by Simon Wright

Created on: May 26, 2007

Those final few weeks before exams can be a very stressful time. Stress, however, gets in the way of good performance and study burnout has blighted the lives of many talented students. There are various things you can do to minimise the risk of burnout. These include:

1. CONCENTRATE AND LEARN THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
Revision should be about refreshing your knowledge of a topic. The material you're reading should not be new to you! But how many of us skip classes or daydream our way through lectures and are then faced with the monumental task of learning a subject from scratch?!

2. MAKE A STUDY PLAN
It's good to have a rough plan of how you're going to tackle your subjects. Just don't fall into the trap of spending forever making and tweaking the plan as a way to put off actually doing the work!

3. DON'T REVISE 7 DAYS PER WEEK
Our bodies and our minds are fragile. We need rest to function at our best. Allow your mind time off so that it can start to work through the knowledge that you've been feeding it. In the time that you take off, make sure that you do stuff that's fun and that will help you relax.

4. DO SOME PHYSICAL EXERCISE
A healthy body really does help create a healthy mind. Exercise will counter stress and will boost endurance. It's also fun.

5. REVISE IN SHORT(ISH) BURSTS
I'd suggest that your study sessions shouldn't exceed an hour. I'm not saying just do an hour a day - just make sure that you break up the sessions. There's only so much that we can take in. The danger with long sessions is that you're reading the words but they're not registering in your mind! I used to set myself incentives like saying that if I completed an hour's study then I would allow myself to play pool for an hour.

6. TAKE NOTES
An obvious one but you can't expect to take everything in first time. Write brief notes and then refer to them to check your understanding.

7. SPEND SOME TIME WITH FRIENDS
Again this is about stress relief. It may also be reassuring to learn that everyone is feeling the same way about the exams.

8. FOCUS ON KEY PARTS OF THE COURSE
Normally you can't expect to know every single part of the curriculum. We therefore need to make decisions on which parts we are going to focus on. This may be driven either by areas that you think have a decent likelihood of appearing, or by whether they are an area that you are strong or weak on. Cutting down the amount that you're going to study will help to prevent you from feeling that the walls are closing in on you.

9. DO SOME PRACTICE ANSWERS
When I was growing up we had to do a major test (called the 11 Plus) when we were in the final year of primary school. These tests determined which school you would go to, and were considered a big deal. Some people who should have passed ended up failing, and vice versa. I did well but I think this was in part because my mother was a teacher and got me started on practice papers before any of my peers. Doing the practice answers will help you with things such as time management and essay structure.

10. GET EXAMS INTO PERSPECTIVE
It's nice to get good results and it can help with future job prospects, but it's not the end of the world if you don't get the grades that you're after. You can always resit them (in many cases), and anyway many great people have done badly academically but have gone on to be successful. Ultimately things such as health, love, friendship, and self belief are more important than a piece of paper with a mark on it!

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