A short collection of ideas I have gathered over the years for minimising stress and maximising effectiveness during the exam period.
1) The night before
You are already as prepared as you can realistically be for the exam — use that fact to your advantage.
Do not work past 8pm at the latest on the night before a morning exam. If you continue to work beyond that hour, equations, formulae and facts will whirl through your head into the early hours. Your brain needs time to wind down before it sleeps.
A note: students who are underprepared may feel pressured into the infamous all-nighter. That is their choice — if you want to do well, avoid being one of them. Consistent work across the year is the real answer. If you have had three school terms to prepare and still feel you desperately need to study the night before, the honest truth is that you have not worked hard enough through the year. Learn from it for next time.
The all-night students are almost always the ones who later wonder why their results were not as strong as expected. The answer is usually simple: not enough sleep. A good night's sleep is so important that I have written a separate article on its benefits. What follows are some ideas for actually getting one.
2) Getting to sleep
A few tips and ideas to help you sleep well before an exam:
Stretch. You do not need to be a master of the lotus position. A short stretch is enough — I recommend Adriene's YouTube yoga videos. You will feel more relaxed and far more ready to sleep.
Intense physical exercise. This was always a central part of my own routine — exhausting the body as well as the mind. Afterwards, sleep tends to come quickly. The fresh air also goes a long way toward easing anxiety.
Watch something undemanding. You may be focused on getting to sleep as quickly as possible, but it is worth setting aside an hour for something genuinely relaxing. Ideally a good piece of fiction — though if reading is not your habit, a short series episode will do the job. Anything that calms your mind down.
Meditation videos on YouTube. It may sound unlikely, but they are well worth a try if you are struggling to sleep.
Isotonic sports drinks. Good for staying hydrated through the night without the side-effect of needing the bathroom. Biology students will recognise the osmosis at work.
Chamomile tea. Nothing revolutionary — if I did not mention it, your parents would. The best herbal tea for before bed.
Do not work too late. Worth saying twice.
Just relax. Easier said than done. A few words of reassurance: it is all in there, you are not going to forget everything you have learnt over the course of a year in a single night. If you are worried that you might, the "one-hour flick-through" tip below will help.
3) Before the exam
The one-hour flick-through. Even for an early-morning exam, allow yourself a final one-hour flick through your notes. This matters for peace of mind as much as anything else. It also helps you sleep better the night before, knowing the flick-through is scheduled — you do not need to worry about forgetting anything overnight. I have always slept better knowing the morning flick-through was in the plan.
Careless-error sheet flick-through. If you have not yet read about careless-error sheets, see the relevant article. This sheet is always the last thing I read before any exam — typically in the final hour before going in.
Breathe and relax for half an hour. There are exceptions — some exams require you to memorise a body of detail just before the paper so you can write it down immediately on entering (flame tests in chemistry, for example). In those specific cases, that approach is reasonable.
In most cases, though, it is far better to commit everything to long-term memory so that you can afford a comfortable 30-minute breathing space immediately before the exam. This clears the head, calms the nerves and tops up your energy.
Power food. Eat a banana, some dried fruit, or another quick-release energy food for an extra boost of focus during the paper.
Isotonic sports drink. Ideal for hydration without the inconvenience of needing the bathroom mid-exam.
Do not confuse these with energy drinks. I would actively advise against caffeine before an exam — it may give a short-lived boost, but it can also tip you into an anxious state where you make rash decisions, and you can never quite predict when the crash will come.