In the next few months our students will be gearing up for exams. We know some of them struggle with stress management, so we need to give them enough time to practice techniques before the exam calendar starts.
If they learn new ways to handle their anxiety in these pre-exam weeks, they’ll have a better chance of finding the feeling of calm they’re looking for.
We all know that students need to prepare themselves to take on the mental side of exams. We’re trying to fill them with all the relevant subject knowledge and reasoning they’ll need to share their learning when it matters. But to be able to do that, they need to know how to handle their anxiety levels.
Allow time for new ideas to bed-in
We shouldn’t under-estimate the time it will take for new ideas and practices to bed in, so it’s wise to give stress management techniques the same attention time as subject skills
It's only when any new ways of handling stress become their new go-to responses that they’ll find a better way of managing things.
If we don’t allow the time is takes for this bedding in, to get established, we might assume that any new techniques ‘aren’t working’
In truth, we may not have given them (the ideas and the students) the lead in time they needed. If we make too hasty a judgment on how well our students are taking on any new ideas, we might lose any benefit that could have been gained from a longer run-in.
Our students need us to give as much attention to their mental exam stress preparation as we do to subject prep.
That needs
- Careful research into best practice time frames
- Clear lesson planning to share ideas
- Built in practice time
- Encouragement and support for any new stress strategies throughout the school
What our students need from new stress management ideas
From our students’ viewpoint, they need to see that any shift in THEIR way of doing things is worth it. That they
- see the benefits of change
- accept the idea
- go along with the concept of trying new techniques
- are willing to practice and encouraged to do so
There’s no point at all trying to introduce calming techniques if students aren’t able to put them into practice. You need to sell any new idea, so they see it merits their time and the start to feel and see that the effort out is balanced by what they get from it!
None of us is likely to put out any energy on something that seems a lost cause.
Adopt an across the school stress strategy
Many courses will naturally include this in their structure, but for the quickest and long-lasting results, share the ideas throughout the school.
- Encourage all student classes to adopt similar/same exercises to calm students
- Decide on an agreed technique to use throughout the school so everyone follows the same approach
Once you’ve decided on your stress management approach and worked out your delivery plan, make sure you factor in practice time everyone needs to get the results they promise.
All my Exam Stress courses encourage you to build in practice time for students to make the most of their new skills BEFORE exams begin. There’s still time to share my Exam Stress Bundle with your exam prep students. You get 2 separate fear-busting topics – Building Exam Resilience and Dealing with Exam Panic. Details here