Speaker 1: Hi everyone, my name is Dr Matt Williams. I'm a tutor in politics here at Jesus College at the University of Oxford. It is exam season. Many of the people who are applying to Oxford as undergraduates are having to take admissions tests of one form or another. If that includes you then make sure you check out our playlist of admissions test walkthrough for some of the most competitive and commonly sat tests for Oxford. But generally speaking because it's exam time it got me thinking about exam stress. Stress is probably one of the most commonly associated phenomena with exams. And as someone who has sat a lot of exams, set a lot of exams, marked a lot of exams and crucially spent an entire lifetime trying to manage anxiety, I thought it might be quite helpful if I shared some of my thoughts on how you can deal with exam stress. Because exam stress is very unhelpful. It absolutely hinders your performance and so having some strategies to manage that stress could be one of the most consequential things you do as you're preparing to take that test. So as with anything in this world, in this life, start with a fundamental question. Why is taking an exam, sitting a test, a stressful experience? Why does that happen? What even is stress? What does it mean to be stressed? I mean one possible way of thinking about stress is in physiological terms. It could be that your sympathetic nervous system which regulates the fight-flight response is overstimulated. So you have the symptoms of someone who's ready for a fight or ready for a flight. So you might have a heightened pulse, you might be sweating a little bit more, you might feel some cramps and discomfort in your stomach, you might have tightening around your chest. All of those sorts of things are indicative of someone who is very nervous, is what we tend to say in sort of in shorthand. Okay, so why would we have those physiological symptoms for a test? I mean what even is a test? A test is literally just you demonstrating a skill that you have practiced. And so the taking of the test should, in sort of material terms, be absolutely no different to the preparation for the test. You're doing the same things in both scenarios. In both scenarios you are just demonstrating a skill. It's just that because of the shift in context, we've changed the framing in our minds and all of a sudden the change in context makes it that much more stressful. But again that doesn't really explain why. Why does just that shift in context suddenly change our approach to it? Why can't we, in other words, just take the test as if it was just another practice and think of it as exactly the same? Well let's have a quick sort of foray into sports psychology because sports psychologists deal with similar questions. If you've got an athlete who has spent days, months, years preparing for a specific skill and then when it comes to a competition they choke, they fumble, they drop the ball, they run a bit slower because of the stress of the situation, because of the nerves. Why would they do that? Why wouldn't they just approach the competition as just like any other practice day? Well part of the explanation is because they are perceiving the competition as more than just an opportunity to show off their skills. They're seeing it as more than just a test of what they can do but a test of themselves, of their essence, of their value as a member of the human race. And that is relatively common that unconsciously when people are taking tests they think that the stakes are incredibly high. They think this is not only a test of whether I can do a particular skill but it's a test of whether I'm going to get the dream job I want to get or get into the dream university I want to get into. Or indeed it's just fundamentally a test of me and everything about me and everything that could or should be valuable about me. But of course the stakes of no test in the world could ever be that high and your value is absolutely not under scrutiny. You must believe that your value is greater than could ever possibly be contained in a measly test. But that's what many people and myself included in the past will do when they approach a test. They think this is it, this is my chance to show people that I'm worth something. But of course the stakes just simply are not that high. There will be other tests, there'll be other opportunities to show your skills. And so the truth is that if you want to perform better in tests you need to care about them a bit less. It's not to say that you should be careless but that you shouldn't look on this test as anything more than the opportunity to show the skills that you have and you know you have them because you've prepared. And if you haven't prepared then prepare and then you'll be confident. But thinking about the test as anything more than that is going to be completely unhelpful and deleterious to your performance. So you need to try and sort of think very carefully about the test as just another practice run basically, no different. Because materially it is no different, right? It's just the changing context has changed your framing in your mind and that has triggered your sympathetic nervous system. But even more than that the best test takers are the ones that actually like it. They don't only, not only do they not get stressed by exams and tests, they look forward to them, okay? And you can again see this in sports. The people that perform best at the highest levels in sports are the ones that are just having a whale of a time. Whenever they are competing they are loving it and you should try and do the same with exams. As eccentric as it might seem to say so, if you enjoy these tests you will do so much better because you won't be wasting energy on pouring adrenaline through your system and feeling uncomfortable. You'll be focused on just showing off what you're capable of. And so thinking about how you frame exams, how you look on them is absolutely crucial. My advice for you now is never again say that you're not looking forward to an exam. Because the way you control that narrative will control the way the exam actually works out. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you say I'm stressed, this exam is going to be terrible, it's going to be horrible, it will be. If however you say I'm looking forward to this exam, I've prepared for it, I'm going to show off the skills that I know I have, then you will. You know it's about mind control but controlling your own mind and it will have a fundamental difference. So give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments. But thanks so much for watching and all the best to you. Bye now. you