Helping Your Student Succeed During Finals and Tips to Manage Test Anxiety

According to the National Library of Medicine, since the COVID-19 pandemic, students have an even greater vulnerability for procrastination than they did pre-pandemic. So if the student in your life is a little on edge right now, understand that procrastination lowers the ability for self- compassion and mindfulness, and increases ruminating thought patterns (negative thinking).

Here are a few strategies that can be beneficial for improving study habits and decreasing stress:

1. Study space.
   Set up a distraction-free study space that is organized with necessary study tools (pens/pencils, notecards, notepad, highlighters).

2. Study schedule
   Establish a study plan that includes time dedicated to studying specific subjects and time set aside for breaks.

3. Phone habits
   Set phone to ‘do not disturb’ or ‘focus time’ for a designated number of minutes.

4. Take intentional breaks that promote productivity

5. Pause for deep breathing, eat a healthy snack, take short physical releases (5- minute stretch, walk, trampoline).

6. Talk to your teachers
   Ask for expectations and clarify topics to study.

7. Sleep habits
   Focus on getting enough sleep

Tips to Manage Test Anxiety:

1. Remind yourself...
   You have done all you can. You have done enough, and you ARE enough...regardless of the grade.
   You are learning more than just the schoolwork itself. You are learning self-discipline, self-control, how to study and prepare. These are life skills you will use forever!

2. Arrive early to your final so you can gather your composure and feel more relaxed.

3. Tap into your senses to shift anxious feelings What do you taste, smell, hear, feel, see?

4. 12345 - 1 thing you can taste, 2 things you can smell, 3 things you can hear, 4 things you can feel, 5 things you can see.

Trick your brain out of “fight or flight mode” with these techniques...

1. Look for everything in the room that is the color blue and naming that object in your mind.

2. Notice where you are tense in your body and relax it. Envision you are breathing into that muscle area and when you exhale the tension leaves that area with it.

3. Box breathing or “four-square breathing”.
   Exhale for a count of four, hold your lungs empty for a count of four, inhale for a count of four, then hold air in your lungs for a count of four.

Thank you to Danville LMFT, Correna Kelley, for contributing to this article!