Exams Tips for Dyslexic’s
Does the thought of exams make you squirm a little, make you feel stressed and anxious? I know exams for me at that age certainly did.
The exams season is about to start, from secondary school to university students, and others outside the normal schooling system. Nobody, NOBODY enjoys exams and in fact, most will start to feel the pressure about now. Now imagine the prospects for a person with dyslexia, and how they/you could be feeling. Not only are exams not enjoyable for most people but you have the added pressure on yourself to work harder because the learning system isn’t the most supportive of your learning style. I get it, I have witnessed it myself through my own experience as a kid and being in the learning environment helping children. So, what can you do about exams? Read on and I’ll give you some tips.
Firstly, nothing replaces 1:1 face-to-face support with someone, however, not all of us have access to that kind of support and the majority cannot afford to pay someone privately for it either. I hear you and that’s why I’m going to give you some simple tips to aid you on your journey. Any help is better than no help, am I right? So, let’s get started.
Tip 1: Kick that stress and promote your memory!
Anxiety and stress are a burden to your memory, so limiting it as much as possible is always going to promote a healthier recall system (your memory).
How do we limit stress and anxiety during exam periods?
Everyone is different, you got to work with yourself on this one. What I mean by this is you know your limits, you know at least something that helps you unwind, so start there.
What is your limit?
Be honest with yourself and be aware of yourself too. Catch that rise in stress and knock it on the head with your destress method. If your limit is not much now, that’s okay, and know it isn’t always going to be that way either. It’s, however, you limit currently, work with, and don’t challenge it too much.
What’s your current destress method?
If that’s sitting reading a book, going for a walk, or dancing to some music do it. Do that whenever you can, even 5 mins is better than nothing right? If you feel you don’t have time, make time. Simple as that because who’s number 1 in your life? You are!
Aside from your own methods, why not play around with other ones?
- Yoga
- Breathing work
- Doodling
- Exercise
- Gardening
Go explore!
Tip 2: What’s your learning style?
Knowing your learning style is going to help you a lot. Once you know this information you can start to master your learning strategies.
You may already have an idea of what your preference is, but if you don’t try this 2 simple exercise and see if it gives you more of a clue.
- Think about a memory that stands out, a nice happy one. What’s the most prominent sense, visuals? Sounds? Feelings?
- When you’re in the learning environment what type of teaching style allows you to soak up the most information in general? Practical work? Work on the whiteboard/screens or just listen to your teacher/lecturer How knowing this can help you with learning?
Now if you have an idea of what you’re learning style is you can now explore different ways to revise. To get started have a look at:
- Mind mapping
- Voice notes
- Reading information out loud and walking around
- online quiz generator
- Songs
Tip 3: Confidence booster
Confidence plays a huge role in performance, giving yourself the lead in your confidence will only improve your exam experience. Going from mind-blank to a chance of information materialising to the front of the brain! Hurrah!
What can I do to boost my confidence?
There are lots of ways to give yourself a boost but there are 2 ways that could get you started. Act as if and anchoring.
Act as if
The Act as if is like doing aplay, you become a character, you embody that character for the purpose of entertaining right? Well, imagine for this purpose you’re acting as if you’re a confident person doing your exams. What would a person who’s confident do? What would they say to themselves? How would they act? How would they sound? How would they feel? Get to know that character in that situation then pretend you’re that character.thos behind this process is if you act as if, then you’ll embody it enough to get what it is your aiming for, a confident person doing exams or whatever it is.
Anchoring
The second idea to explore is anchoring, i.e., bottling a feeling you want to achieve.
Step 1: Remember a time when you felt confident about something, what did you notice? (Visuals, sounds, feelings)
Step 2: choose an anchor point on your body that you don’t commonly use. For example, thumb and forefinger touching.
Step 2: Remember the memory again. Now try making that memory brighter, moving, colourful. Now use your anchor point.
Step 3: shake it off …what’s your postcode again?
Step 4: Do it again 3-5 times in a row. Test it after 3 times and see if you’re getting the effect you wanted. If not do it again.
Whenever you need this boost of confidence before, during, or even after your exams just use your anchor point. (You may need to top it up now and again to keep it filled for other uses).
Thanks very much for reading Exam tips for dyslexic’s. For more support during exams please get intouch for 1:1 dyslexia coaching tailored to your needs.
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