Testing times

Exam stress doesn't occur most strongly during the actual exams but in the few weeks just before them. The climax is usually the night before, when last minute preparations confirm your worst fears. There are, however, some simple ways of dealing with the problem.

First, the dedicated student can suffer from anxiety, brainblocks and memory "gaps," just as much as the student who has left everything to the last minute. But the remedy is the same in each case. The night before is too late to do anything. Far better to go to dance, for a walk, to the pictures or play a game rather than increase stress by frantic efforts to plug in gaps in your knowledge.

The brain is a complex bioelectrical machine, which, like a computer, can be overloaded. It does not work continuously, but in fits and starts. As you read this, the relevant part of your brain receives the messages from your eyes, processes them, and you comprehend. All this occurs in a series of steps. When you study, your brain reaches its maximum efficiency about five minutes after you start work, stays at a plateau for about ten minutes, and thereafter it is all downhill. Indeed, after thirty minutes your attention wanders, your memory actually shuts off, and boredom sets in.

For this reason, the best way to study is in half-hour sessions, with gaps in between of about the same length. It even helps to change subjects and not keep at the same one, since this reduces the boredom factor.

Two drugs are often used by students – as they are by writers, mathematicians and scientists everywhere. I do not mean pills, which can result in serious fatigue, but coffee and tea. The active ingredient in each is caffeine, a drug which definitely stimulates the brain, making you more alert. Coffee is about five times stronger than tea, and if you drink more than ten cups, it has a depressing effect on memory and alertness. And large doses of caffeine can keep you awake.

During sleep, the message conveyed to your brain – the things you have been trying to learn – are either put into your permanent memory store, in which case you will remember them, or pass into your transient memory store, in which case you will have a vague idea, but no clear recollection.

We put data into permanent store when we think it is important. It will file jokes, soccer results, film stars, names or pop tunes with extreme accuracy, on the other hand, erase things which bore or unsettle us.

The lesson here is clear. To beat exam stress you have to feel that what you are doing is fun, and perhaps the best way to do this is to treat revision as a game. This gives your brain the best chance to excel this. If you tire it with long, boring study sessions, you'll find you can't remember much, but if you stimulate it with short, snappy sessions you'll he surprised how quick and sharp you are.

Assignment:

Translate the text using a dictionary.

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