Speaker 1: Alright so let's talk about exam stress. If you're a student it's almost inevitable that at some point you'll have to sit in an exam and with that exam often comes these feelings of anxiety and stress. It might be because of unreasonable expectations or because we have too little time but in this video I'll go over the mindset I have towards stress, the types of stress people have and the actions that I take to reduce my stress so that I can do as well as I possibly can. Hey everyone if you're new here I'm Emile and I'm a first year medical student in Australia and I tend to think of myself as someone who's probably sat a few more exams than the average person. I think the best place to start understanding stress is understanding where it comes from and the first place I think is from a lack of preparation. So I can distinctly remember preparing for my year 10 maths exam and I remember feeling so so stressed because I had no idea what was going on and all of my friends around me were answering these questions that I had no idea how to do. As a result I started feeling stressed and because I felt stressed I couldn't study that well and then because I couldn't study I started to feel even more stressed because I wasn't making any progress. Now I think this first source of stress is actually a very relatable one for many people because often we procrastinate and we can't prepare for a test or exam and then we end up feeling even more stressed because we feel like we're going to fail the test or exam that we have. Now the second source of stress that I think a lot of people have including myself is from their attitudes towards exam and this can be things like having really unrealistic expectations towards exams for example setting arbitrary goals of trying to get 90 plus percent on every test even though that might be impossible or trying to get an A plus in every subject that you do even though you might have a natural weakness in a certain subject. The second attitude that I think holds people back a lot is self-doubt because people can often feel like they're bad at a certain subject and that as a result it's not worth trying or that they don't do well under pressure and that as a result they'll do badly as a guarantee and that there's no way that they can fix it with any of the actions that they take. The last and probably one of the worst attitudes is the comparison of yourself to others. This one causes stress because people feel like they need to beat x person or that if they do badly people will laugh at their score or think worse of them when in reality that might not actually happen at all. Now the third source of stress that I think people have is that innate stress that everyone tends to have in varying degrees. I tend to think that even if you were completely prepared and you had no one to compare yourself and no bad attitudes that you would still feel some sort of stress for exams just based on your natural human body. This stress often can be a very good thing because it forces us to study and it forces us to do things that we usually wouldn't do if we weren't feeling any sense of pressure. However the issue is that often this natural stress tends to get combined with additional stress you might be feeling from a lack of preparation or from your peers or your attitudes towards exams and as a result the whole thing can become really overwhelming. So now that you know where stress comes from you're probably wondering what we can do about it and these are the top three mindsets that I have that have helped me to reduce the stress I've been feeling. The first of these mindsets is the principle that you should only focus on what you can control. Now this is probably a lesson for life in general and not just stress but focusing only on what you can control is a hugely hugely helpful mindset for helping you deal with the challenges that come with exams. When you pick up this mentality you realize that you can't control what questions will come up on the test, you can't control what x person will do on the test and you can't control anything other than your own actions and what you can do about your own test. What I try so hard to realize is that worrying about any of these things that are outside of your control is a waste of your valuable brain power and that instead you should focus on your actions. Do a practice exam, cover a topic you don't actually understand or ask for help as these are all things that you can control and that will actually help you do better in the end. I find that this mindset helps me so much with both stress and also attitudes that can hold you back. It's much easier said than done but I try to not worry about anything I can't control and I try to leave it out of my mind so that I can focus on the things that actually matter. The next mindset I have to reduce stress is using the fear to work. A lot of the time the stress I'm feeling comes from me not understanding concepts or feeling like I'm not going to be able to do as well as I should on an exam or test. What I always try to do is that when I feel this sense of fear I try to utilize it so that I use the fear to actually sit down and do some study. Often when we're feeling unproductive or we're procrastinating it's because we have that emotional barrier stopping us from working and what I often find is that sometimes using the fear from my stress or the fear of not being able to accomplish that what I want actually allows me to break through that barrier of that emotional or the procrastination and to actually allow me to start and kickstart the work that I need to do. Often I find that just by starting the work I need to do I start a nice cycle where I end up reducing my stress by doing more work because it alleviates the concerns that I might have about failing a test. A huge tip I have within this mindset is to try and make it a habit. Every time you feel that feeling of procrastination or you feel that stress try and set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes and just sit down and do some work because the first few times it might be really really difficult but every time after that it will get easier and it will slowly get formed into a powerful habit that you can actually use. This really is in my opinion the most optimal use of your stress because I think it is the way it was designed to be used for naturally to make you work harder and feel the impending possible consequence so that you don't actually end up facing it. Now the final mindset is actually one of a bit of self-care and it's that if you find something hard someone else is probably finding it hard too. When we're struggling with a concept we tend to focus on those people who aren't struggling and who seem to get it naturally or are just excelling at the concepts. What I try really hard to get myself to realize and also what I want you to realize is that if you're finding something hard there will definitely be people out there who are finding it hard and struggling alongside you. More often than not those people who seem to get it really easily might also be fronting to a certain extent and they might not know it as well as they want to make it out to be or they might have just got unlucky on a test or exam that they did. It's really important that you do take that self-care. Don't undermine your ability because often it's not your fault that you're bad at something. You often just need the right person to explain in the right way to you at the right time and then you'll get it and then you'll finally start to do well in that area. The main aim of this mindset is to reduce any feelings of inadequacy that you might have because they're almost always unfounded. Following the mindsets the next important things I take are three actions and the first of these is taking a break. This one is for sure very simple but just taking a day off can be very therapeutic if you use it properly. When you're feeling stressed it's the easiest time to feel burnt out and stop enjoying the things that you would usually enjoy doing. Often what can happen is that you feel burnt out and then you start to feel more stressed because you aren't doing work because you feel burnt out and as a result it can form this vicious cycle that ends up tearing up at your mental health. It's especially in these times when taking a break is really really important. Now I know people can struggle often to actually find how long they want to take a break for but what I recommend is taking a whole day off where you actually choose what you want to do. Now this is actually pretty important because I feel like if you take a break but then you feel like you're forced to go to the supermarket or you're forced to do the cleaning or you're forced to do other things that can definitely eat into your break time and make you less rested than you possibly could be. Make sure that on the day you're taking a break you choose the activities you want to do really carefully and that you take your break without trying to think about any of the work that you might have. The other action I take is making sure that I use my hobbies to release any stress that I might have. The hobbies that I like to take part in when I'm feeling stressed include violin, gaming, meditation or exercise like going for a walk or yoga. These are all things that I like a lot because they allow me to take my mind completely off any of the work I might be doing and a lot of these have been scientifically proven to actually reduce any stress you might be feeling. For example meditation has been shown to reduce stress by 14% in a 10-day period and things like exercise and playing instruments have been significantly correlated with reducing stress. Often we tend to be too lax with ourselves while we're on break and we can end up defaulting to unhealthy activities but do take that moment to actually think of what activities that you can do that are actually healthy and that will actually help you reduce your stress as much as possible. Now the final action I take to help me reduce my stress as much as possible is getting a good night of sleep. Sleep is actually one of the most effective things that I've found for reducing stress because I tend to think of sleep as a reset button. I think it's too easy to exacerbate any stress you might be feeling by staying up late watching a tv show or gaming or scrolling on tiktok for example and ending up cutting on your sleep and letting it bleed into the next day that you might have. When I say that sleeping well is really important I don't necessarily mean that you have to sleep at 12 and wake up at 8. You can sleep at whatever time you want but make sure you get the right amount of sleep that you actually need. I find that this is so important because getting a good night of sleep can empower you so much for the next day that you have. Often what I'll do at the end of a rest day is I'll tell myself that I'll go to sleep at a certain time and that I'll wake up at a certain time the next day and more often than not when I actually wake up I feel so much more motivated and I end up being really productive in the morning. The thing that can help you to actually get up in the morning and do work is to the night before imagine yourself doing it. Just close your eyes and imagine yourself getting out of bed in the morning, brushing your teeth, having breakfast and then sitting down and doing some work at your desk in the morning. I've found that this helps me so much to help me chip away at the cause of my stress which is usually the work that I haven't done. I'd like to say though that stress isn't necessarily something that can be fixed through effort, there are a lot of other factors that can influence how you actually personally respond to stress. I hope though that from this video you get an idea of some things that you might want to try the next time you're feeling stressed and if you enjoyed this video make sure to check out this one where I talk about the five principles of highly scoring students.