough sleep and for creating routines. (The linked resources from each are completely free!)

• Geocaching: an in-person treasure-hunting game where you search for hidden items in your local area using GPS. A great excuse to go outside! 

Productivity

• Momentum: a chrome extension that sets your default homepage to a dashboard that lets you quickly access your daily goals and tasks. Another plus is the gorgeous background photos that make browsing more enjoyable.

• Todoist: break down your tasks into subtasks that can be categorised by theme, subject, or project. Makes daily planning much easier!

• Notion: a ‘workspace’ with highly customisable features that work great for writing notes, tasks, calendar dates and more (Project Access lives on Notion! ❤️)

• Forest / Flat Tomato: clocks/timers which incorporate the pomodoro technique. Pomodoro is a working method that has you working in smaller chunks of time (e.g. 25 mins) with consistent breaks – a really effective method when you don’t actually feel like working for longer periods but need to. You can measure your progress by setting goals such as completing e.g. 4 pomodoro sessions. 

• Structured: a visual time blocker for daily productivity planning. By blocking your time, you can more easily stay on track with your goals. 

Educational

• Khan Academy: possibly one of the most well-known resource for learning, Khan Academy is a non-profit organisation that provides access to fantastic teaching and practice materials for STEM subjects in particular. They also offer free SAT prep!

• Photomath: an app that solves math problems using your phone camera.

• Anki: an open-source flashcard software that uses repeat learning to enhance your memorisation of concepts. Incredibly useful for learning languages!

• Quizlet: a simple flashcard application with interactive games to improve your retention. Quizlet also consists of a large bank of user flashcard sets that could come in handy for revising certain subjects. 

I sign off by saying that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Exams and stress are incredibly individual experiences and you shouldn’t feel like you aren’t doing enough based on how others approach their exam-prep. Just ensure that you perform as well as you possibly can when those exams come around 🏅

From everyone at Project Access, best of luck with your exams! 🚀

Written by Hanna Tong Strömberg, 2nd year LLB Law at LSE.

Do you have any topics you would especially like to see covered on our blog? People you would like to meet? Places you want to see? Send your suggestions to hanna.stromberg@projectaccess.org ✉️