Taming the 21st Century Tiger

A guide to handling exam stress.

Ten-thousand years ago, your biggest source of stress as a human being would have been hunger, disease and tigers.

Today, for those of us who are students in university, the source is exams and final projects. The world has changed, but our bodies are still calibrated to the brutality of years past.

“Our brain is built for the 21st century, but our body is build for a couple million years ago,” says Dr. Richard LeGrand, a cognitive psychologist and professor at KPU.

“According to evolutionary psychology, our bodies are set up for, whenever we have a stress, we either want to fight, or flight–running away from that stress.”

“So it makes sense: when you think of walking in a forest when a bear approaches you, you get your heart rate pumping, you start to sweat, and you’re ready to either run away or attack the bear.”

According to LeGrand, there are a number of ways to combat these stress levels–whether it’s a bear, or your upcoming calculus exam.

1. Change your mindset.

“Luckily, the brain part is involved in what we call cognitive appraisal. There are two components to stress. There’s the physiological reaction, but also the thought process behind it . . . For some people, an exam isn’t a stressor at all. Maybe they see it as an opportunity to show how much they know. So, I think a good piece of advice is to change your thinking process when it comes to taking exams.”

LeGrand describes what he calls the “three C’s” of stress reduction. The first one is to think of your tests as a challenge. The next one is having proper coping skills. The final “C” is commitment, to think of the test as one step in a series of milestones towards your ultimate goal.

“Because I’m a cognitive psychologist, I’ll keep pushing this idea of changing your thought process. So rather than thinking about the worst that can happen, have positive thoughts. Be optimistic,” says Le Grand. “Even changing your thinking too: always set a goal that’s positively worded. Your goal shouldn’t be ‘I just want to pass the test’ or ‘I don’t want to fail.’ Rather, that can be reworded as ‘I want to get at least 65 per cent.’ It’s the same concept, but [it’s about] the way that you word it.”

2. Reconsider study methods.

“It’s better to study for 45 minutes, then take a 15 to 20-minute break, and do something completely different during those 20 minutes,” says LeGrand, noting that cramming is one of the least effective study techniques. “Go for a walk, have a meal, whatever. Let your mind have a break. And then return back later on, and whenever you return back to studying, switch subjects if you can.”

Those who study a language course, or anything where a lot of memorization is required, should consider spaced repetition. The technique exploits the spacing effect, and software such as Anki or Memrise for iOS and Android will remind you when it’s time to test yourself again, reminding you of that new term just before you forget it. Advertisers exploit this as well, which is why they do their best to avoid back-to-back television spots, or place print adverts as far away from each other as possible.

Either way, it is agreed upon by many psychologists and professors that learning slowly over the course of several days is superior to cramming the day before.

“One [method] that works exceptionally well is repeat testing,” says Dr. Daniel Bernstein, another psychology professor at KPU. “Giving yourself quizzes on the material is an excellent study strategy.”

“Try to make the material personal. Make it personally relevant, especially material that you learn in the class which is really abstract. If you can make it more personally relevant, you’ll do much better.”

Bernstein, however, believes that there is no singular method that works for everyone. Simply put, some people take no issue with cramming and can ace a test with that method. Others would not be able to handle the stress that comes with cramming. Either way, if one method doesn’t work for you, consider trying an alternative.

Bernstein also suggests teaching the material to other people as a strategy. If you’re explaining a concept to someone, the questions that they might ask you could be the same questions on the test.

3. If you experience a lot of stress in general, consider mindfulness.

Many scientific studies have been done to evaluate the effects of meditation on the brain, almost all of which are positive. For example, scientists at Harvard Medical School conducted fMRI brain scans on Buddhist monks, frequent meditators and a control group, and found clear differences between them.

“Mindfulness has really gained traction in the field of mental health in the last several years,” says Susan Morris, a counsellor at KPU.

While meditation may be thought as something exclusively religious, it doesn’t have to be. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is about a secular as meditation can get, and it has been observed scientifically that you don’t need to be actively meditating to reap its benefits.

Mindfulness is being taken seriously: last year, psychologist Amishi Jha traveled to Hawaii to train United States Marines, with the ultimate goal of making them more resilient in battle.

However, though the benefits of mindfulness and meditation have been well-researched, it’s unlikely that you’ll see benefits unless you’ve been doing it for several weeks.

“It’s practice, like anything else, so there more you do it, the more benefits you’ll get,” says Morris.

“The kind of mindfulness that I do, and try to share with students here is the ‘off the cushion’ mindfulness. Again, it’s about learning to pay attention in a certain way, and it’s really about immediacy, or being present in the moment.”

“Let’s say a student is going into an exam and they’re feeling very anxious. Now, some anxiety is very useful [because] it actually mobilizes performance. It’s like fuel. However, after a certain point, the anxiety is counter-productive, it starts to block thoughts and interferes with performance.”

Morris would agree that mindfulness is a technique best used in the long-term, given the amount of time it takes to become good at it. “You don’t have to sit and meditate on some cushion for an hour. You don’t have to travel up to some mountain hut for six months to learn how to be a good meditator. Again you can learn really simple, effective tools that are portable, like on the goal, that you can use in exam settings, or during an oral presentation,” says Morris.

However, Morris, like Bernstein and LeGrand, believe that there are no worthy replacements to keeping up with classes throughout the semester.

“If they haven’t been going to classes, all the breathing exercises in the world aren’t going to help on an exam,” says Morris. She also notes that there are plenty of students who do keep up with their classes, but are simply anxious when it comes to exams.
The counselling department runs free mindfulness sessions throughout the year, the next one is on April 17 at 12:15 p.m., in room 1564 at Richmond campus.