Healthy Mind, Healthy Body : Balancing Life During the HSC

You’ve all heard it a million times. “Healthy mind, healthy body”. The exigencies of the HSC® Exam/VCE® Exam years, however, tend to displace this mantra from the forefront of your conscious thoughts. This is a reality best avoided, because the VCE® Exam/HSC® Exam years profit profoundly from a great balance between mental and physical health.

Think back to prelims - exam after exam, studying and revising notes for several different subjects, while trying to find the time to get enough sleep so you can wake up the next day and do the same thing all over again.

Exhausting.

Not to mention stressful.

The process is entirely counterproductive. To perform at your best, you need to reduce the amount of stress that accumulates during exams, not increase it. I want to suggest a couple of broad strategies that can enable you to transform a seemingly intractable time period into something manageable.

 

General Strategies

Motivation is crucial to the commitment level you’re willing to put in. Study timetables are a severely underrated form of guidance not only during exams, but the entirety of the school year. Start small and set realistic goals.   

Additionally, grab a diary! Once every week, note your obligations, even if it’s just the intro to an essay, or an entire speech. Come exam time, increase the detail by marking a daily schedule; e.g. maths past paper; revise english essay; go for a run; practice music core performances for one hour. It’s crucial to schedule in breaks, too. Your mental stamina might require more than mere intra-day breaks; whole-day breaks may even be occasionally beneficial.  

As you conquer each day, PASSIONATELY CROSS IT OFF your diary list. That day is officially finished - you’ve accomplished something that will give you an extra edge during exams. It will keep you motivated and proud of your efforts when you see your progress and commitment.

For those of you who have a part-time or casual job, VCE® Exam/HSC® Exam does not mean you have to quit or abandon any out of school commitments you have! Casual work or other commitments constitute good study breaks. Working a day per week is a good way to depart from the labour of your studies for a while. Social isolation is not conducive to VCE® Exam success - to reduce stress, monotony necessitates a disruption, and work can be a fantastic way engage in something different but productive.

          Studying in groups and exchanging notes with friends is another a clever move; the process fosters solidarity and reminds you that the struggle is shared by others. Explaining a difficult concept to family or pets (my chihuahua could probably tell you all about Virginia Woolf) is a great and effective way to learn through teaching.

 

The Count-Down Hours

The conservation of mental stamina is particularly important for the last hours before an exam. Your attitude the day before an exam can be imperative to exam-day performance.

Cramming works for some, but can also be antithetical to a positive mental attitude and consequential exam performance.  Cramming burns a lot of mental calories, leaving the culprit potentially vulnerable during exam day. Exams are notoriously resource-intensive. For the majority of students out there, I recommend a more pragmatic and safe approach to exam success - eight hours sleep, and a clean source of complex carbohydrates, omega 3 fatty acids, protein, and lots of water. Your brain will ferociously consume the energy laden in these during an exam. Find that picture of the healthy food pyramid you had to label back in year 3 and abide by it!

As well as nutrition, physical exercise is also beneficial to exam performance. Something as leisurely as a 20 minute walk each day is enough to release neurotransmitters that induce a natural feel-good sensation. These include endorphins in the brain, and serotonin, lifting your mood and alleviating feelings of depression and anxiety, which tend to pervade the mind during stressful periods. Serotonin activity is also triggered by the consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods such as pasta and bread; however, over-consumption of those foods has a correlative energy-depressant effect, invoking the resonance of the ‘all in moderation’ adage.. Exercise alleviates stress, and this allows you to maintain an intense period of study in which you can stay motivated, and keep you from having any sort of mental or emotional breakdown that can hinder your intellectual performance.

        

Concluding Remarks

Take care of yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally during this stressful period, and whenever you feel like giving up, remember the hard work you have put in so far, and remind yourself that the finish line is in sight. Every second you sacrifice will be rewarded, and there is nothing anyone can ask of you but to do your absolute best, so good luck!