How to prevent burnout during exam season

With exam season currently ongoing, whether you are a SAT, GCSE, A-Level or University student, this period can seem extremely stressful and challenging. Particularly for GCSE and A-Level students, completing many different exams over an extended period can lead to burnout by the time the last few exams come around. Here at The Education Suite, we understand how difficult it can be to avoid burning out by the end of exam season, so we have compiled some top tips to help you!

Identifying burnout:

A lot of the time, we can simply brush burnout as just exam stress, but its long term effects can be significant towards our mental and physical wellbeing. This is why it's important to identify signs of burnout in order to treat it, or stop it. Feeling fatigued, procrastinating, feeling increased anxiety and self-doubt can all be signs of burn out, so recognise these - don’t ignore them - and take a moment to evaluate your mental wellbeing, whether through lone reflection or by speaking to family, friends or teachers.

Dealing with burnout & preventing it:

Often, leaving all your revision to the last minute can amplify stress, but also lead to an excess of work, causing burnout by the end of the exam season. Preventative measures you can take to avoid this include: setting a healthy routine for yourself (and sticking to it), which includes exercise, socialising and adequate study time. Studying in advance will also give you more time to commit the information to your long-term memory. Taking rest days is also a critical part of having a balanced study routine - pushing yourself to work to the maximum every day of the week will leave you tired and demotivated as this is not a sustainable method for most people.

If you find you have already identified some elements of burnout within yourself, especially for students that still have exams left, it is important to deal with the symptoms now, rather than let your exhaustion worsen. Unsurprisingly, the number one issue students face during exam season is a lack of sleep: make sure you get a good amount of rest, as studying without rest means you will not understand the information and although caffeine can be useful too much of it can have a counterproductive effect, too. Moreover, it is important to pace yourself and set a achievable and realistic amount of tasks to complete per day - this can include learning summaries rather than intricate details and using videos or notes to fill in gaps in your learning.

Overall, although exam season can seem daunting and never-ending, make sure you take care of yourself and give yourself the final push to perform your best!

Contact The Education Suite for high quality support for you or your child's learning:

Website: www.theeducationsuite.co.uk

Email: Hello@theeducationsuite.co.uk

Tel: 07818022590