Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#1

Post by freshfey » Sat, May 08, 2010, 10:27 AM UTC

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#2

Post by hga » Sat, May 08, 2010, 10:57 AM UTC

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#3

Post by rue » Sat, May 08, 2010, 11:33 AM UTC

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#4

Post by nato1138 » Sat, May 08, 2010, 11:54 AM UTC

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#5

Post by freshfey » Sat, May 08, 2010, 11:56 AM UTC

rue wrote: post #3

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.

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#6

Post by rmundo » Sat, May 08, 2010, 11:59 AM UTC

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#7

Post by Artemidoros » Sat, May 08, 2010, 12:26 PM UTC

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&#3... ) very good.

"The Mental Athlete" ( http://books.google.com/books?id=OVqMC9Zs3cAC&lpg=PP1&#3... ) 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).

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#8

Post by freshfey » Sat, May 08, 2010, 2:24 PM UTC

Artemidoros wrote: post #7

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&#3... ) very good. "The Mental Athlete" ( http://books.google.com/books?id=OVqMC9Zs3cAC&lpg=PP1&#3... ) 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 b…

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#9

Post by ElliotH » Sat, May 08, 2010, 2:48 PM UTC

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prepare mentally?

#10

Post by Artemidoros » Sat, May 08, 2010, 4:40 PM UTC

freshfey wrote: post #8

Artemidoros wrote: post #7

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&#3... ) very good. "The Mental Athlete" ( http://books.google.com/books?id=OVqMC9Zs3cAC&lpg=PP1&#3... ) 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 b…

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.

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