Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Education
Tips to overcome exam anxiety
Excerpts from article by Times Now Digital
Mental health has been the most compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic. People of all age groups experienced some symptoms of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, chronic stress, etc.
With schools closed, classes being conducted online, and exams postponed due to the pandemic, many students and children also experienced high levels of anxiety.
Even as the world goes back to normal in some ways, and adapts to the new normal in the others, children are faced with exam anxiety.
What is anxiety? How is it different from fear?
It is common for most people to get confused between fear and anxiety. Fear is a basic human emotion and experience in response to an immediate danger, it prepares the body for an immediate escape from a threatening situation, whereas anxiety is a response to a perceived threat, it is experienced in anticipation of a future danger.
Can exam anxiety be helpful?
A certain amount of exam anxiety keeps us energized, motivated, alert, and focused. But too much anxiety can interfere with exam performance by blocking our recall or thinking abilities. It can foster negative frames of mind or even promote panic reactions.
What increases exam anxiety?
- Insufficient Exam Preparation
- Cramming the night before the exam
- Inadequate time management
- Inadequate study skills or poor study habits
2. Worrying
- Past below-par exam performances can lead to anxiety
- So can poor present performance
- Negative consequences of this ‘poor performance’
- Comparison with peers and how they are performing
3. Stimulants
- Caffeine can increase your anxiety
What can help reduce exam anxiety?
In the weeks before an exam focus and work on:
- Your study habits
- Preparation level
- Organisation of material
- Time management
- Stress management
- Habits that promote relaxation
- Healthy living
- Balanced eating
- Adequate sleep
- Creating a well-rounded schedule that also includes breaks, exercise and social activity
- Setting realistic study goals
On the day of the exam:
- Prepare
- Get adequate sleep
- Eat a moderate and healthy breakfast (and lunch)
- Go easy on caffeine
- Arrive at the exam location early
- Practice relaxation
- Avoid last-minute cramming as it can cloud your course knowledge
- Avoid classmates that could upset your composure
If anxiety increases while you wait for the exam to begin, use relaxation and visualisation methods or distract yourself by thinking of your after-exam plans.
During the exam:
- Organise yourself and the material you have
- Read the question paper with care
- Strategize – Decide which sections you will attempt first and how much time you will spend on each question
If anxiety begins to interfere with exam performance:
- Slow down and become aware of your physical movements. This can increase your self-control
- Use relaxation and visualisation methods (ie. controlled breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, visualising peak performance)
- Stretch your tight muscles. If possible and allowed, stand up or walk around a little bit.
- Focus on an inanimate or calming object (wall, floor, pen)
- Use a mantra, silently, slowly repeat a calming word/phrase
- Use affirmative self-talk
Career
Make time for small talk in your virtual meetings
Excerpts from article by Bob Frisch and Cary Greene, published in the Harvard Business Review
Although tension always exists between the time spent on the substance of a meeting and the time spent socialising, most recurring meetings reach a natural balancing point. Having to meet via Zoom rather than in person has tipped that balance.
The loss of small talk seems to be a challenge and we’ve identified two common causes:
1. Gathering time is gone: Pre-COVID, executives often had the chance to casually chat with colleagues while they grabbed coffee before a meeting started. Once at the table, these one-on-one or small group conversations sometimes continued for a while longer, perhaps spreading to the larger group before the meeting got down to business.
Meanwhile, Zoom etiquette seems to call for meetings to get underway either on schedule or shortly after the relevant participants have signed on.
2. Zoom fatigue is rampant: Many managers find themselves depleted of energy before their workday is over. It shouldn’t be a surprise that prolonging a call unnecessarily might strike these folks as irritating, especially when they know that the moment they leave the meeting they’ll be free to spend time on the other, sorely needed side of the work-life balance.
But making time for small talk is important. Focus on creating, maintaining, and deepening individual and group relationships. Integrating new members into the team requires more than a series of background briefings. It involves getting to know the other members as people as well. It’s the chit chat, the side conversations that lift emotions and promote well-being.
Here’s how you can reintroduce small talk
While we can’t solve the problem of finding a virtual replacement, we have come up with a few ways to help reinstate this important component of your meetings.
1. Make small talk an agenda item
Create space for more personal, informal interactions as part of their virtual meetings. Planning for and scheduling the casual and spontaneous will create expectations and set boundaries that help increase the team’s comfort.
2. Start with individual check-ins / icebreakers
An activity or ice breaker at the beginning of a meeting is a timeless way to connect participants. Over the years, groups attending regularly recurring meetings, often abandon icebreakers as unnecessary. In a virtual world, beginning meetings with an icebreaker is a first step to reintroducing small talk. Inject some fun at the beginning of meetings.
3. Introduce agenda items designed around opinions and conjecture
Put your team on a level playing field. Occasionally bring up a discussion topic on which most people will have an opinion, use polling to get your team’s individual views on the table, and then let the conversation meander.
4. Have some unstructured time towards the end
Another way to open up an opportunity for informal chatter is to have some unstructured time towards the end of the meeting. Then you leave the choice to each participant.
Small talk is a big deal. It’s time to bring this missing piece of your team’s culture to the virtual world.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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