Building Exam Resilience: The Missing Link in Student Success
Schools focus heavily on academic preparation, but what if mental resilience is the key to exam success? Research shows that students who can manage stress, bounce back from setbacks, and maintain focus perform better in exams.
Here’s how schools can develop exam resilience in their students.
5 Ways to Build Exam Resilience
- Teach students how to manage stress before it overwhelms them. Showing students HOW to handle their stress will help them develop a stronger level of resilience. Explain how specific exercises can help them manage their anxiety so they feel able to get through any difficult times.
- Build in time for students to practice the stress busting techniques.
For any stress solution to work for students, they MUST be allowed time to practice the new skills you’re sharing. The more often they use the ideas, the more likely they are to replace any previous responses. You want the new exercises to be their in-built way of handling pressure. - Deliver Sessions focussed on Mental Preparation.
We all know that subject skills alone aren’t enough to get your students through exams. Their resilience depends on how well they handle the mental side of things. It deserves its own schedule. Any decent Exam Prep or Study Skills Programme MUST include Mental Prep and Thinking Skills. - Involve all your teachers.
For any new programme to have the greatest success, it needs the full support of your staff. They need to see the value to building exam resilience. Set up a staff training session to share your new programme and involve your staff in the set up. Get their co-operation and commitment to using new ideas and rolling out your Exam Resilience programme to your students. - Create a culture of resilience in schools.
For students to develop Resilience to exams, and to life, they need opportunities to learn, discuss, share and practice ideas in all their classes. Any exam stress solutions you adopt can be used throughout the school to help students manage any challenge. We all need to build our resilience levels. It’s not just for exams.
The wider your reach, the better your results will be. The skills gained from any Exam Resilience Course are relevant to all students, whatever their Year Group.
Investment can then be shared with a wider range of school students for a broader reach.
Want to help students develop resilience for the exam season?
The Exam Stress Bundle provides step-by-step guidance, workbooks, and teacher resources to help schools build student resilience effectively.
🎯 www.geraldinejozefiak.com/exam-stress-bundle
I work with schools to prepare their students for the mental challenge of exams and offer 1-day workshops in schools. Want me to work with your staff on Exam Stress and Thinking Skills? Contact me at [email protected] for details.