How to Stay Calm During Finals | 11 Tips to Confidently Ace your Exams

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As an aspiring A-student, you need to know how to stay calm during your finals. Don’t worry, I have your back!

I’m going to share with you 11 tips on how to stay calm during finals.

1. Don’t just use these tips for Finals time!

The first thing you need to understand is that stress management is not a skill that you should just pull out of your hat in dire situations.

Many of us experience stress regularly without being aware of it, and by the time we notice it, it has often reached such a high level that even our health starts acting out.

Handling stress is an all-year-round job and a skill that you should nurture throughout the years, whether you are in school, college, have a job or even retired.

Learn how to stay calm in different situations.

Learn what helps you live a balanced life.

Exercise, drink plenty of water, improve your sleep, keep track of your health, have a social life, take breaks and laugh a lot.

The better you feel outside of finals season, the easier it is for you to stay calm during the exam hustle.

2. Intentionally design a study strategy

The most powerful and obvious way to stay calm during your finals is by knowing the material.

If you know you’ve got all the knowledge necessary easily under your belt, then what’s there to be nervous about?

To make sure you study everything you need for the exams, you need to devise a study strategy. This is done intentionally.

If you simply start studying something without having an overview of the road ahead, you are almost playing a game of chance whether or not you’ll know everything in time.

Creating an effective study strategy is not always easy. It takes lots of trial and error and partly depends on the subject you’re dealing with.

In my law studies, it took me three and a half years to feel like I’ve finally figured out the right strategy to optimally prepare myself in time.

The starting point for you should be to regularly look at your study technique and ask yourself if you can do it just a bit more efficiently.

I also love to watch study tips YouTube videos.

If you’re interested in what I’ve learned over the years, you should check out this:

3. Affirmations, affirmations, affirmations

Alright, I can practically see you rolling your eyes at me.

I know affirmations always sound like some cringy esoteric practice that’s more hyped than useful.

But I’ve found that practice and the right affirmations can truly help ease one’s mind.

Every time I can feel nervousness starting to rise, I now almost automatically start thinking affirmative thoughts on repeat in my head.

It really does help, so try it out for yourself!

4. VISUALIZING exam day!

THIS is my new weapon in the fight against exam anxiety!

I once read about a study that found that athletes improve almost equally as much by visualizing their practice as by actually practicing.

For me, it really makes exam day feel like something I have done a hundred times before.

I imagine myself (in the first-person view!) walking into the classroom, sitting down, getting out my stuff, turning around the exam paper, writing the exam, occasionally looking at the clock and seeing that my timing is perfect, and then finally handing in my exam with pride and happiness welling in my chest and a smile tucking on my lips.

Every time I did that, it calmed me down significantly. Visualizing puts things into perspective.

You realize that this is not some great, scary unknown but actually a very doable situation.

If you like, you can also write this out by scripting in the present tense.

5. Consider changing your music and series choices

Sometimes, if I feel really stressed, I don’t have the mental energy to listen to fast-paced music that makes me want to dance or sing loudly along.

I also don’t feel like watching series with drama, excitement, or tension in them.

Instead, I switch to acoustic or stripped songs and watch light and uplifting series like Friends or Modern Family.

6. Do the exams of the past years

Ok, so I know this will not work in every case. But depending on the subject you are studying for, the pure theory may seem immensely difficult while the actual test is manageable.

I’ve had that experience when studying for an important law exam.

After every practice exam I did, I felt confident in my skills. Yet a day later, while studying flashcards and reading new information, the doubts began creeping in again.

Since there was such an immense amount of information that I’d never be able to get into my head in time, I easily got the feeling that I was in way over my head.

But when I did an actual exam for the practice, I realized that I could answer all questions pretty confidently with the knowledge I already had.

The professor wasn’t interested in making students fail by quizzing us on a very specific corner-part of the information.

He wanted to see if we understood the system, the most important problems and whether we could modify this knowledge and apply it to slightly different cases.

Even if your practice exams only demotivate you because of their difficulty level, they are the best way to prepare you. As mentioned above, effective preparation is the No. 1 factor in feeling confident.

7. Talk to others but not too many other people!

Talking to others about your worries and doubts concerning the finals can be very uplifting.

You quickly realize that you are not alone and perhaps even better prepared than your friends.

On the other hand, if you talk to too many other students, you will always find people who know more than you.

The more of these people you find, the more insecure and nervous you will feel.

So while you should make sure to have at least one or two people to talk to, consider avoiding talking to a big crowd.

8. Have a real-life besides studying

It’s easy to freak out about an upcoming exam if it seems like your whole world revolves around it.

I get it; this might be a really important exam that could determine your chances in the job market later on.

But you know what? You’ve studied for this! You are a smart Boss Babe who reads content like this to prepare optimally for exams like the one you’re facing just now.

You’ve got this, babe!

However, even if everything were to go down to hell (which, as just mentioned, is entirely unlikely in your case), this isn’t a survive or die situation.

You are going to live on and create a successful life no matter what happens with this exam.

The easiest way to realize this is by having a life besides studying.

Don’t study all day long! Have some free time to commit to socializing, developing yourself, or even building a business on the side.

I truly have to say that my business makes my law studies much more manageable and less insane.

Even when law was difficult, I felt like I had something else to direct my attention to.

So, make sure to have a real-life and an identity besides being a student.

9. Take things off your plate

I get it. We are ambitious Boss Babes with many daily habits designed to create a successful life.

I’m very much a creature of habit and don’t like to skip things like workouts, reading, journaling, etc.

However, when the exam approaches, I like to take it easy.

It’s not even that I have less time than usual; it’s more that my mind is occupied with the exam preparation, and I just don’t have the nerve to do all of my other habits.

Therefore I allow myself to ditch one or two habits for the last week or so before the exam.

10. Anticipate stressors and reduce them

I’m going to assume you have written your fair share of exams and test in your life.

By now, you probably know most of the things that make you feel stressed on exam day.

Use that knowledge to anticipate stressors and reduce them beforehand so you won’t have to bother with them on exam day.

For me, this meant taking a test-drive to Uni two days before my exam. Because of online-classes, I hadn’t been to Uni for months, but the last time I drove there, I remembered lots of constructions going on.

So, to ease any worries about what route I could take and how soon I’d need to start driving to arrive on time, I drove there beforehand.

Best idea ever, because any worries I had about getting to Uni evaporated after that.

11. Breathe!

And lastly, if you wake up after a restless night on exam day with entirely unreasonable and sudden panic making your heart almost jump out of your chest (been there, done that), it’s important to BREATHE.

I know that breathing exercises always sound like something entirely awkward, but they can truly work wonders and help your stay calm.

Slow, deep, and intentional breathing while filling your mind with as many reassurings and positive affirmations can truly help to calm you down.

And calmness is much needed when entering an exam, so try it out for yourself the next time you find your heart speeding up, or hands becoming jittery.

Now you know how to stay calm during your finals.

Are you feeling more at ease already?

What exams do you have to tackle next? I’d love to know what you’re studying!

Until next time and good luck!

Sophie