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5: Managing exam anxiety

Technique 3: Visualisation

Creating calming pictures or images in your mind, or 'visualising', can really help you to relax.

Method 1

First of all, do some of the relaxation exercises we have described above. Then imagine yourself in this calm state taking the exam. You feel purposeful and confident. You see yourself at a desk in the exam room environment. You feel entirely at home and attuned to that moment, working effectively and concentrating well.

Now practise visualising this positive, clear, realistic image over and over again.

Method 2

Create a scene in your imagination. Think of a scene - real or imaginary, from any time - that creates feelings of safety, warmth, security and peace, with no uneasy feelings. Make it vivid by feeling the breeze and the temperature, picturing the colours and hearing the sounds. Practise visualising this scene as often as you can. When you want to feel calm, think of this scene and stay imagining it for a short while. Then return your thoughts to the matter in hand. The sense of calm should stay with you and enable you to cope better with whatever comes.

Using visualization

The important thing is to find out which technique works for you, and to practise it before the exam, so that if the need arises you can switch into the technique during the exam itself.

For a very small number of students with more persistent anxiety, medical advice can be very helpful. If this is the case, it is really important to talk to an advisor or tutor, to see what special exam arrangements are possible.

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