Exam season is here. The papers are scheduled, the revision is (mostly) done, and the thing you need to focus on now is: performing under pressure.
We’ve spent the year building the foundations - learning how memory works, developing smart revision habits, talking about the importance of wellbeing and self-care. Now it’s time to think about the exam room itself. Because knowing your subject and performing in an exam are two different skills. The good news? Peak Performance is trainable.
Elite athletes don’t just train their bodies, they train their minds to perform when it counts. The science behind that is directly relevant to you, right now. Here’s how to use it.
Think like an athlete, not just a student
Sports psychologists talk about “peak performance states” - the mental and physical conditions in which a person produces their best work. Crucially, these states aren’t accidental. They’re created deliberately, through preparation, routine, and mindset.
The same applies to exams. Students who perform at their best aren’t necessarily the ones who revised the most. They’re the ones who walked into the exam room in the right state; alert, focused and in control of their thinking.
You’ve already done the training. Now it’s about the performance.
The 48 hours before: set yourself up to succeed
What you do in the 48 hours before an exam matters more than most students realise. This isn’t the time for cramming, your brain needs space to consolidate, not more information thrown at it.
The night before:
• Stop new revision by early evening. Reviewing key facts is fine; learning new material is counterproductive.
• Eat a proper meal. Blood sugar stability directly affects concentration.
• Get to bed at your normal time. A disrupted sleep pattern the night before is one of the biggest performance saboteurs. Sleep is when your brain finalises what it has learned, and you need that process to complete.
• Prepare everything you need the night before. Pens, ID, water, the right seat number, the right time. Decision fatigue is real, so remove every unnecessary choice from exam morning.
Exam morning:
• Eat breakfast, even if nerves reduce your appetite. Your brain needs glucose to function.
• Give yourself more time than you need. Rushing activates your stress response before you’ve even sat down.
• Limit what you discuss with friends before going in. Pre-exam conversations about “what might come up” tend to fuel anxiety, not settle it.
In the room: how to manage the first five minutes
The first five minutes of an exam set the tone for everything that follows. Here’s what to do when that paper lands in front of you:
Breathe first
Before you read a single question, take two or three slow, controlled breaths. This isn’t a soft suggestion, it’s neuroscience. Controlled breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing cortisol and reopening your prefrontal cortex: the part of your brain responsible for thinking clearly. We covered this in our March blog on exam anxiety. Under pressure, it’s the single fastest way to shift from panic mode into performance mode.
Read the whole paper before you write a word
This takes discipline when you’re nervous, but it pays off. You’ll spot where the marks are, identify your stronger areas, and your brain will start working on answers to later questions while you’re writing earlier ones. It’s not wasted time, it’s strategy.
Answer your best question first
Confidence builds momentum. Starting with a question you know well settles your nerves and gets your thinking flowing. The harder questions often feel more manageable once you’re in your stride.
The performance mindset: pressure as signal, not threat
We touched on this in March: anxiety and excitement feel almost identical in your body. The difference is interpretation.
Research from Harvard Business School found that reframing pre-performance anxiety as excitement - simply by saying “I am excited” rather than “I am nervous” -measurably improved performance. The physiological state is the same; what changes is how your brain uses it. Anxiety narrows your focus and triggers avoidance. Excitement broadens it and drives engagement.
You’ve prepared. Your body is ready. That heightened state before an exam isn’t something going wrong, it’s your system priming itself to perform. Use it.
Exam technique: where marks are won and lost
After 20 years in education, I can tell you that one of the most consistent reasons students underperform isn’t knowledge, it’s technique. The information was there, but the marks weren’t captured.
A few principles that apply across almost every exam:
• Answer the question that’s actually there. Read each question twice. Underline the command word e.g. ‘evaluate’, ‘describe’, ‘explain’, ‘compare’. These aren’t interchangeable. Marks follow the command word.
• Match your time to the marks. A 2-mark question does not need a paragraph. A 12-mark question does. Calibrate your effort to what’s on offer.
• Never leave a blank. A blank scores zero. An attempt, however imperfect, can score something. If you’re unsure, write what you do know and move forward.
• Flag and move on. If you’re stuck, mark the question and return to it. Spending ten minutes on one question you’re uncertain about costs you marks elsewhere and can leave you feeling flustered.
• Leave time to check. Five minutes at the end to re-read your answers catches careless errors. Missing units, misread data, incomplete sentences…those marks matter.
Between exams: recovery is part of performance
Exam season isn’t a single event, it’s a series of performances across several weeks. How you recover between papers matters.
After an exam, resist the urge to debrief at length with friends about what came up. You cannot change what you’ve written, and extended post-mortems increase anxiety without serving any purpose. Acknowledge it’s done, then shift your focus forward.
Protect sleep. Move your body. Eat properly. These aren’t treats to be earned after a good paper, they’re the maintenance that keeps you performing across the whole season. We covered the science in our April blog, and it applies here just as much: the students who sustain their performance through June are the ones who treat recovery as seriously as revision.
Give yourself something to look forward to after each exam. Not as a bribe, but as a genuine boundary between one paper and the next. It signals to your brain that the previous challenge is closed and creates the mental space to prepare for the one ahead.
For parents and carers: your role during exam season
The most useful thing you can do right now is be the stable, calm presence your young person needs…not another source of pressure.
• Keep home calm. Reduce unnecessary noise and conflict during exam weeks. The environment they return to after a paper matters.
• Don’t ask for a full debrief. “How did it go?” is fine. Detailed questioning about specific questions adds to the anxiety spiral.
• Trust the preparation. The work has been done. Your confidence in them -expressed simply and genuinely - is more valuable than last-minute advice.
• Watch for signs of genuine struggle. Nerves are normal. But if your child is unable to sleep, not eating, or shows signs of acute distress, seek support early. Their school pastoral team, GP, or YoungMinds (youngminds.org.uk) are good starting points.
This is what the year has been building towards
Everything we’ve talked about this year…looking at how memory actually functions, building the habits that support learning, taking care of yourself through the pressure…has been leading here.
You are more prepared than you feel. Nerves are not a sign that something is wrong. They’re a sign that you care, and that your body is ready. The transformation I see every single year at Bauhaus: “I don’t think I can do this” becomes “I actually did it”.
Walk in. Breathe. Read the paper. Answer the question that’s there. You’ve got this.