How Not to be An ExamStress-head

Here's an article I wrote for my mock newspaper assignment. Ought to make good use of it so I blogged it.

When you are finally done with burning the midnight oil for assignment deadlines and presentations, you tell yourself that you deserve a break from all the chaos from typing late at night with your left eye half-closed. Alas, there is no possible way to do so when the study break is taken away from UTAR’s examination timetable.

It is not humanly possible to serenade yourself with the short break when you have 8 million pages of stories and poems to read for Malaysian Literature finals next Wednesday. In this situation, you have the right to be overwhelmed and stressed because the condition you’re facing right now is in no place for grace.

Many of us run in 21 directions at once, and it will get us nowhere. When you start drowning and hyperventilating at the little time you have left with not only Malaysian Literature to start off with, you have 3 more major papers lining up, you need to STOP everything but START doing one thing at a time. Do not waste time stressing out because when you start losing it, you are a goner.

For some people, stress acts as their biggest motivator while others see it as the Reaper. Here are some tips on how to become a cool head before the finals.

First of all, tackle your subjects one at a time. It may sound cheesy but these wise words from Head of Department of Language and Linguistics, Mr Krishnan, are so true. Remind yourself that you can only do what you can do and it is impossible to do more with the little time allocated. Just remember to do your best and the best is what you can do. Focus on the task at hand and pretend it is the only thing to do. This is the part where being in denial actually helps.

Next, work on your priorities list and take care of your basic needs. If you cannot focus in reading your notes because you have that 3-week laundry nagging at the back of your head, then go get it done. If you are hungry, go grab a bite or two. Empty stomach will not fill the brain with knowledge. If you are cold, grab a jacket. Let your eyes rest, let your feet rest. Massage your neck when it is getting sore. Most important of all, sleep when you are tired. 

You may have won the battle (sleepiness) now, but you will lose the war (finals).

Let’s establish a reward system for yourself. If you finish Chapter 1 and 2, you can treat yourself with dessert or a fun thing for yourself or with your friends. When you are out hanging out, enjoy to the fullest of the littlest of time you can get. So when you return from a 3-hour outing, you will tell yourself to study more because you think you are far behind in your studies after the outing. You can actually finish 2 to 3 chapters by thinking that you need to catch up with yourself sooner rather than later.

You can run the stress off, shake it off with dancing to Salt and Pepa – Push It or blast it off with some heavy metal or K-Pop, whichever suits you. Relax and let loose, calm your nerves and give yourself a pat on the back for making it this far. Give yourself some encouragement and stay positive that everything is going to be alright in the end.

Last but not least, the classic – fix a personal in-home timetable. It keeps you in check and your mind will not drift to the things that have not been done because everything now has their specific time to be accomplished. All you need to do is allocate enough time for each big or small task and be sure to follow it. Set some rules too, like no tweeting or reblogging when you have books on the desk. Do it sometime later when you are in the kitchen or in the washroom.

Whenever you encounter a stressful situation, especially one like facing the final examination, it is crucial to realize that it will all be okay in the end. Just take a deep breath, call your mom for support, light a candle and cuddle with teddy bears or flirt with someone. Or swear if you must and then get back to work. Just remember, one step at a time. Always tell yourself, you can do it and things are only impossible until they are not.

Inspired by Thought Catalog and Hello Giggles.

NOT TO FORGET VICTOR KIM!