HN Explorer

Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

9 points by freshfey ↗ HN
Hello everybody,

I'm facing some big exams this August (EE undergrad, 1st year) and I want to be mentally ready for the task. What can you recommend to prepare myself mentally?

I've been looking into some mental preparation for athletes but I haven't come across onto something "trainable" (like doing something everyday for 15min.). What I picked up during reading Michael Jordans "Driven from Within'" is that Michael Jordan was never scared before a match because he knew he was prepared (trained x amount of hours for a match, etc.) so well. Maybe, I will be in this shape at the end of the preparation time, but maybe I won't that's why I'd like to train my mental coolness.

Thanks for your help.

12 comments

[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 31.6 ms ] thread
hga
Perhaps not exactly what you're looking for, but I always did no studying the day before, I just made sure I got a good nights sleep. The only exception was one term where an illness and a death in the family had me learning my first term organic chemistry up through the night before (which I then aced :-).

If you enter this last day before the exam confident that you've mastered the material as much as possible doing this should work, perhaps you might view your ability to do so as more of a test of your lack of anxiety or whatever. If you can pull it off it should leave you mentally refreshed and ready to do your best on Der Tag.

rue
Why are you asking, do you have test anxiety? Have you had problems studying? Why do you consider these tests so important (not saying they are not, I just do not know if/why they are)?

The short answer is to ensure you have studied well in advance, not worry about it and just go take your exams. Further detail may change the answer.

freshfey
No, but I have had blackouts from time to time during university exams (the environment and the people just make me nervous). However I wasn't well prepared, so the blackout isn't the only reason I didn't perform well.

I haven't had any problems studying, I just want to make sure to have this part of the test taking covered. They are important to me because I don't want to repeat a whole year because I was nervous.

nato1138
i am a professional classical violinist and I second the comment about rest. In all my years preparing for competitions and concerts, resting a lot the day of, and napping before the big event works the best.
rmundo
I listened to upbeat dance music that I loved on the mornings I had my quals. Along with a few snippets of transcendental classical (justifies-the-existence-of-the-human-race kind of music). At the end of the day, whatever happened, I'd still have that music. It shrunk the stress down to human scale for sure.

And second the good night's sleep tip.

Artemidoros
Coming from the I mental preparation for athletes area I found the book "In Pursuit of Excellence" ( http://books.google.com/books?id=VtzYIGXuo-gC&lpg=PP1... ) very good.

"The Mental Athlete" ( http://books.google.com/books?id=OVqMC9Zs3cAC&lpg=PP1... ) though seems to be closer to your intentions (I can't recommend it though as I haven't read it yet, but FWIW all books I read from this publisher turned out to be excellent and superficial skimming of it's google books page seems to confirm that).

freshfey
Wow, very interesting. Thanks for sharing. May I ask what you exactly do or did? Mental trainer?

I'll try to get my hands on "In Pursuit of Excellence".

What I also found is "10-Minute Toughness: The Mental Training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins". I'll report on this as soon as I finished reading it.

Artemidoros
No, I am not a mental trainer. I am a software developer. It's just that I once studied sports science and I am still very interested in anything coming from that field... especially considering that it is sometimes surprisingly applicable in my current work.

edit: some of the "performance psychology" things I learned helped me passing some of the more hairy tests during for my b.sc. in bioinformatics

freshfey
Very cool! I'll definitely look into your recommendations, thank you again.
ElliotH
Studying wise you want to make sure that you've got a good solid plan that you are confident with. Make sure that you are happy that at least a week before the exams you have all the material covered, then you can spend the last week looking at stuff you are less sure of.

Don't study on the day of the exam. Don't study for the evening before either.

Night before, make sure that you have everything you need (pen, calculator, ID or whatever) ready to go. Drink plenty of water, have a good meal (with mates is always good - but avoid alcohol). Don't go to bed at an unusual time. (waking up too early or late won't help).

Morning of the exam get lots of food on board, carbs good of course - but again don't eat anything you wouldn't normally. Keep on drinking water. Leave for the exam so that you're 5 minutes early. That way you can grab a seat and calm yourself down if your nervous.

When you get to the exam avoid talking to people about the exam - make general conversation (keeps you calm) but don't talk about exams. Too many people moan about how they're supposedly going to fail.

In the exam itself assuming that you have studied enough then you should be fine if you pace yourself and work through it logically.

Stay positive an it'll work fine.

freshfey
Basic, but also great advice, thanks.
realitygrill
Do you have another area in which you habitually feel confident and prepared? You can try to isolate those components and then bleed them over into exam-taking.

People also have different motivations and personalities. For example, some people do exams best in a relaxed manner. Others work in a heightened state of awareness. This sounds silly, but I feel like a special forces op in exams, trying to slash through problems. Are you more motivated to dominate an exam curve or to show you're just as good as anybody else? Strategies will differ accordingly.

Lastly, it is my experience that you can practice an absolute sense of confidence. Nothing flashy - think calm, deliberate, relaxed, and very alert. It's easiest if you restrict it to a limited context, but sitting down for an exam is perfect. Compose tests in which you will do reasonably well - maybe by mixing problems you know how to do with more complex ones you'd have to tackle in a more flexible way. Go to the exam site, do the test under exam conditions, and up the difficulty over time. If you don't have enough time to prepare this way, do the same thing but don't take a whole exam. Just practice being confident for the first 5-30 minutes.

EDIT: You mentioned that you have had blackouts and are nervous with the environment. I've never tried this, but I'm sure professors would let you try practicing while they are giving their own exams. Explain you have test anxiety and ask to sit in. (I have to admit, the thought of 'practicing' a circuits final during others' calc exam makes smile. They'll be thinking who the hell is this guy, and why hasn't he ever showed up for class?)

I would also recommend listening to John Eliot's The Maverick Mindset. Take his advice over mine.