10 Ways To Help Your Maths Pupils With Exam Stress 

As a maths teacher you are likely to work with lots of pupils who are experiencing exam stress, so what can you do as a teacher to effectively help your pupils? 

1. Revision Skills 

If students feel well prepared for an exam, then they are less likely to suffer from exam stress. It may not be a magic bullet, but for many pupils it can help them to feel confident and less stressed. Effective revision skills can include: 

- Having a clear revision plan which starts early. 
- Organising notes and information effectively. 
- Practising past maths papers and using mark schemes to learn from mistakes.  
- Splitting up revision into manageable chunks including regular breaks 

2. Encouragement 

Try and think about a teacher that inspired you. It is highly likely that they were excellent at encouraging you and helping you to believe in yourself. Focus on encouraging your students and being positive about what they have achieved so far. One of the key ways for pupils to manage exam stress is by challenging their own negative thoughts. There is more information on how to help pupils do this in this Ofqual Blog: What can schools do about examination and test anxiety?

3. Find out How Your School Approaches Exam Stress 

Your school should have a whole school approach to helping pupils manage exam stress. This topic might be tackled with pupils in assembly or during form time. Find out how your school is helping pupils with exam stress and then reinforce these messages with your pupils. It is a lot easier to help pupils when they are hearing a consistent message from their teachers. 

4. Don’t Deal with It on Your Own 

If one of your pupils appears to be highly test anxious, then don’t deal with this situation on your own, make sure you make contact with relevant colleagues such as a form tutor, or pastoral head of year.  There may be safeguarding concerns if there is a particular situation at home which is exacerbating test anxiety. As a maths teacher you are part of a team, so you should never feel alone.  

5. Sleep  

If your maths pupils are feeling stressed about exams, it is worth checking in with them on how they are doing with sleeping. They may feel that staying up till 2am revising is a good idea, whereas it could actually be contributing to their exam stress. It is really helpful to emphasise good sleep as part of effective revision.

6. Exercise and Diet 

A good diet and exercise are also important in combatting exam stress. If you have a pupil who is anxious then you could ask them about what type of sports or exercise, they enjoy. These types of conversations might be covered during form time - on the other hand if a pupil is feeling particularly stressed about their maths exams, then the stress might be more apparent during their academic classes. Get into a habit of talking about sleep, exercise and diet when you start revising with your pupils.  

7. Digital Distractions 

Pupils are always being told that they are on their phones too much, but when it comes to revision it can be difficult to switch off. On the one hand there are great resources such as TL Maths and pupils may be relying on digital copies of exam papers and solutions. Help pupils to think about how they can manage their social media use and minimise distractions while still making use of the digital resources. Some pupils fall into the trap of just watching YouTube videos about maths. Remind your pupils that effective maths revision involves actually doing the maths, not just watching videos or reading about maths.  

8. Be an Honest Role Model 

Talk about how you manage your own stress. What types of things do you do to stay calm? It might be walking your dog, or setting aside time to enjoy a hot chocolate at the end of a busy day. It is helpful for pupils to hear that they aren’t alone in managing stress.   

9. Breathing Techniques 

There are helpful breathing techniques which can help with anxiety. Your school may have a particular approach which it advocates. Here is a simple breathing exercise from BBC bitesize. 

10. Do Further Research 

There has been lots of research done around helping pupils manage test anxiety. Here are some resources to help you: 

What can schools do about examination and test anxiety - Ofqual Blog  
Understanding test anxiety - Ofqual Blog 
Help your child beat exam stress - NHS Advice  
Exam Stress and Pressure - Childline  

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