Tests may be making your child break into a cold sweat or have difficulty settling down to study for the exams. Helping your child deal with this kind of stress can bring different benefits while reducing home tension during that period. The tips below will help you know ways of dealing with exam stress with your child.
Helping in studying
Start by making sure your child is sitting in a comfortable place and asking how to support your child with revisions. You can come up with practical ideas for revising, for example, practicing from the past papers or drawing a revision schedule. You can motivate your child by encouraging life goals and looking at how the child relates to exams and revisions.
Ensure your child gets enough sleep after studying
Your child needs to step away and take a nice break from books to help recharge. Getting enough sleep is one of the ways since it’s essential for your child’s performance, especially in the exam period. It would help if you did not allow your child to go to bed with any devices, especially during the exam. Your child may feel like playing games or watching cartoons after studying, which will cut some sleeping hours, resulting in getting tired before exams. So, it’s essential to ban devices during the exam period, or you can choose to cut the internet.
Give your child some practice tests.
The particular value of your kid before exams may be the process of getting ready, expectations, making sure your child is in the exam room in time, sitting for the test with others, and the overall performance. When giving your child a practice test, when the actual test arrives, your child won’t be facing it for the first time, and this can be vital to the child.
Also, in cases where your child’s performance is below average, giving your child the tests can help because your child will have the confidence to do another test, and through this, the pressure will reduce. For example, giving your child 11 plus mock exams will help your child get used to the exam process before going to the exam room as this may have less impact.
Avoid adding to the pressure
You may be the reason your child has a lot of pressure at exam period and in dealing with this, take your time to listen to your child and give some support through avoiding criticism. Be positive and give your child assurance before going to the exam. You should also let your child know it’s normal to fail since it’s part of life, and if things may not go well, it’s okay to do it again.
Also, after the exams are over, please help your child discuss with the parents what went well instead of focusing on the parts with some difficulty. After that, move on and focus on what’s coming next instead of dwelling on the things that have passed.
Know the strength and weaknesses of your child
Children have different aptitudes. Some children consider mathematics an easy subject while others love humanities and languages as they do best. You’re responsible for helping your child identify the best issues according to the previous performances.
Try to understand your child’s capabilities and avoid setting unrealistic expectations because if your child is an average student, it’s hard to become the top student overnight. Putting something realistic can help your child achieve great goals. It will also prevent future disappointment for you both.
Encourage extra-curricular activities.
Given the Covid blur, your child may easily slip into an overindulging study routine. It would help encourage your kid to occasionally step away from the desk and go out there to do regular activities like playing different games with friends. The activities can be riding a bike to clear the head or joining other kids for online games.
Let your child vent
Letting off a little steam can help your child overcome pressure during the exam period. In cases where your child has been cooped up with books and wants to vent, then give your child the space to do it. Try giving some suggestions and advice, smile and enjoy it because there are chances of feeling better after all is said and done.
Know your child’s exam timetable
It is easy to do, and your child will be relieved from stress. When you know what exam your child will sit for the next day, it’s easy getting to the exam room on time as you can also offer to help in revisions. You can also add your child’s exam timetable to your calendar because this is an extra element for support.
Ensure your child eats well
The health of your child is vital, and having a balanced diet can help your child feed well during the exams period. You can consider dining out with your child or letting your child have a suitable breakfast during that week since this will help take all the pressure off sometimes.
On the test day, remind your child to breathe often and deeply.
If your child may be anxious or highly stressed during the exam period, it can trigger their breathing. It will hamper their recalling process, as their focus will shift during the exam. Encouraging your child to breathe often and deeply will help with confidence, and it will be hard to forget the things learned.
Talk about the exam nerves.
It’s okay to remind your child it’s normal to be anxious because being nervous is a natural reaction, especially in the exam periods. Remind tour child that the key, in this case, is putting the shy to positive use. And in case anxiety is getting in the way, instead of venting, then help your child do some practice activities that will get done during the exam day because it will help feel less scary.
Instead of avoiding all this, it’s advisable to help your child face these fears. For example, you can do this by letting your child see the exam hall beforehand. Encourage your kid to think of the things learned before going to sleep.
Conclusion
As a parent, you need to encourage your child by discouraging fear, facilitating, teaching ways of handling disappointment, ensuring time is managed well, and getting enough sleep. It will highly help your child overcome exam pressure.