How to handle HSC results stress: The complete guide.

The day before exam results can be a tough one to digest. You’ve worked hard all year, studied topics and concepts over and over, struggled with topics, got better at them eventually, and finally appeared for the exams.

No matter how you feel after the exams, or how well you do on exam day, the results stress is felt by everyone. Overthinking the questions you might have answered incorrectly and also the ones you might have answered correctly.

It feels like there’s a hole inside your chest, emptiness takes over, and you start feeling more and more anxious about the result every next minute. You keep imagining all the bad scenarios and slowly drift away from reality.

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality - Seneca.

The big question, for now, is - How to get rid of this stress?

So, let’s answer those questions.

Getting rid of the results stress is much easier than we think it is. One of the things someone would say is “Just stop thinking about it”. But, I am an HSC student, too, and I have my results tomorrow, so I know it’s not that easy to stop thinking about it. Here are things that work.

It’s important to keep in mind that while you’re doing the things that I mention, don’t keep reminding yourself of the purpose behind these things. That way, you’ll keep thinking about them.

1. Acknowledge your feelings: Sit and contemplate. Get to know what you’re feeling. Understand the reasons behind those feelings. The people who know their feelings are the people able to control them.

2. Focus on what you can control: Now that you know what you feel and why you feel a certain way, focus on the things you can control. This is an important concept in Stoic Philosophy. Focusing on what you can control makes you a better, healthier, and happier man. While you can’t control the outcome of your exams, you can control how you respond to it. Stressing out now isn’t going to help you at all. So, why worry?

3. Avoid Comparisons: If you’re comparing yourself to others and worrying even more… STOP. It’s the last thing you want to do if you want to feel better. Comparisons never work. You can’t expect yourself to score the exact result as someone else just because they’re doing better. It doesn’t work. Everybody has unique situations at their homes, with their families, friends, relatives, etc. Everybody has different environments to work in. You can only compare to someone if you have been studying in extremely ideal situations, which never happens. Otherwise, it is of zero use or benefit. You’ve done very well given your situation so just sit back and be proud of yourselves.

4. Divert your attention: There are a lot of things to do apart from just doom-scrolling and worrying about your results. Go out for a walk, meet your friends and families, talk to people, and engage yourself in refreshing activities. If you’re feeling stale, take a bath. Cold showers are preferable because they relax your body.

5. Know your worth: A single piece of paper cannot decide my fate. This is a sentence you might’ve heard a million times. Probably more. But it’s actually sensible. The results, they might not be the best of your efforts. They might not be the outcome of your peak performance. What you should be judging is the outcome of the performance that was your best. Because once you hand over the test papers, the answer sheets, or the supplements to the invigilator, you shift the control from your hands. You now no longer have to worry about what happens next. Even if you do, nothing’s gonna change. Everything will be the same. This is not the end of your life. You always have much more to do than just get a college and find placements and find jobs and work. Discover more hobbies, passions, and job opportunities. Find what you love to do, and then do what you love to do. An opportunity is never your last. There’s always more to everything. Just keep looking and have patience.

6. Don’t lose your calm: In situations like these, it’s pretty normal that we let everything spiral out of control. We lose our focus, we lose control over everything we had control. This just brings us back to the second thing to do(Focus on what you can control). But, how to not lose your calm?

• Meditate: Meditating for 5-10 minutes can help you bring back your attention toward better things. If you’re unaware of how to start, I would recommend looking for guided meditation apps on Play Store/App Store.

• Do something interesting: Maybe play some video games or watch a movie, a web series, or a TV series, just to divert your mind off things.

• Write down how you feel: Writing down how you feel or journaling can be a very effective way to organize your feelings and emotions and act on them easily.

• Write down 10 things that you’re grateful for: Take a piece of paper, and a pen and start writing down things that you’re grateful for that happened to you today, yesterday, or just in life, generally. Something like, I am grateful that I have a good friends circle, or I am grateful that I have a roof to live under and food to eat anytime I want. Maybe something more personal, maybe something that you would live another life for. There are a lot of things to be happy about that we miss due to the stresses of the everyday. If you can write more than 10 things, then that’s very good. But no matter what situation you’re in, everyone can find 10 things they’re grateful for, even at the worst moments of their lives.

I’m sure if you do even some of these things, you’ll reduce your stress very effectively. The methods work, they’re proven. You can look up research papers on them. Result stress is a very dreadful feeling, but you can get rid of it, for the better. With all that being said, I wish everyone the best of luck and I know you’ve done well. Everything will be alright.