Exam time is closing in.
Today is not only a Friday but for many of our school workers and their pupils it’s the last day of the Easter holidays. Back to school on Monday for another term. Not just another term for all though. This is traditionally the start of the end of GCSE courses and the like. That is to say it‘s the last learning period for subjects to be examined at levels of GSCE or higher. With the first exams on the GCSE time table normally starting in May. April will be mostly be given over to revision for the majority of pupils. So whether you’re taking GCSEs, AS Levels or A Levels you’ve done the work and you are now revising. You’ll go into all your exams on an equal footing to everyone else knowing what you need to know, right? I hope so but not everyone will. You see some of you will find revising harder than the course work: less interesting than the other none educational things you can do. But once you’re in the exam room all will be equal won’t it? Not necessarily. You see this is where nerves can come into play for some. For some people exam nerves are worse for some than they are for others. Nerves can be caused by not only self-doubt but perceived pressure. Teachers and parents alike can innocently say things to you that imply they expect a certain standard. Whether it’s the teacher predicting a high pass grade for you or your mum saying how well you sibling or neighbours kid did in that exam when they sat it. So worst case scenario: You’re sat in the exam room with your heart pounding and sweaty palms thinking “oh god, I can’t do this, teachers have said I should get A*, my neighbour got A so I need an A*, Wish I’d revised but those box sets where so good”. Is it too late? Not yet, I mean you’re not sitting in the exams room while you read this and it’s only early April so you still have time to do some revision. You can also decide to get some help in case exam nerves kick in on exam days.
So what help is available help wise? I would like to suggest hypnotherapy, so I will. I suggest hypnotherapy. There I've done it, hypnotherapy suggested. Now you want to know why. There is no reason why you can’t spend some time doing fun stuff but revision is important. Using hypnotherapy I can help you stay focussed on your revision so you don’t get distracted by other things so when you go into the exam room, regardless of the subject you should know your stuff. As far as nerves caused by perceived pressure from others or otherwise, I can help there too. I can give post hypnotic suggestions to help keep you calm and focussed on exam day. I can help you boost your confidence so there is no doubt in your own mind that you are capable of doing well. Keeping to a good revision regime and staying calm and focussed during your exams and you may actually get better results than you expect.
I would like to leave you with one more piece of advice. It doesn’t matter how well your sibling or neighbour did in their exams. The only exam results that are really going to have an effect on you are yours, so don’t worry about anyone else’s results.