Physical Wellness: An Underappreciated Key to Improving Performance on Tests

No matter how confident you may feel, final exams can still cause a great deal of anxiety. For many students, the pressure builds even if the understanding of the material is thorough. In more extreme cases, you might begin to doubt yourself, lose sleep and fail to remember the information you studied so hard to learn.

When it comes to improving your performance on exams, taking care of your overall health can be almost as beneficial as studying. This is because your physical health can have a major impact on your ability to memorize, think and reason. Disregarding your physical health and well-being could result in your brain not functioning at full capacity. Getting plenty of sleep, eating the right foods and drinking enough water all can improve your test-taking abilities and help you to get better grades.

An example of this is that many students may not realize that proper hydration is essential in how well they perform on their exams. Dehydration can lead to irritability, fatigue and lethargy — which all will prohibit you from doing your best. Research suggests those who drink a bottle of water during their exam perform slightly better than those who don’t. Good nutrition is also a key factor for how well you’ll perform on tests, as the brain uses as much as 20 percent of the energy your body needs daily. Eating nutritional foods can help keep you focused and energetic so you won’t feel fatigued during your midterms or finals.

Given how critical your grades can be in order to reach your academic and professional goals, it’s worthwhile to seek any additional advantage you can.  It is important to not let bad habits such as overindulging on junk food or poor sleeping habits hurt your chances to do well on exams.

The below slideshow has more tips you can use to reduce stress and improve performance on exams:

Tips To Improve Performance Around Testing Time from MacCormac College

Author Bio

Dr. Kenya Grooms is a clinical psychologist and Dean of Student Affairs at MacCormac College, the oldest two-year, private, nonprofit institution in Illinois. MacCormac offers educational programs for court reporting, criminal justice, business administration and more. Dr. Grooms has written and presented about family life, international partnerships, personal resilience, support services for non-traditional students and many other topics in psychology.