How to overcome exam anxiety during IIT-JEE preparation?

Edited By: MADE EASY TEAM | Updated on Dec 23, 2024 02:57 PM IST | # JEE

After opting for the science stream with PCM as the main subject in class 11^th. Most of the students dream of pursuing B.Tech. from top engineering colleges of the country, and maximum students start preparing for IIT-JEE from class 11^th itself. This preparation of IIT-JEE requires hard work and discipline, but what it doesn’t require is stress and anxiety, but both anxiety and stress are inseparable parts of the preparation of competitive examinations. And this anxiety and stress become many-fold when the competition is like IIT JEE, which is one of the most difficult exams in India at the undergraduate level. IIT-JEE is the gateway for top engineering colleges in India. Every year, lakhs of aspirants appear in this difficult examination. It is a two-stage examination; the first stage is JEE Main, and the second is JEE Advanced. JEE Main occurs twice a year, whereas JEE Advanced occurs once a year. The preparation of IIT-JEE is very challenging and demanding in nature, which leads to a very high amount of stress on aspirants. More than stress, it is the fear of failure that keeps haunting the aspirants day and night. Some common questions regarding the stress and anxiety that JEE aspirants have are, How to overcome anxiety during IIT-JEE preparation? How to reduce stress during IIT-JEE preparation? In this blog, we’ll provide certain tips to the aspirants that will be helpful in reducing stress and anxiety during IIT-JEE preparation.

Reasons of anxiety and stress during IIT-JEE preparation

Before finding the remedies of stress and anxiety during IIT-JEE preparation, let us first look at the reasons for anxiety and stress.

Highly competitive nature of IIT-JEE.
Pressure from society, parents, teachers, peers, etc.
Unrealistic expectations
Fear of failure
Lack of time management
Lack of studies
Incomplete preparation

Tips to manage stress and anxiety during IIT-JEE preparation

The stress during IIT-JEE preparation doesn’t come from studies; rather, it is the outcome of unrealistic expectations from the aspirants, self-doubt, fear of failure, and comparisons with the other candidates. Let us look at some strategies to overcome exam anxiety.

Understand the exam pattern: One of the main reasons for anxiety and fear is that students don’t understand the exam pattern. To overcome this, it is important that aspirants should understand the exam pattern before starting their preparation. This would make aspirants more confident and prepared for the examination.
Create a study plan: To clear any examination, a proper study plan is required. A well-structured study plan reduces anxiety and stress very much. It helps aspirants to pave a path for their journey of IIT-JEE preparation; also, it helps the aspirants to stay organized without letting them have a sense of losing control over preparation.
Avoid over-expectations: Over-expectations often create a lot of burden and stress on aspirants. Over-expectations create a sense that one knows everything, and if ever aspirants could not solve any question, it makes them feel restless and doubtful of their abilities. Also, a lot of the time when aspirants score high marks in the mock test, it gives them a sense of superiority among other candidates and fills them with overconfidence and over-expectations, which should be avoided.
Take a break: It is important to have regular breaks in between your studies so that you don’t feel overburdened and exhausted. Taking breaks is one of the best things to fight with stress and anxiety. It is very effective in tackling stress. Breaks help your mind to relax and refresh.
Develop good study habits: Study habits should be developed by the aspirants. Aspirants should avoid procrastination and focus on studies. Also, aspirants should develop some good study habits during studies, like avoiding any sort of distraction during studies, keeping their study table clean, not using mobile phones, laptops, and tablets while studying, etc. This would help to increase their productivity and confidence.
Try different study techniques: Don’t stick to one study technique; try different study techniques and then find the best technique suitable for you. Mind mapping, active recall, group discussions, etc., are some of the study techniques that would help aspirants to understand complex techniques with relative ease.
Practice Regularly: Regular practice is the key to clear competitive examinations. Solve the previous year’s question to check your conceptual clarity. This would also help the aspirants to get an idea about the latest type of questions that are being asked in the examination. Regular practice would also make the aspirants feel confident and reduce the stress in the actual examination.
Take care of mental and physical health: Mental and physical health is very important to staying stress-free. To take care of physical health, it is very important that aspirants should do some exercise on a daily basis. This would make them feel fresh and stress-free. For good mental health, aspirants can do some yoga or mental exercises on a daily basis. One can also do meditation and some breathing exercises for mental health. Aspirants should also make sure that they are getting adequate sleep (6-8 hours a day).
Stay motivated: Aspirants should not get too worried or demotivated if they are getting lesser marks in a mock test or if they are weak in any specific topic or subject. Worrying and getting demotivated won’t help; rather, aspirants should focus on how they can increase the marks or how they can understand the topic in an easy way. A positive and motivated mind-set helps you to fight stress and anxiety more efficiently. It is very important for the aspirants to get surrounded by positive and optimistic people. Aspirants should avoid comparing themselves with other candidates.

These are some tips by MENIIT for the aspirant to overcome stress and anxiety during IIT-JEE preparation. Aspirants can use them as per their suitability. Let us have a look at how stress and anxiety affect IIT-JEE preparation.

Impact of anxiety and stress on IIT-JEE preparation

Anxiety significantly impacts the preparation and performance of aspirants. It affects study habits, concentrations, health, and overall performance of the aspirants. Anxiety and stress are the main reasons due to which aspirants start doubting their capabilities. Stress reduces the thinking capacity, retention capacity, ability to focus, and ability to think properly of the aspirants. This leads to poor performance, which results in an increase in stress, and this cycle keeps on going till the aspirants take steps to overcome this cycle. Therefore, it is very important for aspirants to overcome stress and anxiety during IIT-JEE preparation.

FAQs:

How to be mentally strong during JEE preparation?

Answer: For mental strength, aspirants can perform mental exercises, breathing exercises, meditation etc.

Which subject is the hardest in JEE?

Answer: If the preparation is good, then no subject is hard.

Is 7 hours of sleep enough for a JEE aspirant?

Answer: Yes, 7 hours of sleep is enough for JEE aspirants.

How many questions should a JEE aspirant solve everyday?

Answer: There is no limit on number of questions, if the aspirant is weak in any subject then more questions of that topic/subject should be solved.