Better study skills will help kids reduce exam stress

Almost all students appearing for Board exams undergo intense pressure, anxiety and tension. Extreme consequences of examination stress may lead some of them to attempting suicide. The XII boards are viewed as the worst it can possibly get, since no other exam in life has as much far reaching consequences. The XII board exam will determine the career path of the student which will later decide his professional course, which will further determine his job aspects and in general impact the success of his life ahead.

So acute is the pressure that some students simply cave in.
Yet, there are other students who are able to appear the Board exams with hard work and deal with the stress with reasonable ease. The pre-examination stress creates a vicious cycle which can be tackled by simple study techniques which will help students to be better organised and prepared, which, in turn will beat the examination tension.

The starting point is the Study Plan. The first thing to do is to prepare a study plan whether the exam is a day later, a week later or even a month later. Creating a written plan will help cover the syllabi, avoid wastage of time; organise and allocate time for study and play and give attention to the more important and difficult topics. The idea is to think of it like a shopping list, put down all the items and then categorise them.

Prime Time is a concept that most kids understand. They know that they are not equally productive throughout the day, they know that during some specific hours they can get their best work done. Allocating the more difficult or more important topics to the prime time is a smart way to attack the revisions.

Some students are 'morning people' which is to say that they appear the most active, energetic and most in control during the early hours or generally before noon. Some children may consider themselves "midday people" and feel themselves strongest and most active before 5 pm.

The "night time people" are those who spring to action after evening, sometimes staying up late at night to complete those lengthy chapters. It is important for students to recognise their peak hours and for parents to allow students to identify and get the best out of their Prime Hours.

Memory Skills are an important element of the current examination system. There are several ways that one can enhance better memory. These methods are extremely simple and do not require any training or extra aptitude to adopt.

Use of acronym is a tool used by many kids. This is a technique to condense a theory to a few words ex. the Acronym to remember the different kinds of Pronouns can be RIPE-DIP which stands for Reflexive Pronoun, Indefinite pronoun, Possessive pronoun, Emphasising pronoun, Demonstrative pronoun, Interrogative pronoun and Personal pronoun.

Picturisation is another very strong memory tool and drawing a mind map, or making a layout of a famous war by drawing out the warring parties, the various actors and the year of the battle will allow for easy recall of history chapters. These points can later be expanded upon.

While taking notes, using as many diagrams, graphs, figures and illustrations as possible will help make several quick revisions at the last moment!

Other techniques such as Spaced Learning i.e., studying for 50 minutes and taking a 10 minute break; or Reading Skills like first doing skimmed reading and then reading again for details are keys to enhanced learning. Study skill tips can be given by parents, counsellors and teachers to help students get better organised and deal with examination stress effectively.