Get a grip on ATAR anxiety

It’s that time of year again, exams, final exams, eek, it’s hard to not let the stress get the better of you but what do you do when you're stressed, your friends are stressed and the parents are especially stressed?

Take a deep breath and realise that the only thing that’s at stake is your future…, just kidding, it’s probably more helpful to focus on the idea that there is more than one way to skin a cat and there are more pathways to a fulfilling career than ATAR.

And realise that so long as we pursue high stakes examinations as a rite of passage and a necessity, there is going to be pressure attached to them. Fortunately, though there are effective strategies to deal with that pressure.

Like anything challenging, getting on top of ATAR stress is about looking it in the eye, getting things into perspective and being organised in your revision and approach. There is also help to be found online to take on those butterflies.

Karen McDaid is Head of Department, Mathematics at Cluey Learning which is an online tutoring resource that provides strategies and advice for students staring down the ATAR.

“I remember when my kids were going through it and the stress that I felt on their behalf and I wasn’t terribly worried about the scores they were going to get. At the end of the day there is a lot of pressure put on the kids in high stakes examinations.

“The ATAR provides only a very small snapshot of what children are capable of, at the moment, the proposal is to move towards profiling of children from ages 15 to 19. It’s a good thing because it gives a greater indication of what the kids know across a period of time as opposed to that single snapshot,” McDaid says.

But we seem to be stuck with high pressure, high stakes exams and to resist seems futile, the idea is to work with the situation at hand. It’s also helpful to realise that you’re not alone, three in four students admit to feeling pressure around ATAR.

“The stress side of it is probably something that a lot of them haven’t come up against, they don't necessarily have the tools, so the more tools we can provide for them the more support we can give them in the lead up to final examinations the better it is,” she says.

“We provide them with as much advice as we can, we tell them to go for walks as cortisol is one of those stress hormones that exercise reduces, listen to music, get as much sleep as possible, if they want to, they can meditate and as part of our campaign we’re offering free subscriptions to the Calm app.

“I always advise kids to create some learning logs, which is a summarise of all of their notes, they can compare that with their peers so that they’ve got a breadth of knowledge and carry those with them everywhere.

“Another thing that is really important is positive self-talk, all too often we have a tendency to talk ourselves down instead of talking ourselves up and saying ‘I actually can do this’.”

Beating stress – a psychologist’s checklist
Sydney psychologist Jemma Rollo says “Anxiety mainly becomes problematic when people fail to recognise and acknowledge it, and then try to avoid, rather than responding appropriately to it.”

Here are her four strategies for beating the fear.

1 Acknowledging and accepting your anxiety
“The first skill to develop is to be able to recognise anxiety,” says Rollo. “This can be tricky, as it can present slightly differently depending on the person and situation.”

Signs that you might be experiencing some form of anxiety include butterflies in your stomach, a “sick” feeling, sweaty hands, a racing heartbeat, and shortness of breath. Cognitive symptoms can include repetitive or intrusive thought patterns, and excessive worry. 

The kindest thing you can do for yourself is to acknowledge this pressure and give yourself a gold star just for taking it all on. The next best thing you can do is to understand your anxiety.

2 Understanding your anxiety
“Rather than thinking that anxiety is ‘bad’ just because it’s uncomfortable and unpleasant, try to think of anxiety as a clue, and imagine that you’re a detective,” argues Rollo. “You don’t want to avoid the clues, because then you’d never solve the mystery. Instead of avoiding anxiety, pay attention to it. Anxiety can tell you that you really care about something in the situation, and if you miss this information, you miss an opportunity to bring your behaviour into line with your values.”

3 Positive ways to deal with your anxiety
“Once you use your anxiety to ‘figure out’ what you may care about, don’t waste time and energy on attempts to avoid the unpleasant feelings of anxiety through distracting things like phones, TV, excessive room tidying or food control,” says Rollo. “Instead, choose behaviour that’s in line with those values. For example, if you’re anxious because you care about getting into uni, a behaviour in line with that would be choosing subjects you enjoy or are good at, studying regularly and participating actively in class.”

4 Don’t envy the people who don’t care
At the end of the day, anxiety can become a useful ‘poke’ from your brain, reminding you what you care about and trying to get you to pursue those things with passion. “Anxiety is usually only problematic when people use avoidance and distraction excessively, and therefore don’t choose behaviours that keep them on track to achieve what they care about.”

See more of Cluey Learning’s #ATARanxiety campaign at https://clueylearning.com.au/atar-anxiety