It’s that time of year again. Students across the country are preparing for university examinations. In this post we will remind you of some top tips for getting ready for exams, dealing with exam stress and managing your work/study/life balance. In addition, we’ll explain what you can do if you encounter unforeseen difficulties which affect your exam performance or attendance.
Help! How should I prepare for my exams?
Please see our previous blog post about preparing for exams, which has links to exams hints and tips, advice on healthy eating to boost brain power, study skills advice and links to support for your mental health and wellbeing.
Something has happened and I can’t study for my exams! What should I do?
Sometimes, students experience difficulties that arise outside of university life but which impact on study and exams, for example bereavement, serious illness or injury. It can be very distressing to experience such difficulties at any time. If such experiences happen before or during an examination period, the impact can be even more profound.
It is really important that you tell someone at university about what is happening to you if it is impacting on your studies.
When serious, unexpected difficulties arise, it is natural to feel cautious about sharing information, particularly with strangers and with those in positions of authority. You might feel exposed, confused, upset and talking about your situation might feel like a scary thing to do. You may feel as though you are too busy to spend time finding someone to talk to at uni or researching your support options. You may be so overwhelmed by the events happening in your life that university and exams are the last things on your mind. Or, you might feel that you don’t need/want help or that if you get help it will put you at an unfair advantage.
If your situation is causing you to lose touch with your studies and fall behind, it could have a serious impact on the outcome of your time at University. We don’t want to see you fail for reasons which are outside of your control. Support systems are in place to help make things fairer for students.
Who can I talk to if I’m concerned about my exams?
If you’re feeling worried about your exams and want to talk to someone about how to access the right support for you, there are plenty of people you can talk to, including:
Student Support Officer – visit your faculty helpdesk
Student Adviser (Student Advice and Information) – visit Student Services Reception (Level 5 Owen or Collegiate Learning Centre) See shuspace for details of the Student Advice drop-in.
Student Wellbeing Adviser – visit Student Wellbeing Reception (level 1 Surrey) or see shuspace for details
What support can I get?
The support you can receive will depend on your individual circumstances. Support is there to help you to achieve your full potential and to make things fairer for students. Depending on your circumstances, you may find that with a bit of help and advice from the appropriate sources you are able to go ahead with your exams. This support includes:
- Study skills workshops
- One-to-one study support
- Maths Help
- Online resources
- Support from Student Wellbeing
To find out about any of this support, see shuspace for details.
If the problem is more serious or longer term, over and above the normal difficulties that happen in life, and is causing exceptional interference with academic performance, you may wish to consider submitting Extenuating Circumstances. Your Student Support Officer can give you more information about this and there is also a lot of info on shuspace under “Rules and Regulations.”
What are Extenuating Circumstances?
The term “Extenuating Circumstances” refers to difficulties which cause exceptional interference with academic performance and which are of a very serious nature over and above the normal difficulties that happen in life, and which could not be avoided or prevented, or their effect on academic performance could not be limited.
Extenuating circumstances should be capable of being verified by independent documentary evidence, and their timing should link to the timing of assessments. Even if exceptionally difficult, distressing or unpleasant events have happened, these may not in themselves be extenuating circumstances. There must also be evidence and a demonstrable adverse effect on academic performance.
You must show evidence that your extenuating circumstances affected your assessment either in its preparation or completion. You must submit a completed EC1 Form with your documentary evidence no later than 5 days after the deadline (for coursework) or exam. The EC1 form will go to a panel who will decide whether to accept or reject your application. If the evidence on your EC1 form is accepted you will be given the chance to re-sit your examination at a later date.
Again, you can speak to your Student Support Officer within your faculty for further information on the EC process.
Finally…
So…that’s the lowdown on preparing for exams. Hopefully this can help you to get prepared and has given you some reassurance about how to get help or support if you are worried. So remember, keep calm, take care of yourself, be prepared and seek help if you need it.