Exam Anxiety

So, anyone doing OCR A level English Lit will know that the first exam is on 24th May... which also clashes with AQA physics. Ergo, I will be in solitary confinement for 2 hours and can't call my family. This English exam is my first exam and also happens to be the one I'm most anxious about. I need to get A* and I'm currently A+ (not under timed conditions). But I'm still waiting for my teacher to mark essays from 4 weeks ago, and every time I start an essay I get a wave of panic which paralyses me. In my mock, I got a D because of this, and it's getting worse. I know if I don't get this under control, it'll blow everything. Any advice?

Reply 1

VeryBerryCherry

8

Heyyo, idk if this is considered helpful but try to do the exams under timed conditions and don't let your previous grades affect you. Its hard to diminish the nervousness due to previous experiences but you should feel proud of yourself as you did get an A+ for your practice papers despite it not being under timed conditions. I suggest trying to do a paper on time while doing the other without timings and compare your results. See what writing methods are quick and efficient and incorporate them onto the following timed practice papers. Mark schemes + past papers are a great resource ( if its available in ur exam board, which isn't familiar with me :c). And finally please try not to be afraid whether you'll get a bad grade as it'll tend to make things worse, instead do it with passion and/or like a challenge. Take a deep breath and organize ur thoughts during practice. I tend to be a tad bit dramatic with my exam practice time so I like to imagine I'm in some kind of badass character with some badass tune playing inside my head having a battle with my exam sheet lol^^;

Overall find your weak and strong points and evaluate on what works and what doesn't. Hope this helps and good luck xx

Original post by AnnieBlue:)

So, anyone doing OCR A level English Lit will know that the first exam is on 24th May... which also clashes with AQA physics. Ergo, I will be in solitary confinement for 2 hours and can't call my family. This English exam is my first exam and also happens to be the one I'm most anxious about. I need to get A* and I'm currently A+ (not under timed conditions). But I'm still waiting for my teacher to mark essays from 4 weeks ago, and every time I start an essay I get a wave of panic which paralyses me. In my mock, I got a D because of this, and it's getting worse. I know if I don't get this under control, it'll blow everything. Any advice?

Reply 2

AnnieBlue:)

OP

8

Hey @VeryBerryCherry Thanks so much for your reply.
"I like to imagine I'm in some kind of badass character with some badass tune playing inside my head having a battle with my exam sheet lol^^"
^Love it! Thanks that is probs the best advice, I'm rather a melodramatic person as well! :biggrin:

Reply 3

toxicgamage56

Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by AnnieBlue:)

So, anyone doing OCR A level English Lit will know that the first exam is on 24th May... which also clashes with AQA physics. Ergo, I will be in solitary confinement for 2 hours and can't call my family. This English exam is my first exam and also happens to be the one I'm most anxious about. I need to get A* and I'm currently A+ (not under timed conditions). But I'm still waiting for my teacher to mark essays from 4 weeks ago, and every time I start an essay I get a wave of panic which paralyses me. In my mock, I got a D because of this, and it's getting worse. I know if I don't get this under control, it'll blow everything. Any advice?

Hey also doing OCR English Lit, what texts are you doing?

Reply 4

AnnieBlue:)

OP

8

Original post by toxicgamage56

Hey also doing OCR English Lit, what texts are you doing?

Hamlet, Rossetti & A Doll's House, Gatsby & The Age of Innocence (aka The Age of Boredom, lol). Wbu?

Reply 5

toxicgamage56

Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by AnnieBlue:)

Hamlet, Rossetti & A Doll's House, Gatsby & The Age of Innocence (aka The Age of Boredom, lol). Wbu?

Ah I only got Hamlet as the same text as you, how are you revising for it? Do we have to know quotes for the Hamlet part of the exam because it's annoying when we have a different two text comparison later for the same paper.

Reply 6

AnnieBlue:)

OP

8

Original post by toxicgamage56

Ah I only got Hamlet as the same text as you, how are you revising for it? Do we have to know quotes for the Hamlet part of the exam because it's annoying when we have a different two text comparison later for the same paper.

I've been memorising quotes for Q2b for Hamlet, tho usually part b is relevant to part a so u can use quotes from the extract. Quizlet is the go-to for quotes. I've been trying to do loads of practice for this section but my essays end being the size and time of a comparison. Do you know how much we're meant to write? I normally write a double side for comparison and that only just fills the time, but then my writing is ridiculously small as well as being ridiculously slow!

Reply 7

toxicgamage56

Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by AnnieBlue:)

I've been memorising quotes for Q2b for Hamlet, tho usually part b is relevant to part a so u can use quotes from the extract. Quizlet is the go-to for quotes. I've been trying to do loads of practice for this section but my essays end being the size and time of a comparison. Do you know how much we're meant to write? I normally write a double side for comparison and that only just fills the time, but then my writing is ridiculously small as well as being ridiculously slow!

Oh ok, I did ask my teacher and they told me it wasn't necessary to learn quotes for the Hamlet section and references to relevant parts of the play was sufficient (however learning quotes is better). In terms of how much you have to write, I think it's about 500 words or so for each of the Hamlet essays and a bit over 1000 ideally for the comparison - so however much that translates to in writing for you. My writing is quite large so I do around four pages for the comparison and a page each for the Hamlet essays.

Reply 8

AnnieBlue:)

OP

8

Original post by toxicgamage56

Oh ok, I did ask my teacher and they told me it wasn't necessary to learn quotes for the Hamlet section and references to relevant parts of the play was sufficient (however learning quotes is better). In terms of how much you have to write, I think it's about 500 words or so for each of the Hamlet essays and a bit over 1000 ideally for the comparison - so however much that translates to in writing for you. My writing is quite large so I do around four pages for the comparison and a page each for the Hamlet essays.

Ah! Thank you, that's really interesting. No one ever told me about the word count! I've counted up one of my comparison essays... it works out a bit under 1,200 but i've written a little less for others. For me a page is approx 500 words incl paragraph breaks so I guess I should rethink the length of my Hamlet essays! Btw, is it just me, or are 2as so much harder than 2bs??!

Original post by AnnieBlue:)

So, anyone doing OCR A level English Lit will know that the first exam is on 24th May... which also clashes with AQA physics. Ergo, I will be in solitary confinement for 2 hours and can't call my family. This English exam is my first exam and also happens to be the one I'm most anxious about. I need to get A* and I'm currently A+ (not under timed conditions). But I'm still waiting for my teacher to mark essays from 4 weeks ago, and every time I start an essay I get a wave of panic which paralyses me. In my mock, I got a D because of this, and it's getting worse. I know if I don't get this under control, it'll blow everything. Any advice?

Hi! I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling like this, and I totally get it. With my Spanish a-level, I was so nervous that I felt panicked every time I thought about it. It sounds like you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, when you're already getting an A, so the A* is really achievable for you! I would say practice under timed conditions!

Also, get a framework to start your essays with, for mine this looked like this:
'In this extract from Act , Scene _, of 'Othello', Shakespeare portrays Othello as _ adjective_ and _adjective _. Firstly I will analyse the meaning of '_quote from text_' to argue that Othello is ___'

So when you're in your exam, the idea is that you adapt your framework sentence to the extract you have. It stops you from panicking because you already know what you're going to write, you just have to add in the right words from the extract, but most of the decisions are taken out of your hands. I hope that helps :smile:

Reply 10

AnnieBlue:)

OP

8

Original post by Yipiyap_Brooke

Hi! I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling like this, and I totally get it. With my Spanish a-level, I was so nervous that I felt panicked every time I thought about it. It sounds like you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, when you're already getting an A, so the A* is really achievable for you! I would say practice under timed conditions!
Also, get a framework to start your essays with, for mine this looked like this:
'In this extract from Act , Scene _, of 'Othello', Shakespeare portrays Othello as _ adjective_ and _adjective _. Firstly I will analyse the meaning of '_quote from text_' to argue that Othello is ___'
So when you're in your exam, the idea is that you adapt your framework sentence to the extract you have. It stops you from panicking because you already know what you're going to write, you just have to add in the right words from the extract, but most of the decisions are taken out of your hands. I hope that helps :smile:

Hey! Thank you so much for your thoughtful advice! I actually posted this thread almost a year ago and man has it brought back the memories of last year's stress! I didn't imagine that I'd be saying this a year later, but I did get my A*! In fact, I achieved full marks in the paper I was most stressed about, and on the other, only dropped one mark. So for anybody else out there having an essay crisis, be encouraged!!

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