One of the most stressful situations is an exam and sometimes it is the way the student deals or doesn’t know how to deal with the stress that determines the result, more than academic knowledge.
When you are stressed the system chooses a response: fight, flight or freeze. Imagine meeting a bear – which is very stressful – the choice is to attack the bear (fight), to turn around and run away (flight) or to not have a choice, but become paralysed with fear, unable to move (freeze). The freeze response to stress at exams causes the mind to go blank.
When stressed, the production of cortisol and adrenaline shoots up in order to help to fight or flight, as you need a lot of energy to take those actions. When you are not taking these actions the hormones are ‘used’ in another part of your being, such as the brain. And research (Ingvar, 1985) reveals that mental perception and memory retrieval are not highly complex, but also very sensitive to hormonal changes.
Tips to avoid or reduce the blank mind syndrome
1. Your mind remembers in a web-like construction (neural network), and the thousands of neurons in the web light up as the result of an external stimulus, such as sight, sound, smell, taste or touch. When studying a certain topic, try to add specific stimuli to your experience, by nibbling the same snack, have the same music, burn incense etc. and when you do your exam, imagine those stimuli, to wake up the neurons that are boggled down by the stress hormone
2. Reduce you generic stress by relaxing your brain through meditation. Meditation doesn’t need to take a lot of time, as my award winning stress management technique proofs. For £2.99 you can get started. Click here Or attend one of the mindfulness Surrey events, such as the monthly one hour meditation Kingston Click here for info
3. Go through the self-help course ‘How to stop exam stress forever, in just 10 days’ – A simple, easy and quick method to prepare yourself for the stress impact of an exam. Click here to read more.
If you are looking for individual support, contact me via email mariette@drdestress.co.uk
‘I came to Mariette, because my stress levels were spiralling upwards and I did not know what to do about that. I am an ambitious and successful student, but the pressure of study and upcoming exams got to me. I enjoyed the sessions over 6 months, as they were a mix of talking, exercises and fun. I can recommend Mariette to anyone who is feeling stressed, lacking motivation or focus. This is because she provides very useful tools to deal with stressful situations (and daily life in general).’ Student (17), Guildford
