5 Tips to make Exams Stress Free

Just for a moment imagine that sitting an exam was the easiest thing in the world to do. What would have had to have happened in order for it to be so? Is it possible that it would look like this?

1. You are Prepared

Be Prepared

In the week before the exam you would have gotten a lot of sleep.  You would have listen to non-lyrical music and perhaps even a guided meditation to reduce your stress levels and take you into deep, revitalising sleep. You would have prepared all of the tools that you needed to bring into the test centre; pens of varying colours, pencils, erasers, correction fluid, calculator, rulers and other equipment.  You keep them all together & bring them into every exam, that way you know that you have all the resources that you need.

Your bedroom is tidy and an oasis of calm.  Your study area is structured and free from clutter, someone, the exam fairy, has kept it like this for you in the lead up to and during your exams, allowing you to focus. When you are organised and tidy you feel powerful and you brought that feeling with you as you studied and aced the exams.

This fairy has also ensured that you are eating correctly, a satisfying breakfast, nutritious snacks like nuts and a tantalising, tasty lunch & dinner awaits you every day. Wholesome, good food that fills you up and keeps your energy levels constant.  You drink plenty of water but sip it throughout the day, keeping the body and brain hydrated.

2. You are Relaxed

You practiced relaxing. You know that our greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.  You know that when you felt overwhelmed in the past, you were able to stop and back up and you broke everything into smaller manageable chunks.  This is what you did when you were studying.  You shift your state into one of calm assurance by choosing to focus on controlling your breathing – in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, out for 8 seconds.  You keep your feet firmly on the floor and push down.

You took lots of breaks, by studying in blocks of 25 minutes and then walking away from it and doing something else for 5 minutes.  You were sure to avoid distractions like social media, TV and your phone and kept them away from your study area.

You exercised.  You continued with your sports albeit perhaps not quiet at the same intensity for the final weeks but you kept playing or simply took a regular energetic walk, run or cycle. Whatever you did, it got oxygen into your lungs, got the blood pumping and cleared your head, making you so relaxed.

3. You Visualised the Exam Going Well

Like an elite athlete, you regularly imagined yourself doing your exam and it going really well.  You saw yourself doing every single thing from getting up in the morning, eating breakfast, arriving at the exam hall, doing the exam, leaving and returning home.  You saw this in vivid detail, with you relaxed and happy and in control during the exam.  This created a type of muscle memory so that when you actually went in to the real exam, your brain felt it was just running a familiar pattern and so it simply continued to replicate that pattern.

4. You had an Exam Routine

Again, like an elite athlete, you had a pre-match routine and a plan of action.  As part of your pre-exam routine you distanced yourself from your pals for the 10 minutes before the exam.  This kept you from being infected with any jitters that they may have had.  You did your breathing exercises and went through your visualisations.  Once in the exam hall, you set aside a section in your answer sheets for rough work and clearly marked it as rough work.  You read every question slowly and carefully.  You then put down your paper, looked up and away & thought of something completely different for 30 seconds. Then you re-read the paper and chose the questions that you were going to answer.  You wrote down your buzzwords and ran your movies of the answers.  Only when you were confident that you had all that you needed, you began to write.  You knew that your sub-conscious mind was working on the other questions at the same time.

5. You had a Post Exam Plan.

You avoided the post-mortem by having a plan for straight after the exam. You focused on the upcoming exams rather than dissecting the exam you had just finished and therefore could no longer control.   You ate well after the test and took some light exercise to release the tension & fatigue in your body. You did some light revision, confident that the next exam, like the others were going to be a breeze.

Elaine Sparling is the CEO of the Hummingbird Learning Centre who help adults and children maximise their learning potential.  Based in Adare, Co Limerick, she can be contacted on 087-2996054, through their website www.hummingbirdlearning.com or on Facebook

Problems with Problem Solving in Maths?

One of my favourite quotes is from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

When he & his crew are in a bit of a fix Captain Jack Sparrow tells them “the problem isn’t the problem, the problem is your attitude to the problem”.

I always think of that quote when parents talk to me about the difficulties their child is having with problem solving in maths.  I always wonder why it’s called ‘problem solving’.  I think that using the word ‘Problem’ is part of the problem.  Yes I know that its purpose is to develop conceptual understanding, adaptive reasoning and strategic competence but to a child all they hear is the word ‘problem’.  That word brings with it some negative feelings and the child immediately thinks that this question is going to be hard. I prefer to use the words brain teaser or a maths puzzle as it turns the focus onto solving the question.

The biggest challenge with sentence based maths questions is clearing away all the unnecessary words and focusing on the actual question.  I explain it as translating from English into Maths or maths into English.  When the student sees maths as a language then the transition becomes easier, because they are familiar with the concept of translating when doing Irish.

After that I ask them to consider this question; what specifically am I being asked?  The maths question will always be based on something that they have just learned or have already learned.  This helps them to focus.  Another good question to ask is ‘Why?  Why are they asking me this question?  Again it brings to focus back onto the maths element of the question rather than the words around it.

I always recommend having and using a rough work column in the maths copybook.  It is also important to write out your thought process line by line, mathematically. In secondary school, Project Maths embraces the concept of multiple solutions. Writing out your reasoning allows the teacher to follow your train of thought, allowing them to correct where necessary and to give marks on work done.

Remember in maths having the correct answer is not always the main objective. In the UK ‘s new national curriculum,  the purpose of the study of maths  is to provide ‘a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Elaine Sparling is the CEO of the Hummingbird Learning Centre who help adults and children maximise their learning potential.  Based in Adare, Co Limerick, she can be contacted on 087-2996054 or through their website http://www.hummingbirdlearning.com

Want to make Maths more enjoyable? Use a Deck of Cards

You know that we learn better and faster when we’re having fun, right? I love playing card games with my Hummingbirds because it is always great fun, they learn their maths without even realising it and most importantly the fun can continue at home.

I remember playing cards with my mum & granny.  It always seemed to be such a grown up thing to do. Cards can be enjoyed at almost any age.  A deck of cards always accompanies us on holidays & when we have a power cut, the cards come out before the candles!

The first card game I ever learned to play was ‘Fish in the Pond’.  It was years before I realised that Happy Families was the same game.  It was a wonderful way of learning to recognise numbers and learning to count.  Mum would get us to count the diamonds or spades on the card to be absolutely sure that we were correct.  It could become very competitive too, once the cousins joined in – family pride was at stake!

We didn’t realise it but we were also working on improving our short term & long term memories.  Asking her now, mum would just say that she was simply playing a silly card game with us and I think that is where the magic is. By simply playing cards (the emphasis on ‘playing’), we didn’t realise that we were learning maths.

When working with my Hummingbirds, we use cards for addition, subtraction & multiplication.  I call them our mini maths breaks because it forms part of their homework routine.  It simply switches on their maths brain & warms it up before starting maths homework.

King, Queen, Jack & Ace are all 10. The deck is well shuffled and two cards laid side by side.  The two values are added, then the lower value card is subtracted from the higher and finally they are multiplied.  Easy!  We use the entire deck so it is a wonderful revision method. As time goes on, the answers come more and more easily and this confidence in mental arithmetic is carried though to maths homework and the classroom.

A deck of cards is as cheap as chips, portable and widely available. It really is just as good as a maths app or maths computer game.  Better than that, playing cards with your children opens up an entire world of card games that the whole family can play, for life.

Elaine Sparling is the CEO of the Hummingbird Learning Centre who help adults and children maximise their learning potential.  Based in Adare, Co Limerick, Ireland, she can be contacted on 087-2996054 or through their website http://www.hummingbirdlearning.com

Coming Soon – The Secrets to Successful Spelling workshop will shortly be available online.