How to overcome exam anxiety

[Shinyredbicycle]

As the title says, really.

Ds17 has gradually got worse at exams. He scraped through most of his GCSEs (not maths) and is now doing three BTECH courses in sixth form. These are largely coursework but all have at least one module that is assessed by a three-hour exam.

Summer of Y12, he failed 2 out of 3 Btech exams and GCSE maths for the third time. He is perfectly academically capable of passing though the problems are:

• he has 25% extra time due to a visual processing disorder, but doesn't use it as he can't wait to get out of the exam room

• his brain seems to seize up, sometimes after he's written one sentence, sometimes when he's answered one question, but generally before he's written enough to pass

• he finds it very difficult to organise himself to revise and now point blank refuses any help from me

• the resit maths lessons clash with one of his subjects so he hasn't had any. Refuses to let me help. Refuses to countenance a tutor.

After he said that he has only answered one question out of three in an exam in the summer, I contacted the Head of Sixth form, subject teacher and Head of Inclusion (SENCo on long term sick, no replacement) to relay my concerns and was told that everything was fine and that his teachers thought he would do well.

When he failed 3 out of. 4 exams in the summer, I contacted the head again and said that this doesn't appear to be the case. We had a meeting and was assured that he would have additional support for the exams that he needs to resit.

He had a mock today where he was meant to be in a room by himself (with invigilator), but that turned out not to be possible, so he was in the main room. He said that he wrote a few paragraphs ( on a laptop) then deleted them and that was it.

If this continues, he is at real risk of leaving sixth form with no additional qualifications to the ones he got in Y11, not even maths GCSE. I am at my wit's end with him and the school. I have emailed again today ( following up the email I sent last week) and asked what support they can put in place.

What else can I do? What helps with exam anxiety, which gets worse with every exam and every failure?

TIA

You can now email the head and complain this issue is not being tackled.

Can you afford an exam skills tutor?

Also something like hypnotherapy or visualisation could help.

Is he still motivated enough to want to find a solution? They can be very stubborn at that age. If not it may take another year but switch to something with no exam elements.

the hypnotherapy recommended above may help, he could try relaxation breathing techniques to unlock the brain.

Well first rule is never delete anything. Teach him to use the strike through.

Does he do a plan at the beginning of the answer? That can help if his brain freezes later.

Does he look at past papers? Even if he prepared a model answer and repeated that for an entirely different question he would probably pick up marks.

But this doesn't really sound like the exam is the problem if the whole eco structure around it (the revising, the refusal of tutor) is also going to pot.

I'm sorry - I somehow missed the refusal to have a tutor.

I don't know what you can do if he won't accept help.

I'm sorry, but simply refusing to revise or accept any help isn't "exam anxiety."

If it is truly exam anxiety I can recommend self hypnosis app - DS is v academic but had terrible nerves, he started listening to a session on Spotify by Glen Harold and did so for months leading up to the exams.
He used to fall asleep but it worked- no more panics and being sick.
However if your DS hasn't done any revision then of course he's going to be anxious as he can't do the exam. He's using the anxiety as an excuse. Which is harder to deal with.

Do you think a scribe/prompt might help? They can write down what DS says if the action of putting pen to paper is one of the things he's finding triggering. He could also be entitled to rest breaks as well as extra time. My DS has rest breaks and he finds them useful for when he's feeling overwhelmed. These are adjustments the school needs to apply for asap though as they have to be his normal method of working.

Does he know what he wants to do after 6th form? Is he thinking work? Apprenticeship? Is there anything that might motivate him to keep going? Have you both investigated other pathways? There may be courses he could do at other settings that have no exams at all. With regards to maths, it may be possible for him to start with functional skills maths, depending on what grade his GCSE was.

The pass rate for GCSE maths on a retake is really low. I think it's something like 15%. I know several DC who are stuck in an awful doom loop of retaking and failing - and each time they fail they feel worse about themselves.

If he's failed the exam elements of his Btec courses, what has school said? Is he being allowed to retake them? How has he got on with the coursework element, is he on track to pass those? Does he actually want to continue with his courses?

Thanks, all.

On the revision point, he finds it hard to organise himself (maths) but there is a lot of scaffolding in place for Btechs. They have to write and hand in revision notes before the exam, so he had prepared.

His course work in two subjects is distinction, and pass in the other. Yes, there are two goes at resitting BTECH modules, and I'd really like him to get them under his belt at first resit in January!

Completely agree about the doom loop for maths/English resits. He had no lessons last autumn and failed by one mark. It is incredibly frustrating to know that if he had just had a go at one more question he would have likely have got that mark and at least that be over. It is ultimately up to him - the offer of a tutor/me helping again is still there.

The issue with Btechs is that the overall mark is the lowest the student has achieved. So if he fails one module, he fails the whole course.

Although there is a responsibility on him, the school also have a duty to provide the adjustments that they have assessed as him being entitled to. If they had agreed to a separate room, that should have been provided rather than yet another situation where he ceases up in an exam.

I'll mention the hypnotherapy podcasts to him, thanks.

Sounds like motivation, or maybe fear of further failure, may be contributing factors too.
Obviously I don't know your son, but perhaps it's worth reminding him why it's important to pass these exams and how it relates to his future plans after education.