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Hello Bloggerbeans,

Something different for you today as I bet you have had enough of My Mini Happies for a while so Lets start something new, Perhaps a How To Tuesday?  I am in the midst of Exam season so thought why not show you how I have been coping with exam stress. If you are in the same boat as me and have your GCSE's coming up or any other type of exam moderation than this post is here to help! I did a How to revise post this time last year which may (Or may not) help you however today I want to focus on the exam period as a whole.

IMAGINE.... you are going into one of your exams, your nervous of course as you want to do well, no, you have to do well and mustn't fail as you have your teachers and parents putting pressure on you to do well. Your in the exam hall and plonk yourself down on your seat as you stare at the freshly printed paper that lay before you; Your destiny being what happens within the next hour or so that you have to complete this paper. You write your name, candidate number and center I.d on the top of your paper as you think to yourself  'Oh god, what if I don't know anything? Did I revise enough?  should of revised more... Oh god what am I gonna do?'. You sit nervously as you are told by the examiners booming voice 'You may turn over your paper and begin'. Crumpling of paper can be heard throughout the exam hall as on queue everyone, including you, turns the paper over to see what awaits. You can hear everyone else writing as you stare blankly at the first question. Your palms are sweaty and you try to focus your eyes so you can read the question. Once you start writing you write and write until times up and its all over in a flash. You wait to be dismissed from the hall and you leave feeling like the stress got to you.

Does this sound anything like you?  Exam season is stressful as it is without the added pressure of teachers and parents so when you have the fact of the exam questions being completely unknown its hard to prepare for what you are going to be expected to do. There is no way of getting round it easily without at least doing some revision. However if procrastination has kinda ruined your whole exam schedule and you have exams in like less than a week (YIKES! #relatable ) then I am here to share the following tips on how to be as cool as a cucumber when walking into that exam hall as at the end of the day the examiners want you to do your best and never try to intentionally take marks away from you. In fact they try to give you marks whenever they can!

1 Week from that exam:

REVISE! please for me.... I find that bribing yourself with YouTube videos works and also to turn your phone off until you have completed some. Make sure to make revision fun with background music (If it helps) and use highlighters to highlight lots of information. Also make sure to drink lots of water to keep yourself hydrated. There are many ways to do revision such as making someone test you with exam practice style question, making flashcards or posters for your room. click HERE to watch Emma Blackerys's video on how to revise for more help :)

Eat and sleep well in the week leading up and try not to stay up too late doing last minute revision as this will actually make you feel more stressed. It is important to get the balance of revision and free time. Sleep is for sleeping and letting your mind be free not revising. It is tempting but it is better to do revision when you get home from school.

On the day of the exam

Breathe! If you have done the revision then you should be fine. Bring in any revision notes/cards in on the day and flip through them half an hour before the exam to put yourself in the mindset of that subject and go over anything you feel you don't know.

Do something that makes you feel like you will do well. At the moment when I have an exam on I make sure to be wearing odd socks as it makes me feel weirdly calm.... and I also make sure that I am wearing a Fandom T-shirt such as a Dr who one, Pierce The veil one or My Dan and Phil T-shirt as I feel most comfortable in them.

Make sure that you have everything you will need such as pens, pencils, highlighters, a ruler, a water bottle and maybe a calculator. It is good to be prepared and do this 

Going into the exam:

When you enter that room you do what you need to do to make yourself comfortable to perform well. Your parents and teachers will want you to do well but at the end of the day you can only do the best you can and if you come out of the exam knowing that you have done this then that it doesn't matter what you get as you did everything you could and it's not the end of the day if your result doesn't turn out the way it does as there is always someway of getting back on track to doing what you want to do after school.

But please remember that when you walk out its okay to feel like you did well, and it's okay if you felt like you didn't do so well or that you really don't know what to feel at all! You can never completely tell your results by how you feel when coming out of the exams however if you feel like it did go completely wrong then you know what to do to make sure to do well in your next exam

During that hour or so period you have in that exam hall, it is your chance to shine. If you feel you don't know what the answer to the first question is on the paper go onto the next question and so on until you find something comfortable to start with and come back to the other questions. 

A grade does not define you. Exams will help you get to where you want to go however it is still possible to do this without them, however it is just a little harder and may mean you have to do things a little differently to get to the same place.  (I am in no way saying flunk your exams but if you miss that pass grade by the tip of your tongue, there are ways of getting yourself back on track, it just may take a little longer compared to if you got that pass). Soon it will all be over and you will be free to do whatever the hell you want!  (Like blog in my case)

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I hope these Little tips of mine help as it is what I am doing at the moment. I can't wait to finish on June 12th so I can put my heart and soul into this blog. I have a few things planned such as 're-decorating' my blog when I get a couple of free days in the holiday as I feel like my blog design needs some TLC.

Toodlepip x

~Katy Summers (TeenageBlogger)

P.s - 'She' by Dodie Clark

This song is the most soothing song I have ever listened to and it's by the wonderful Dodie Clark :)