Furry's guide to surviving exams, avoiding stress and staying mentally healthy

This is a really good, comprehensive guide that should help many people! I hope lots of students get to see this and take the time to read it, even if it's just to remind themselves that they're not alone

When I was in my final year of my undergrad, I made a point of circuiting my college and walking round the whole thing once every day. We have a lake and big lawns and stuff so it was nice and soothing, and just good to get the blood pumping and give the brain a bit of a rest

If I think things are getting too much; I'll make sure just to take the evening/morning/afternoon off relaxing and chilling and just try and forget about the revision I have to do so I come back to it several hours later with a much clearer and motivated mindset

Tbh....

I dont know if i can cope with stress. I just grit my teeth and bear it.

It's difficult to relax in a hot bath and the like when you have exams and revision constantly on your mind.

Sometimes it hits me really hard and i feel like my head is going to explode.

Yeah better to spend an hour revising then an hour chilling out than 2 hours of mediocre revision where you end up stressing out and procrastinating loads. Also don't lose sleep revising, that wont help you remember anything at all. Also remember exams aren't just memory tests, you need to actually practice doing questions so I recommend you make that as enjoyable an experience as possible, listen to music while doing it and having a cat to stroke on your lap helps I find XD.

This is excellent, and couldn't have come at a better time!

I personally deal with stress terribly, which is particularly bad seeing as I get stressed really easily! If I'm feeling particularly bogged down with revision stress then I usually do one of the following things:
Going to the gym: Exercise has been mentioned already as something that can help, and it's the thing that works the most for me by miles. The more stressed I am, the more often I go, and the more I push myself when I'm there

Planning my time: Maybe I'm weird but planning things is really stress-relieving for me. If I know what I need to do when, it usually eases my mind a bit.

Saving it all until later: Not the best, but it gives temporary relief (quite bad that this is my most common method though...)

If I get stuck or nervous in an exam then I try to slow down and stay calm, maybe coming back to that question later. This tends to help a lot as usually I'll spot what I was missing when I'm a bit more relaxed

These will only be my second set of external exams so I'm still learning I suppose. I've taken a lot in from last year though, as I allowed myself to get to breaking point with my stress levels...

Is it useful to take a sleeping pill the day before my exam as it takes me so long to sleep with the thought of "my exam is tommorow" no matter how hard i try and shake it off, it happened to me in the mock and I barely got any sleep but this is the real thing. Should i?

It's up to you but I wouldn't if I'm honest. Sleeping pills can often make you feel drowsy and fairly rubbish the day after, particularly if your body isn't used to them. I can definitely see the temptation though. Have you looked into mindfulness at all? That could help, and things like making sure you stop revision early the night before and turn off screens etc, then little bits of selfcare like having a warm bath/hot chocolate/reading a book/whatever you find relaxing too. Good luck, you can do it!

Mindfulness? Never heard of it. And yeah your last point hopefully i'll do that because i always tend to stay up late night on my computer studying, I should leave a few hours to relax.Thank you

Basically it helps you stay in the moment, like a form of meditation. Different people find different bits useful (if any)- I tend to just stick to colouring/online jigsaws and stuff but worth a google. And good that you'll do that- hope it helps!