GCSE Time

It was 2009. I was 16 years old, and I was sitting in a hoodie in the Sports Hall of my school, furiously writing my GCSE exams with 60 other girls in my school. (Yes I went to a single sex school). 1 hour and 45 minutes later I left the Sports Hall, refusing to talk about the exam and share answers with others, and sat in the Year 11 Common Room with my friends to eat lunch. A hour later we were back, writing again.

I worked really hard for my GCSE grades, which were all above Cs. I got the top grades in History and Biology, and really good grades for the others. I even got an A in maths.

I was not a target A/A* student. We had targets back then, but it was on reports, and I certainly wasn’t aware of the target.  Looking through my old reports (HANDWRITTEN), because my mum has saved everything, I was a B/C borderline for attainment. But I smashed this. My school had a culture of high expectations: B/As were what they wanted from students. It was high pressure.

My parents did a really good job of taking it off at home- my mum made me comfort food (mashed potato pie), she would literally force me to stop revising and get outside for breaks, my dad would sit with me (with the patience of a Saint) to help me with maths and science revision. It was during the GCSE exam period I developed a “sicky cough” as my family call it. I get this during stressful times: before exams, after exams, before job interviews, after job interviews, etc. I had never had it before GCSEs  but it has followed me since.

These exams have always been stressful. Always. Today though there is more pressure due to changes in the GCSEs and a focus on relentless exam result culture. For some students as well they might be getting pressure from every direction. I was fortunate to have parents who took it off from me. Some students don’t have that.

It is really important to balance the stress. Stress helped me preform well. I do well in exams, and the pressure makes me work hard and that hard work mirrored into excellent grades which have guaranteed me so many open doors. No rejections from University, numerous job interviews and avenues to do my future career in. So it is important. But so is mental health.

Here are my tips of a “sicky cough” person to anyone struggling with exam pressure:

1. Find your way to unwind

It is important to have some chill or down time. The last thing you want is to be working hard all day, get to the evening and you find yourself unable to rest. Find the way that you relax and unfocus yourself from the day.

For some people it is socialising, a good book, a good game, a bath and pamper time or even a binge on Netflix. It is important not to let these dominate revision time, but it is important to give your brain time to unwind and let you get sleep which is vital to processing information.

2. Drink Water

Stay hydrated. With the good stuff. I can guarantee you drinking a can of Monster energy drink might seem like a great idea to keep you awake/ motivated, but the chemicals in there will make you too excited to actually do valuable work. You need to stay healthy.

3. Make your revision space a working space

Not everyone has this luxury, but try and avoid revising in your bedroom. If you have a large enough bedroom divide the space into a resting zone and a working zone. You will struggle to switch off and get the sleep  your brain needs to function well if it associates work with your sleeping area. Try and keep it tidy, and simple. Few distractions and enough to keep you going.

4. Chunk out time

20- 30 minutes for a solid time of revision is a good idea. This allows your brain to focus and it work well before it starts to get bored or drift off into tangents. Then take 15 minutes to do something else, make a tea, a water, go for a walk, do the chores (on exam leave my mum still made me do chores – which actually helped bizarrely) and then come back to revision.

5. Don’t just revise the things you like

… I may have been guilty of this. We all have subjects we LOVE and would spend ages reading/ making quizzes or planning exam answers to. There are also subjects that you get to and think… no. These are different for different people. But make sure you are in the right frame of mind to revise the subjects that just isn’t your cup of tea. During my A Levels I did loads of revision for History and English Lit, but neglected some other areas, hence why I got vastly different grades. Revise well and it will pay off.

6. NO Feelings of guilt

There are times when you won’t be in the right frame of mind. There are times when you need a break. That might mean a morning or afternoon during study leave shopping with friends, or meeting somewhere for a coffee. If you have done hard work you deserve time off (occasionally) for the sake of YOU. Just don’t go nuts and have whole weeks doing that.

Also for my students (if you are reading) I highly recommend following the guideline (plan) I made for you and handed out – which chunks out the topics and when you should do them over the next few weeks.

FINAL ADVICE: When it all gets a little too much, grab a blanket, grab a teddy/ furry animal and put on a Disney film. Work hard and good luck.