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How do you stay calm during exam season?

Answered by Exam Study Expert: ace your exams with the science of learning with William Wadsworth · Sep 17, 2026

Mostly by changing how you think about the exam, not by trying harder to relax. William Wadsworth, the psychologist behind the Exam Study Expert podcast, offers five mental reframes for exam season: work out what mark you actually need, have a Plan B, run your own race, treat the exam as a game with rules, and remember it's only an exam. Each one takes a bit of weight off, and together they make it a lot easier to revise well and perform on the day.

Work out the mark you actually need

William's first reframe is arithmetic. Most students revise as if they need every mark, but almost nobody does. If your target is 75 percent, you can drop one mark in four and still hit it. If you need a pass, the margin is even wider.

That's not an excuse to slack off. It's a permission slip to stop chasing total mastery of every topic. Goals are useful because they give your revision drive and focus, but a goal of perfection does the opposite: it makes every gap feel like a crisis. Knowing your real target lets you prioritise the material that matters most and accept that some corners won't be fully covered.

"Goals are good because they give us drive and focus in our exam prep."

Know your Plan B, then stop thinking about it

The second reframe is to admit that a backup exists. Retakes, reapplying next year, an alternative course or route. William's point is that when you've named your Plan B, Plan A stops feeling like the only thing standing between you and disaster.

The paradox he describes is that easing your grip on the outcome usually improves it. A student who believes everything hinges on this one paper walks in tight and anxious. A student who knows there's another route if it goes wrong can breathe, think, and actually show what they know.

"When we take that intense pressure off your shoulders a little bit, we can breathe again."

Run your own race

Exam season is full of comparison. Who's done more past papers, who's revised which topic, who says the exam is going to be brutal. William's third reframe is to opt out of the pack.

Practically, that means limiting conversations about revision with the people who wind you up, staying off the group chat the night before, and measuring yourself against your own plan rather than someone else's. Your job is to use your time well and make the best progress you can with the hours you have. What everyone else is doing is noise.

"Focus on using your time well, doing what makes sense to you, making the best progress."

Treat the exam as a game with rules

Plenty of students resent exams. They think the format is unfair, the content is pointless, or the whole system is broken. William doesn't argue with any of that. He just points out that the exam in front of you is still the one you have to sit.

His fourth reframe is to park the philosophical objections and play the game to win. See the rubric, the mark scheme, and the timing as rules of a game, and get good at the game. He also suggests looking for the underlying skills the process builds, like problem solving, memorisation, and resilience, which have value long after the exam itself is forgotten.

"We need to set aside any philosophical disagreements with the exam, almost see the exam as a game."

It's only an exam

The last reframe gives the episode its title. An exam measures a narrow slice of what you know on one day. It doesn't measure your kindness, your creativity, your friendships, or anything else that makes you who you are.

William is careful not to say exams don't matter. They do, and that's why you're preparing. But keeping them in proportion is part of preparing well. When the result feels like a verdict on your worth as a person, the anxiety becomes unmanageable. When it's one assessment among many things in a full life, you can take it seriously without being crushed by it.

"Don't lose sight of the fact that exams don't define who you are."

People also ask

Does being less stressed actually improve exam results?

William's view is yes. Intense pressure makes it harder to think and recall, so taking some of the weight off, for example by having a Plan B, tends to help you perform better on the day.

Should I avoid talking to friends about revision?

Not entirely, but be selective. If certain conversations or group chats raise your anxiety about what everyone else is doing, William suggests limiting them and focusing on your own plan.

What if I think the exam is unfair or pointless?

William says to park that for now. It's still the exam you have to take, so treat it as a game with fixed rules, learn the rules, and play to win.

Based on Episode 226, "Remember, It's Only An Exam: Keeping Your Cool In Exam Season," released May 24, 2026 on the Exam Study Expert podcast, hosted by psychologist William Wadsworth.