By-Ms Pragya Priya Mandal, Counseling Psychologist, Monoshij – A Mental Health Unit Of Techno India Group
With exam season round the corner, how small weekend activities/small outings can help their kids reduce exam anxiety.
One vital piece of knowledge that has been kept in the dark for long is the dangers of overlearning. While learning and repeated rehearsal can strengthen synaptic connections, overdoing it leads to synaptic saturation- meaning, further learning will not only fail to strengthen neural circuits, it will actually weaken the person’s ability to recall the learnt material. If our memory can be thought of as a box filtering necessary information into it, overlearning clogs the filter.
Therefore, as correctly guessed, taking breaks is indeed the way out. Short weekend outings after days of studying can actually help relieve stress. The breaks and times spent experiencing fun with family and friends lowers levels of stress hormone and gives a boost to the secretion of happy hormones! And that lays the foundation for better focus and a calmer mind, enhancing more active learning- exactly what a student needs before an examination.
Imagine having to constantly study with nothing else to do for days on end- no TV, no storybooks, no phone calls, no interruptions from family and relatives. Waking up and sleeping to text-books alone. All it will lead to is mental fatigue, anxiety, and inevitably, a setting sense of dullness in a person.
Outings and family time function like a reset button for the mind, boosting alertness and a spark of motivation. In fact, it is also during these breaks that memory consolidation happens- meaning that if newly learnt material is like wet cement, breaks allow it to harden and preserve the imprint, securing it in long-term memory.
Sleeping after a period of study is known to be highly beneficial when it comes to memory consolidation and also one of the most effective antidotes to anxiety.
The best ways to utilise breaks in between studies could include having a hearty conversation with best-friend, laughing wholeheartedly, stretching, doing light yoga, taking short walks or dancing to one’s favourite tunes.
For the little readers and writers out there, journaling one’s heart, hurling out all worries on the pages and light reading fiction novels are just as helpful to bring oneself back to focusing on the endless series of chapters.
Signs OF exam anxiety & How to balance motivation and relaxation?
Coming to the role of parents. Encouraging the students to study harder, be that through affection or strictness, it is just as crucial to watch out for the key indicators of anxiety and mental fatigue. Youngsters, before exams, might be found to get easily irritable or suddenly fall silent, keep uttering “I’ll probably fail” from time to time, or may be experiencing bouts of crying.
Some are seen to withdraw from people altogether or show a tendency to avoid studying. Others resort to binge-eating food to battle the anxiety or fall ill right before exams- clear signs of anxiety and burnout. Several students complain about difficulties falling asleep or constantly feeling sleepy and dizzy. Naturally so, since exams and the pressure to score well consume their waking and sleeping thoughts.
In times like that, the solution is to balance it out- motivate them but also encourage taking breaks. The worst possible poison is pulling an all-nighter the day before the paper. Using the popular POMODORO technique to study, mixing different subjects instead of sticking to the same one all day, and integrating breaks with creative outlets can help dial down the anxiety and fatigue.
It can help the child if the parent surprises them with movie tickets, asking to go out together for grocery shopping or to the mall, taking mindless TV breaks together, or a quick trip about two weeks before the final day crashes in. It is also essential to ensure that they are getting adequate sleep and healthy meals, especially the night before examination.
Parents can actively take part in disengaging their children from hours of learning. They can call the kids over for a chitchat, remind them to take water-breaks from time to time, praise the efforts throughout the process and resist every external pressure to be the ‘victorious competitive cousin’ in the clan- more than enough for starters.
This is no ‘Alice In Borderland’ where it’s a ‘game over’ unless they win it; one can relax. It is rather the need of the hour to ensure that their young ones feel reassured. Before the exam, showing a bit of faith in them, perhaps with a loving pep-talk, without attaching it to a high percentage goal can actually give them the needed boost in confidence.