A week before Yaya had her grade 11 final exams, she came home and told me “Mom, I can’t breath”

I knew right away that she was getting nervous and showing signs of exam anxiety.

Exam anxiety is normal and if you don’t learn to cope with it, you will end up not doing your tests well.

I searched online and found this link that explains what is exam anxiety and how to deal with it and printed it out and gave it to Yaya.

http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/Test_Anxiety_Booklet.pdf

( sorry, again the link icon on wp doesn’t work)

The day before her exams, I saw Yaya revising for an hour and then she read story books..On the morning of exams, she was still reading her story books. Her point is, if you have worked all year and are sure that you did give your 100%, then there is nothing more you can study the few hours before your exams. Instead, you should relax, read a book and not get stressed unnecessarily.

I must say, I grew up in India and it is really stressful to see my child not studying, instead reading a novel just before the exams..that was not how I grew up with. I remember walking up and down the corridor and frantically parroting all the points in my text book and reading the text book till I enter the exam hall..you know that one last minute preparation…

Anyway, she didn’t feel breathless again and seemed to have learned how to deal with exam anxiety and I learned a bit too late that I wasted so many hours doing unnecessary revision when I could have read more novels. 🙂