Sometimes we get anxious in tests and we have difficulty in recollecting things. But that doesn’t mean we do not know stuff.

So take your mind out of panic mode at the time of exam. Calm down. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Gently massage your eye lids. Give yourself 5 minutes to get out of the anxiety and once you do come out of it, focus on your test. Forget everything else.

Do not think about what other students taking test are thinking. Do not think about your results. Just focus on the question you are going to solve.

For tackling anxiety, there is an immediate management, which we have discussed. For short term management, you might need anxiety pills if it is creating a lot of trouble. But for long term management, you need to train our mind accordingly. You have to prepare your mind for stressful conditions.

Besides, if your attention span is low, and you face difficulties in getting things taught in class then you need to rely more on self study. Get a personal tutor if you can afford or better go for online video lecture series. You can pause and rewind the video as per your convenience.

Don’t freak out if you cannot answer a question. You need to make your mind understand that forgetting things is very common. And even if you do tend to forget in exams, Make sure that your concepts are clear. Just mugging up things will not help.

I am not telling you to change yourself because I have been having such issues myself and I know it’s not easy to change yourself. But you can adjust partly and also train your mind to adjust partly according to your needs.

Develop an approach towards any topic you are preparing. Use mind maps or mnemonics. This will help in long term memory. Practice questions and see the approach to the derivation of a formula, in case you are not able to memorise formula directly.

Talk to your friends about it and take their help. Discuss any topic with them. Let them ask you any questions. Do not get disheartened if you do not recollect things. Keep giving revision at regular intervals and give more and more tests. Analyse your performance with each test, as I have already described previously.

Gradually everything will start getting saved automatically in your long term memory and all these things will help you in your exam.

Just keep consistency in your studies and surely you’ll do well. Also don’t hesitate to take help from a counsellor if needed

Source : Physics at your fingertips by Dr Rahul Chawla