Tip for university candidates before the exam: ‘Get rid of your worries’

Prof. Dr. Ragıp Özyürek, who provides final recommendations to students for the university exam to be held over the weekend, stated, ‘Before, during, and after the exam, students should stop the chain of negative thoughts in their minds. For example, during the exam; they should discard negative thoughts such as ‘I couldn’t solve the third question, then I couldn’t solve the 7th question, I won’t get into the desired place, I can’t do it’.
The Higher Education Institutions Exam (YKS), in which 3,036,945 university candidates will participate, will take place on June 8 and 9. Istanbul Aydın University Faculty of Education Sciences Department Chair Prof. Dr. Ragıp Özyürek, who provides final recommendations to students sweating to achieve their dream university, stated, ‘Symptoms of exam anxiety are experienced from the beginning to the end of the exam. At the beginning of the exam, students experience a lot of excitement in the first minutes. They can show physiological reactions, there may be muscle tension, and it can even lead to fainting’.
‘In the last 1-2 days before the exam, the more the exam is talked about, the more anxiety increases.’ Mentioning the obsession experienced during the exam process, Prof. Dr. Ragıp Özyürek said, ‘There are obsessions such as ‘I couldn’t do it, I can’t do it, everyone else passed, only I couldn’t pass, I didn’t study enough, what will I say to my parents’. In the last 1-2 days before the exam, the more the exam is talked about, the more anxiety increases. It should be known that dealing with this sense of importance with which the exam is valued is also important. We may have students who need to retake the exam. They may experience extra tension and pressure. They can perform breathing and muscle relaxation exercises that they can easily learn from the internet to cope with the excitement during the exam. Diaphragmatic breathing techniques are not very difficult, they are learned in a short time. They can apply this in the first minutes of the exam’.
‘1-2 days before the exam, they can engage in artistic, sports, social activities.’ Pointing out that the perception of the importance of the exam should not be exaggerated in the days before entering the exam, Prof. Dr. Ragıp Özyürek said, ‘1-2 days before the exam, they can engage in artistic, sports, social activities. Also, they should go to bed early and wake up early. Families should not bring up the exam too much. For example; they should not ask questions like ‘Did you find out where you will take the exam’. Also, there is phone traffic in the family. Uncles, aunts, and cousins call. They say, ‘How did you do this? How did you do that?’ After the exam, it’s the same. They ask, ‘How was it?’ If possible, this should also be reduced’.
‘Excitement is higher in the test of the subject where success is low.’ Drawing attention to the fact that there will be more excitement in the test of a subject where success is low, Prof. Dr. Özyürek said, ‘Let’s say your success is low in the Turkish lesson, then the excitement in the Turkish test will be higher. But as the successful performance begins to increase, the excitement will decrease to normal levels. The most logical thing is this’.
‘To not miss the easiest questions, they should do them first.’ Lastly, Prof. Dr. Özyürek said, ‘Our students always need to increase their successful performances; that is, increase their perseverance, discipline, and endurance. This is what we primarily want from our families. They should create an environment that can increase the perseverance, discipline, endurance, and success performances of our students and candidates. Of course, to not miss the simplest questions, they need to do them first. They should simply mark the questions they couldn’t answer. Instead of focusing on difficult questions, they should do the easiest ones first, and then leave the hardest ones’.