Exam Stress

It's almost HSC time again! And stress levels start to rise - not only your teenager but the whole family can suffer. A certain amount of stress can be positive, helping your son or daughter to stay motivated and focused. But when stress builds beyond a certain point, they can start to feel overwhelmed and confused. It becomes difficult to concentrate.

The following tips can help you to help them cope with this difficult time.

1) Encourage them to focus on being successful!

If your teenager is extremely anxious over the HSC, she (or he) might be picturing herself as failing or asking herself what will happen if she doesn't succeed. She might be telling herself that she is going to fail. Anxious students picture themselves failing or tell themselves that they are going to fail.

Get your teenager to picture himself in the future having successfully completed the HSC. Perhaps he can imagine getting the results and seeing how well he has done. When doing this exercise, the mental image should be as real as possible, as if the event has already happened. By focusing on a positive outcome, your teen will start to relax - and this means that his ability to concentrate will improve!

2) Help your student to be realistic about what he can expect to achieve - and don't put your expectations onto him. If he's never excelled at a particular subject don't expect him to do so now! Keep things in perspective. However important the HSC may be, it is not the only way to a successful career. These days, there are many different ways to enter tertiary education and a not-as-good-as-expected mark does not mean the end of everything.

3) Exercise, exercise and MORE exercise! It's important to have regular breaks and time for relaxation. Physical exercise is a great way to clear the head and actually improves concentration. Encourage him or her to take a 10 minute break from study every hour and to get up and move around.

4) Help your teenager to get in touch with the physical feeling of stress. We all feel stress in different parts of our bodies. It may be a sensation in the stomach or a tightness in the chest or head. Ask him or her to give that feeling a colour, shape, texture and sound. Then ask her to move it around her body. Move it into the shoulder and then down the arm into the hand. Once it is in the hand, she can blow it away. Or she can move it down to her feet and then let it drain away through hre toes.

Or, once the feeling has been given physical characteristics, he might be able to push it outside his body and then picture it turning into smoke which just blows away. Both of these exercises use neurolinguistic programming techniques to interrupt the stress patterns. The person feels more in control of what is happening.

5) It can also be useful to visualise being in a favourite place, or on holiday or being with a special person - whatever works for him or her. Just get her to imagine it fully with all of the associated good feelings.

6) Healthy food! Make sure that your student eats nutritious food - and limits their intake of caffeine-based drinks. Often people use these drinks to stay awake and alert but caffeine can increase feelings of anxiety. It may be an idea to take some extra vitamins or minerals to help manage the stress levels. The B complex of vitamins and magnesium are very important in helping the body cope with high stress levels.

7) Sleep! As far as possible, try to ensure that your student gets seven to eight hours sleep every night. Not only does she need that time for physical rest but the mind needs time to absorb new information so sleep is very important.

With your loving support, your teenager (and you and the rest of the family) will survive this time!

HSC Online has many useful links to information about how to handle exam stress - above all, remember that, at this time, your son or daughter needs support, encouragement and love!

Linda is well known for helping students to cope with stress or anxiety and to improve their results in the HSC. Linda has been interviewed on TripleJ about HSC stress.

Benefits of Linda's techniques:

improved concentration

better organisational skills

more motivation

improved recall

better ability to cope with demands

less stress

If you want to help your son or daughter to achieve their best in the HSC, it is essential that they have good stress management skills. Contact Linda now to find out how she can help you.

Individual sessions are an hour and a half long.

Please fill out the form below for more information about Linda's services.

You will be contacted as soon as possible.

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