Why are medical exams so stressful?

Every student that sits for an exam will experience stress and anxiety at some point. A medical student sitting for an exam may be overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge he or she is expected to learn and know. This can be very stressful and lead to anxiety which may affect your studying process, and develop into fears of poor performance and failure.

Every single medical exam has a lot riding on it. However, medical finals are the culmination of many years of back-breaking study, and your results can make or break your career. This a perfect recipe for creating pre-exam stress and anxiety, and it is not difficult to see that these feelings can take over and impact badly on exam preparation.

How to keep a bad situation from getting worse.

There are some steps you can take to manage and reduce stress in the run-up to the exam.

·       Avoid major lifestyle changes such as moving house, giving up smoking, or going on a diet.

·       If you are used to exercising or playing sports, make time to continue doing so, as exercise is probably something which helps you cope with stress anyway.

·       Try and keep a balance between family friends and leisure, as well as keeping to a manageable study routine. 

·       Do not allow study to become the total focus of your life. It may result in extra, unneeded stress. 

·       If you study in a group, be sure to choose your study partners carefully. Steer clear of individuals who you know are inclined to be anxious and have negative thoughts. Sometimes you can take in negative thoughts of another without even being aware of it.

·       Try not to make a plan to sit down with others after the exam to analyse the paper. Some may have answers entirely different to yours which may not be necessarily correct, but it can catapult you into an after-exam panic and issues doubt.

Medical exams are designed to be stressful, as examiners often want to assess your performance under stress, and can deliberately set out to make exams difficult and challenging. If you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed, paying attention to some of these techniques may indeed help you to reduce stress levels. 

A recommended method to help with pre-exam stress.

A very important factor in stress management is to identify where the stress is coming from. Some of the stress may be from your life in general, but most of it will be related to preparation for the exams, and some tension from a fear that you may not do well in the examinations.

After extensive research and studies, mental health professionals have agreed that the best way to establish the source of the pre-exam anxiety is by means of hypnosis, which is able to access the subconscious mind where many ideas, memories and belief are stored. Over the years, hypnotherapy has built up a proven record of success in helping people cope with stress and anxiety, including those experiencing the added stress of pre-exam anxiety.

Hypnotherapy is when a qualified hypnotherapist makes use of increased relaxation and sensitivity to make positive suggestions to help create a new mindset. The patient is always fully aware and conscious during the therapy, and is in a perfectly relaxed state in body and mind.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming – NLP.

Combined with hypnosis, NLP has specific techniques and tools to help you change negative attitudes, and achieve your goals of reducing anxiety and stress. NLP therapy also has the potential to restore your self-belief, self-confidence, build your optimism and lift your self-esteem. 

Ø  When you understand that stress is a normal reaction to your circumstances, having a basic knowledge where they come from, can help you create a new positive mindset.

You will be able to say goodbye to exam phobia permanently. 

Read part 2 of the series here:

Hypnosis And NLP For Medical Students’ Exam Anxiety 2 Of 3