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Wet armpits, shaky knees, dry mouth, and images of the “worst” in my head. It seems that until recently it was with us, and now it is happening with our children.
How to help your child minimize stress while preparing for the exam? We debunk the main fears with the help of specialists from one of the largest schools in Russia for online preparation for the Unified State Examination and the Unified State Examination, residents of Skolkovo — .
Fear of not being on time
One of the biggest causes of anxiety when preparing for exams is uncertainty. «Learn a lot! I don’t know where to start and what to grab onto! Do not have time!» — a plan will help to cope with these worries.
Estimate the amount of material, divide it by the number of days you have on hand, and encourage your child to follow this plan. Humanity has not yet come up with a wiser and more effective method to get rid of anxiety.
If you feel that there is very little time, but there is a lot of material and the horse has not yet had time to wallow in it, bet on express preparation methods. Not the same, of course, as in the old joke about the Chinese language: “Now I’ll finish my smoke and go to take it,” but certified and pedagogically literate.
Even such an elementary thing as order on the desktop will help to remove the feeling of chaos, uncertainty and huge volumes of undeveloped material. Try to convince a teenager to visit him on his own: in this case, not only the result is important, but also the process, which in itself is quite meditative.
Fear of forgetting
Prepare diligently, but at the most crucial moment, take and forget the most important thing! Quite a real situation, what is already there. Especially if the level of general stress rolls over. In schools that practice a modern approach to learning, there is a universal vaccine against this danger — the rejection of cramming. The fact is that when we thoughtlessly study something, the risk of forgetting it on the exam is very high.
When we don’t cram, but try to figure it out, the chance of getting into such a dangerous situation is reduced to almost zero
What does it mean to memorize by understanding? teachers suggest their students to use the Feynman method for this purpose. Richard Feynman was a physicist and Nobel laureate who believed that a concept of any complexity could be explained in simple terms. And if you can’t do that, then you don’t understand anything.
Try inviting your teen to explain the topic they are preparing to an imaginary listener—an 8-year-old child. Why an eight year old? Children at this age have enough knowledge to understand simple explanations, but their vocabulary is small enough that special terms will have to be described in simple terms.
It is advisable to do this several times. First, explain briefly, and then return and tell again in more detail, dwelling in detail on those places that the teenager himself seems not entirely clear or illogical.
If a child is preparing for the Unified State Examination in an online school, he, as a rule, can ask all the questions of interest to his curator
This is an important advantage of online training over regular tutoring, when you have to wait until the next session to ask a question.
A good way to remember important things is also memorization through associations. Umskul teachers actively use this method when explaining the material at their webinars. For example, what association can a compound reaction have when two substances combine to form a third? The easiest option is cheese and bread, which, when combined, form a sandwich.
Fear of the «worst»
A teenager usually has a poor idea of what awaits him if he fails an exam, and describes this state with phrases from the series “everything will be bad.” From this misfortune, the visualization method helps to cope well.
When preparing for an exam, it is worthwhile from time to time to imagine in detail how it will actually take place, creating a positive picture for yourself. If the child is studying in an online school or with a tutor, ask the tutor to help describe as many organizational and everyday details as possible and form this picture.
Remember that fears are most easily dispelled by speaking. Try to talk to your child and find out what exactly he is afraid of.
Don’t go to university? Lose the respect of peers? Something else? Talk about each of the exciting moments in detail and find real ways to fall back in case of failure.
Well, to minimize the risk of failure, look for trusted tutors or a school with a good rating. In Umskul, for example, the average number of students who passed the USE with 100 points is more than 1500 people. At 80 and 90%, tens of thousands of students pass the exam. If your school has good ratings and statistics, it will also not be harmful to voice these numbers to the child in order to maintain his fighting spirit.
Life hacks to relieve anxiety:
During acute conditions
Drink a glass of water at room temperature.
Breathe: inhale slowly at a count of 8, then exhale just as slowly at a count of 8, repeat several times.
Count backwards: for example, from 50 to zero. This will help the brain to be distracted and relieve anxiety.
Wash with cool water, wet your wrists with water.
As a prophylaxis of acute conditions
Take breaks: for example, 25 minutes of classes — 5 minutes break.
Walk at least once a day.
During classes, do not be distracted by the phone and social networks: this disperses, increases the level of anxiety and causes rapid overwork.
Sleep at least 8 hours a day. Classes to the detriment of sleep will not benefit either the educational process, let alone health.
Visit February 23-26. Panic Room is an event that the Umskul online school holds for everyone. You will learn to work with your emotions, learn where fears come from, and learn how to help yourself not to worry before exams. The training will be held in the format of webinars, with the opportunity to win valuable prizes in the form of training in an online school .