If you or your child are faced with the postponement of important exams due to Covid 19, you may be living with a challenging level of anxiety as well as reduced motivation.

Postponement favours those that are looking for higher points, as well as students that are willing to make an enhanced effort in their work for the next few months. But for students expecting to be free from exams to spend the summer months relaxing, this extended study time offers extended stress time. The change in circumstances for many, also has the effect of temporarily reducing levels of motivation. It will take extra effort to push through this emotional frustration and get back to feeling motivated and functioning in optimal exam preparation mode.

When there’s a semblance of chaos surrounding us, it helps to take a step back and look at what we can do to maximise our success. What’s within your control?

1. Preparation, 2. Motivation, 3. Anxiety.

1. Preparation

Given the extra time, it is possible to take your foot off the accelerator during the Easter break, maybe taking some time to connect with others.

Objectively, the preparation is the same, just the timing is different:

Students who wish to do well, need to be as proactive as possible in their learning. With reduced face to face teaching time as a given, students need to be exam focused.

Connect with your teachers. Figure out what you don’t understand and ask,
Follow a study plan and general teacher advice,
Ensure that you keep the balance right.

Regardless of any change in the general running of the exams, the age old motto applies: “If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail”.

2. Motivation

To increase motivation, there’s a couple of tricks that work:

Examine your sense of purpose / the why behind what you’re doing. Visualise yourself as successfully completing your exams, noticing your positive emotions associated with this achievement. What then, will your year ahead look like? It helps if you talk through your vision with someone- it acts to clarify our picture, as well as view any potential challenges and make us more accountable.

Act and the feelings will come. It’s easier to work your way into a feeling than think your way into it. By starting, even for 20 minutes, you can get into a rhythm and change your feelings from frustration to acceptance (where you're just getting on with it) and flow (where your brain is thinking about the academic challenge, rather than how you feel about it). Set a timer and at the end of this time, you will have earned yourself a 5 minutes movement break.

Change your thinking. Examine your self talk. Instead of saying “I can’t do this”, maybe try putting the word “yet” at the end of that sentence. Instead of “I’m not very good at math”. Replace this with “If I put effort into anything, I will get better at it- scientifically proven”.

3. Anxiety

You may not be able to stop yourself from being anxious, but you can choose to feed it or starve it.

A small amount of stress can provide you with the energy needed to get you motivated. Too much can be demobilizing.

By understanding that it is not something that just happens to us; that we can choose to control it, we can get back in the driver’s seat.

In order to change our feelings, we need to change something about what we are doing or thinking. The easiest of these to change, is what we’re doing.

By changing what we are doing, our feelings automatically change. Instead of sitting and worrying about something, feeding our negative emotions, we can choose to go for a walk, or talk to a friend. Anything that we do differently, will change the context. But we can also choose to keep sitting in our room, feeling worried. This is our choice.

There have been many studies showing a reduction in anxiety and stress, from regularly practicing mindfulness meditation, so it's worth a try. It involves training your thoughts to be where you want them to be and detaching from interrupting thoughts. You become the master of your mind, allowing thoughts to enter your head, labeling them and then letting them pass.

Positive Choice Paris offers online, digital positive psychology coaching and counselling:

To reduce anxiety and cope with stress,
To increase your levels of motivation,
To examine your direction in life and make plans for success,
To train your mind to detach through meditation.

Get in contact for more details on pricing.

Gráinne Dunleavy, MSc Applied Positive Psychology.