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How to Overcome Exam Stress for Better Mental Health

Exam stress is such a bummer! You just want to take an exam, right? Then what’s the stress about? Read our blog and dispel the stress immediately
Rayomand S. Engineer
By
Rayomand S. Engineer
How to Overcome Exam Stress for Better Mental Health

Introduction

The year was 2002 - the second year of a new millennium.

Time: 2 pm

A 13-year-old Rayo furiously strutted around the tennis courts of the YMCA in Kolkata. Why? Was he playing tennis? NO!

It was the exam pressure of the Grade three Piano practical exam - that he had to take. He had also done this umpteen times before. But there was only one issue. Stress.

15 minutes before the exam - we’re all in the waiting room, and I, unable to sit in one place, am roaming around tennis courts like Vodafone’s pug because of my restlessness (blame the undiagnosed ADHD).

They call my name. I enter the room, and my heart is pounding in my chest. The examiner beckons me forward and asks me to sit on the piano and do my thing.

Suddenly, my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,

The keyboard starts swimming and becoming blurry.

I play a wrong note and take a sharp breath, which catches in my throat.

Okay, never mind, you can go again,” says the examiner, encouraging me to play and ignore the error.

Suddenly I remember -

You better lose yourself in the music The moment you own it, you better never let it go.

Taking a leaf out of Eminem’s book, I regain composure. Slowly but surely, the keyboard becomes clear, and the clammy hands go away. I start playing what I am meant to. The rest of the exam goes by in a breeze, and I exit the hall a happy 13-year-old.

There is a lot of buzz around us about exam stress. It has long been the bane of education, and we hear students complaining about stress, but what really is it, and how can we combat it?

Introduction