Testing How to not get stressed on the actual exam?

[TensorCalculus]

Okay, so I have been preparing for the British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad for a while now.

By "a while", I mean 2 months of intensive studying, to take me from knowing nothing to having all of the basis knowledge I needed, then doing pretty badly on the actual exam, being a bit annoyed and just sort of stopping for a couple of months, before getting back into astrophysics mostly due to curiosity but also because of some people being really nice and supporting me along the way :D. Then, spending the past 5 months slowly building the knowledge and experience I will need in order to tackle the Olympiad (whilst also learning a ton of random stuff just because I think it's cool).

By the time Olympiad day comes, unless something drastically changes about my life which means I cannot continue physics the way it is, I will have all of the knowledge I need to do very well on the exam. And I will be very, very well practiced, having done thousands of practice questions on each of the topics. With lots of help from the amazing members on PF, in particular @Muu9 (thank you!), I've been able to find my direction and I know what to do now, how to take my skills farther.

Now, there's only one thing I'm not sure how to tackle: how do I not get stressed on the day of the exam and mess up?
Let me explain:
I've often found that on the day of exams that I care about, I end up doing really badly on them, overlooking questions that I could have done in my sleep in any other setting. At the time, I can't even tell that I'm stressed, but I can't see what else could be the problem. I can take exams seated in the comfort of my own home, simulating test conditions, and get 90-100% consistently every time, then rock up on the exam day and get 40% on the actual thing. When I don't care about an exam, I do better than the exams I do care about, and sometimes the results are completely nonsensical. I sat an A-level Linguistics Olympiad, literally just so that I could skip my history lesson, and got a silver, zero preparation and zero knowledge about linguistics whatsoever. I go and do the C3L6, a sixth form chemistry Olympiad, without knowing much about chemistry at all, and get exceptionally high scores. But when I try and sit a physics Olympiad, even though my physics is definitely much, much better than my Chemistry and my Linguistics, and even though I have managed consistent gold and top gold on the practice papers, I still can't do well. I did better on the GCSE chemistry challenge than I did at the GCSE physics challenge. Once again, makes no sense, I know nothing about chemistry whatsoever.

This has happened with other exams (Computer science Olympiads when I care vs don't care) and I honestly don't know what to do to battle it. I know that they don't really matter in the long term, but something about me cares about these exams and when I do care/have high expectations then I do badly. I really, really don't want this happening after spending hundreds of hours in the hopes that I will do well on BAAO - what should I do?

 

[Choppy]

There's no universal inoculation to exam stress, I'm afraid. However I can think of a few things that might help.

• Experience
  The more of these kinds of exams you do, the more you'll get used to them. I get that doesn't help much for this specific one, but just the fact that you're participating in an Olympiad exam bodes well for future examinations.
• Practice and Do it In a Simulated Testing Environment
  It sounds like maybe you're already doing this to an extent. But if you can, check out the physical place where you'll be writing before hand. Visualize yourself in this area. Practice at the same time of day. The less of a novel experience writing the exam is, the more comfortable you'll be.
• Study Well
  Perhaps this one's obvious, but the better prepared you are with respect to background knowledge, test-specific knowledge, and skill in solving the kinds of problems you'll be examined on, the more stress tends to go down because you have more control over your ultimate outcome.
• Reflect on Your Purpose
  Often exam stress arises from pressure that comes from both ourselves and those around us. Obviously you want to do well in just about any exam. But it can be quite beneficial to keep the long game in mind. Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10? What things are most important to you in the big picture? Give yourself permission to think beyond academics... what kinds of relationships do you want to have? What kinds of activities will you derive fulfillment from? What brings you joy?
• Spend Time With Positive People
  Some people just have intense personalities that raise your stress levels. They paint horribly vivid pictures of how examinations are likely to go. If you spend too much time with them, you'll go into an exam dreading it, even if you're well prepared. Instead, seek the company of those who are positive and encouraging, and those who reinforce the idea that your value to them is totally independent of how you perform on an exam.
• Take Care of Yourself
  I often find myself writing this in these posts but that's because I think it's critically important when it comes to academic performance. As much as you can, take care of those external factors that can influence your performance. Get good sleep. Eat well. Exercise. Socialize. Take constructive down time.

 

[TensorCalculus]

Oh thanks so much for the response, it's well written and helpful :-)

Experience
The more of these kinds of exams you do, the more you'll get used to them. I get that doesn't help much for this specific one, but just the fact that you're participating in an Olympiad exam bodes well for future examinations.

You're right about this one - I've found that the more exams I sit the less I tend to worry about them. Noted, and I will try and sit more Olympiads if you think it will help me out :-)

Practice and Do it In a Simulated Testing Environment
It sounds like maybe you're already doing this to an extent. But if you can, check out the physical place where you'll be writing before hand. Visualize yourself in this area. Practice at the same time of day. The less of a novel experience writing the exam is, the more comfortable you'll be.

Fair enough, the physics lab which they hold the exam in is open at lunchtimes, so I could probably just sit and practice in there once every now and then.

Study Well
Perhaps this one's obvious, but the better prepared you are with respect to background knowledge, test-specific knowledge, and skill in solving the kinds of problems you'll be examined on, the more stress tends to go down because you have more control over your ultimate outcome.

Okay. I mean, from what you can tell in my experience, I do better just "winging" an exam, but that's because the reason I'm winging it in the first place is because I don't care. You're right that I should hopefully have the peace of mind coming into the exam that I have studied well and that I know what I am doing.

Spend Time With Positive People
Some people just have intense personalities that raise your stress levels. They paint horribly vivid pictures of how examinations are likely to go. If you spend too much time with them, you'll go into an exam dreading it, even if you're well prepared. Instead, seek the company of those who are positive and encouraging, and those who reinforce the idea that your value to them is totally independent of how you perform on an exam.

Luckily for me, most of my friends and the people around me are very supportive and positive people, which is good for me! I don't think I have this problem... except for maybe the fact that the people around me are really smart: that generally means my standards for myself are high, because there standards everyone around me set for themselves are also really high.

Take Care of Yourself
I often find myself writing this in these posts but that's because I think it's critically important when it comes to academic performance. As much as you can, take care of those external factors that can influence your performance. Get good sleep. Eat well. Exercise. Socialize. Take constructive down time.

...
I Uhhh...
I socialise!

 

[TensorCalculus]

Reflect on Your Purpose
Often exam stress arises from pressure that comes from both ourselves and those around us. Obviously you want to do well in just about any exam. But it can be quite beneficial to keep the long game in mind. Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10? What things are most important to you in the big picture? Give yourself permission to think beyond academics... what kinds of relationships do you want to have? What kinds of activities will you derive fulfillment from? What brings you joy?

Whoops - forgot about this one
Physics is genuinely what I enjoy, and a lot of what I do is because I find it interesting. Prepping for the Olympiads is in a way just a good, structured way of doing so. And it has been my dream to go represent England in the IOAA, don't really know why... but oh well. As for where I want to be in 5, 10 years? Easy, studying astrophysics. What activities do I find fulfilling, what brings me joy? Well, helping others out, running the community events that I do, and spending lots of time on tricky physics problems :D
What kind of relationships I want to have in the future... no idea. Maybe I need to think that over.

 

[berkeman]

One important trick for me in exams is knowing when to skip past a hard question, or similarly mark a question where I'm not sure about my answer with a tick mark. On Physics/math questions, if I am not able to work it right away, I will skip past it and mark it for me to come back to. This saves valuable time on the exam, and lets my mind work on it in the background.

On my Medic/EMS exams (which are multiple choice), the patient scenarios and questions can be pretty involved and nuanced, to the point where if you miss a small clue you can get the answer wrong. If I'm not 95% sure of my answer in those cases, I put a tick mark next to that question for me to revisit at the end of the exam (if I have time) to reconsider my answer.

Most exams that I've taken over the years involve some time pressure, so it can be good to know when to skip past a question after your first thoughts if they are not working out, or to flag a question and your answer if you are not 95% sure of it. It's better to answer all of the questions minus one or two, versus getting hung up on a question and not making it to the final 5 or so.

 

[romsofia]

Well, the harsh reality is that some people just can't perform under the big lights. This includes competitions such as this. This isn't just for tests, but this also occurs in sports where someone is really good in practice, but then come game time, they choke.

My suggestion for competition is to not get tied into the *end* result as hard as that can be. This is something you're already starting to notice when you say you perform better when you "don't care". When you enjoy the journey, like you say you're doing, enter the exam room knowing you did your best in practice, and that should be good enough regardless of the results. Celebrate the work you put in, not the result. This mentality will take you far when you learn to appreciate your *hard work* independent of results. You did your best, and that's what matters.

Even with all this in mind, it still hurts a little when you don't reach your target despite trying your best. That's the brutal reality of competitions. Sometimes people are just better than you at things, but don't let it take away from the joy of the journey. If you love physics, then just love physics. It's a life long pursuit!

 

[TensorCalculus]

One important trick for me in exams is knowing when to skip past a hard question, or similarly mark a question where I'm not sure about my answer with a tick mark. On Physics/math questions, if I am not able to work it right away, I will skip past it and mark it for me to come back to. This saves valuable time on the exam, and lets my mind work on it in the background.

On my Medic/EMS exams (which are multiple choice), the patient scenarios and questions can be pretty involved and nuanced, to the point where if you miss a small clue you can get the answer wrong. If I'm not 95% sure of my answer in those cases, I put a tick mark next to that question for me to revisit at the end of the exam (if I have time) to reconsider my answer.

Most exams that I've taken over the years involve some time pressure, so it can be good to know when to skip past a question after your first thoughts if they are not working out, or to flag a question and your answer if you are not 95% sure of it. It's better to answer all of the questions minus one or two, versus getting hung up on a question and not making it to the final 5 or so.

Fair enough. I need to do this earlier to be honest: when I go into maths Olympiads I have a very bad habit of doing the difficult problems first just because they're more interesting. And then spending ages on those ones... But often when I go into physics exams, it's like... questions that should be easy, start getting difficult. Questions that I've seen a million times before, usually I just sort of do them subconsciously (like I'm mot having to actively think very hard) and even those kinds of questions are no longer easy... which to me makes no sense...

Well, the harsh reality is that some people just can't perform under the big lights. This includes competitions such as this. This isn't just for tests, but this also occurs in sports where someone is really good in practice, but then come game time, they choke.

My suggestion for competition is to not get tied into the *end* result as hard as that can be. This is something you're already starting to notice when you say you perform better when you "don't care". When you enjoy the journey, like you say you're doing, enter the exam room knowing you did your best in practice, and that should be good enough regardless of the results. Celebrate the work you put in, not the result. This mentality will take you far when you learn to appreciate your *hard work* independent of results. You did your best, and that's what matters.

Even with all this in mind, it still hurts a little when you don't reach your target despite trying your best. That's the brutal reality of competitions. Sometimes people are just better than you at things, but don't let it take away from the joy of the journey. If you love physics, then just love physics. It's a life long pursuit!

Yeah. Maybe this is just the case: whenever I go into something high-pressure, I choke. And I get what you mean about appreciation of the journey rather than seeing it as a means to an end. I "waste" a lot of time doing random things in physics just for the fun of them, things that definitely will not contribute to my performance in an astrophysics Olympiad (e.g. spending ages trying to figure out the most overly complicated way of applying gauss's law)... so maybe I need to do things like that more. I'm doing this Olympiad because I love physics... but maybe I need to remind myself of that more? I don't know.

 

[jrmichler]

I've often found that on the day of exams that I care about, I end up doing really badly on them, overlooking questions that I could have done in my sleep in any other setting. At the time, I can't even tell that I'm stressed, but I can't see what else could be the problem.

something about me cares about these exams and when I do care/have high expectations then I do badly.

Some thoughts:

When working on a difficult problem, I try for a mental state of relaxed alertness. When I start slipping away from that state, I stop, take a deep breath, slouch down, and exhale slowly. That usually gets me going again, although sometimes I need to do it two or three times.

I also have a tendency to look at a problem and jump to an erroneous solution because I did not take enough time to make sure that I fully understood the problem. Is that part of your problem?

You have done all the studying possible a week before the major exam. Use that week to relax and review exam strategy as mentioned in previous posts. Get plenty of sleep in that week. Do a lot of thinking about why you do well in some cases, and poorly when you care/have high expectations. Think about my comment about state of relaxed alertness.

 

[TensorCalculus]

When working on a difficult problem, I try for a mental state of relaxed alertness. When I start slipping away from that state, I stop, take a deep breath, slouch down, and exhale slowly. That usually gets me going again, although sometimes I need to do it two or three times.

What do you mean by a state of "relaxed alertness"? I've never heard of that before. What does it feel like? How do you know when you're in that state? I'll give this technique a shot if I get tired/stressed :D

I also have a tendency to look at a problem and jump to an erroneous solution because I did not take enough time to make sure that I fully understood the problem. Is that part of your problem?

The problem is more along the lines of that I sort of mind blank/focus too much. For example there are those really simple questions that in a normal setting you can just do without thinking right? Then I start to try and overthink them and I forget basic things... for example last year I forgot that acceleration due to gravity didn't depend on mass... which is something I thought I basically knew like a mantra... considering the sheer amount of questions I had done using that concept...

You have done all the studying possible a week before the major exam. Use that week to relax and review exam strategy as mentioned in previous posts. Get plenty of sleep in that week. Do a lot of thinking about why you do well in some cases, and poorly when you care/have high expectations. Think about my comment about state of relaxed alertness.

"sleep well the week before the exam"
I should do that. Last time I mucked up what was a nice structured sleep schedule a couple of day before the exam for the sake of a coding competition. Maybe not the smartest idea. I do need to reflect on why I do well when I have low expectations... and I will take the advice I have been given so far in the hopes I will be able to do that :D

 

[Mayhem]

Your problem isn't new: You struggle to perform optimally when there are actual stakes. Who doesn't?

Analyze your practice exam behavior and your real exam behavior. Do you, for example, have a tendency to second guess your answers on the real exam, wiping out the initial, possibly correct, answer for a new, possibly wrong, answer? When there are stakes, it's easy to second guess, and I think many of us have said to ourselves, "Damn, I should have gone with my initial answer!"

Do you have trouble recalling information as clearly due to performance anxiety? Then this is something you should talk to a mental health counselor about.

Do you sleep poorly up to the real exams, impairing your cognitive abilities on the day? This is also an issue that you could discuss with a professional.

You are in a good position. From what you write, your potential is of a top student, but you are bottlenecked by your performance. Confidence is easier to build than intelligence.

Hope any of it is of use to you.

 

[Muu9]

When working on a past paper in the physics lab, see if you can print it out rather than look at it on a digital screen, to make things more realistic. Also, during some practice exams, try mentally acting as if you're super nervous, so when you're normally nervous during the actual exam, it'll feel like you're less nervous than usual. Quick, shallow breaths can get you in a nervous mood, while slow, deep breaths make you more relaxed. You shouldn't do all of them like this lest you develop some bad habits, but it might be interesting to do a few like this to see how you perform under stress and to make the actual exam feel less stressful in comparison.

During serious exams you perform poorly in, is it usually due to getting in a rut on a specific problem and using up too much time, or rushing through and making silly mistakes? Those two issues have different solutions - either the "mark a problem and skip early on if you're stuck" approach for the former or deliberately slowing down for the latter.

On the day of the exam and on all practice exams, see if you can do some exercise (like running through the halls) right before the exam - I find myself being less nervous when I'm tired. Also, try green tea rather than or in addition to coffee - the L-theanine in it relaxes the body whereas caffeine energizes it.

I think the relaxed focus referred to above is basically the flow state - the way you feel like when you're "in the zone" working on a fun, tricky problem.

 

[TensorCalculus]

Analyze your practice exam behavior and your real exam behavior. Do you, for example, have a tendency to second guess your answers on the real exam, wiping out the initial, possibly correct, answer for a new, possibly wrong, answer? When there are stakes, it's easy to second guess, and I think many of us have said to ourselves, "Damn, I should have gone with my initial answer!"

Do you have trouble recalling information as clearly due to performance anxiety? Then this is something you should talk to a mental health counselor about.

Both, but mainly the second one. The worst part is that I don't feel stressed... like I don't even notice that I am nervous... but then when I sit the exam everything goes to shambles so...
Do you really think it is something serious enough to talk to a professional about? I always thought that once I found the right mindset it would just be fine...

Do you sleep poorly up to the real exams, impairing your cognitive abilities on the day? This is also an issue that you could discuss with a professional.

This was a result of waking up early for the sake of doing Advent of Code the second it came out and then that completely destroyed my sleep schedule... I think I sleep fine up to the real exam... usually.

You are in a good position. From what you write, your potential is of a top student, but you are bottlenecked by your performance. Confidence is easier to build than intelligence.

Hope any of it is of use to you.

Confidence is so much easier to shatter than intelligence as well...
Thank you for the advice :)

When working on a past paper in the physics lab, see if you can print it out rather than look at it on a digital screen, to make things more realistic. Also, during some practice exams, try mentally acting as if you're super nervous, so when you're normally nervous during the actual exam, it'll feel like you're less nervous than usual. Quick, shallow breaths can get you in a nervous mood, while slow, deep breaths make you more relaxed. You shouldn't do all of them like this lest you develop some bad habits, but it might be interesting to do a few like this to see how you perform under stress and to make the actual exam feel less stressful in comparison.

oh making myself nervous to simulate exam environments even more... good idea...

During serious exams you perform poorly in, is it usually due to getting in a rut on a specific problem and using up too much time, or rushing through and making silly mistakes? Those two issues have different solutions - either the "mark a problem and skip early on if you're stuck" approach for the former or deliberately slowing down for the latter.

I mean... both... depending on the exam... but mainly just not being able to do the questions at all because I forget the most basic things... but I think I do need to slow down a bit - thoughts-wise if you get what I mean

On the day of the exam and on all practice exams, see if you can do some exercise (like running through the halls) right before the exam - I find myself being less nervous when I'm tired. Also, try green tea rather than or in addition to coffee - the L-theanine in it relaxes the body whereas caffeine energizes it.

***proceeds to remember the three coffees I had right before
Okay, green tea, not coffee, got it. And I'll try running around a bit to cool off my nerves. Might earn me some odd stares from the sixth formers but who cares XD

I think the relaxed focus referred to above is basically the flow state - the way you feel like when you're "in the zone" working on a fun, tricky problem.

OH that makes more sense! Thanks!!!

 

[gmax137]

Whenever I got nervous during an exam, I would silently repeat this mantra my mother taught me as a child. It begins, "fear is the mind killer..."

 

[TensorCalculus]

Whenever I got nervous during an exam, I would silently repeat this mantra my mother taught me as a child. It begins, "fear is the mind killer..."

...and ends in?
I'm missing some sort of reference to some famous quote or something, aren't I...

 

[TensorCalculus]

Oh, I forgot to mention the other slight problem which is that I can't exactly Simulate the exam environment really well since I used up all the past papers last year and still remember all the answers... so all my practice exams are the olympaids from other countries which have totally different question style etc...

 

[Muu9]

...and ends in?
I'm missing some sort of reference to some famous quote or something, aren't I...

It's a reference to Dune. Speaking of which, it's important to be hydrated, so make sure to bring your "bo'oh'o'wo'ah" with you.

 

[TensorCalculus]

It's a reference to Dune. Speaking of which, it's important to be hydrated, so make sure to bring your "bo'oh'o'wo'ah" with you.

Ah.
I can confirm that as someone who lives in Cambridge, I in fact do pronounce my T's and will be bringing a bottle of water with me

 

[Muu9]

Ah.
I can confirm that as someone who lives in Cambridge, I in fact do pronounce my T's and will be bringing a bottle of water with me

Aww, I guess Cantabrigians don't speak with a Cockney accent.

 

[elias001]

@TensorCalculus If you look on youtube on how orchestra musicians perform in front of an audience, that is equivalent to performing under pressure. There was a talk given at Juliard by a Green Beret. Basically it boils down to reinforcing muscle memories. Of course, this apply to competitive sports context.

The competition you are referring to, the closest we have in North America are the various engineering competitions with each subdisciplr of Engineering. Then there is competitive programming and Informatics competition in CS, and Putnam competition and math modeling contest.

Anyways, for yours, I suggest you look over your past papers and see if there are certain types of questions that get asked and the methods and techniques that you need to know at your finger tips. Know them well that you can do them if someone were to ask you when you are about to fall asleep. Those are the equivalents of muscle memory reinforcements..