CBSE Board exams: How students can overcome stress, explains expert

Examinations for class 10th and 12th CBSE boards have already begun. Anxiety and stress are common among students during exams. In order to avoid crippling anxiety arising out of the dreadful idea of evaluation, it is very important to understand how one can deal with such stressful situations.

First comes the mental discipline, which plays a pivotal role in deciding the overall dispensation of the students. During exams especially you need focus, concentration and time minus anxiety and stress.

These are the days when the students are required to be more focused, well read and well confident too. Yes! Not only knowledge but confidence and peace is what plays a major role in scoring good marks in exams.

You can avoid those problems if focused on your inner calm and tranquillity. To throw light on how students can beat stress and futile thoughts during their exams we spoke to Dr. Nisha Khanna, a Delhi- based psychologist who has some useful tips to bring in practice:

Excerpts from the Interview:

During exams students often tend to get stressed and anxious, what are the ways in which they can maintain or regain their mental peace?

During exams students often extend their study/revision time to long hours without taking the required breaks. After every 2-3 hours they should take a 15 minutes break to freshen up their mind and body. In these 15 minutes, they can listen to their favourite music, take a walk or talk to some friends. This makes them happy and relaxed.

Motivation is another important factor that is required for good performace. What the parents/teachers can do to motivate them?

Sometimes what happens is parents tend to motivate their child by putting pressure somewhere and big expectations on them which can play a negative role. What they can do is praise their previous achievements, if they scored good marks, help them if the child needs their attention. Also to boost it parents can do something exciting for their kids which can make them feel elevated. Like making their favourite dish for meal.  One more thing to remember here is reinforcements- these need to be done on a positive note, like you can praise them on scoring good marks earlier or if they did something good.

Are there any exercises or any meditation technique that can help students to increase their concentration level?

There are lots of concentration techniques. There is one which is very much popular is just take a candle and try to gaze at the yellow flame of it, kept at your eye level. They can place a chart paper on the wall and in the middle of the wall they can put some black mark  and continuously gaze that for 10-15 minutes in the morning, may be once in the morning and once in evening.

What do you have to say on the sleeping pattern? Sleep deprivation is a major and common problem among students during exams, how can they deal with it?

Yes, this is also an important point to highlight here that sleep is equally important. I myself was never an early riser but one should take at least 4-5 hours sleep a day which is required to freshen up the mind. Also short naps also play major role in feeling fresh, a power nap also sometimes help a lot in refuelling the body. Also some sports activity, exercise is also very important to keep them mentally health and fit.