Make Your Child Eat Smart to Study Hard

Exams involve stress. This time of the year is heavy with the anxiety of students cramming for their forthcoming class X and class XII exams. Obviously, students are frazzled studying for their exams and nutrition takes a backseat. This is the time when nutrition becomes more important than ever. Guardian Health Chronicle shares tips for fuelling your body and brain during exams.

1. Do not skip breakfast. Quick healthy options include–
   Whole grain cereal/ wheat flakes, milk and banana
   Instant oatmeal with raisins and milk
   Vegetable upma or poha
   Mixed vegetable porridge with boiled egg
   Missi roti /Stuffed Parantha with buttermilk
2. Re-fuel every 3-4 hours. For long lasting energy, start with a fruit or vegetable; add a grain product and some protein (milk, cheese, yogurt, meat, eggs, fish, beans, nuts, seeds or peanut butter.) Plan study breaks and include a light meal or snack to keep your blood sugar and energy levels stable.
3. Have healthier snacks available. High fat, high sugar snacks provide little brain fuel and can cause unwanted weight gain. Have healthy options in your reach. The season offers many healthy options like—raw carrot with lemon juice, roasted almonds or walnuts, chocolate milk, steamed corn to name a few.
4. Cut down on caffeine. While caffeine can give you an immediate energy boost, its effects are short-lived. Overdo it and you’ll feel—jittery, restless, irritable, and unable to relax. Limit your caffeine intake to 2 small cups of coffee per day and try lower-caffeine beverages like green or herbal tea or decaf coffee.
5. Hydrate them. Not drinking enough fluids can leave you with a headache.
6. Make them avoid mindless munching. It’s easy to polish off a bag of chips or savoury snacks while you’re concentrating on your notes or reading, so don’t bring snacks to your study spot. Eat only in the kitchen or away form your desk. Take regular study breaks and look for true hunger signs.
7. Serve non-food stress busters. Learn to decrease stress without turning to food. 
8. Let them get some fresh air, send them for a walk around the clock, call a friend, put on your favourite music, take a 15 minute nap, play a game of solitaire, or try some yoga, deep breathing or meditation.

Or better yet, let make make a list of some nice things to do for themselves when their exams are finished!

Handy Tips to Cope With Exam Phobia

Exams exasperate. Now, that they are almost there, students are cramming into everything with feverish pitch. Your child spends frantic hours cramming the night before the examination and worries that she cannot retain what she has learnt.
Making sense of it. Your child could be suffering from high anxiety and also mental block due to an inefficient study pattern. She needs help.
PQRST Model suggested by Imperial College London is a good revision technique that can be used

• Preview - skim the material to get an overall preview
• Questions - formulate questions that highlight what you aim to derive from your reading
• Read Actively - make appropriate notes of key ideas
• Summarize - identify the main points using lists, key words, flow diagrams, etc. and connect them with knowledge from other sources
• Test - test yourself by reciting and reviewing the summaries immediately after learning the material and again at later intervals

Students have the misconception that continuous long hours of study are the secret of high performance levels. It has however been proved scientifically by extensive studies of the human brain that concentration starts to increase after 20 minutes of study, peaking at 40-45 minutes after which it steadily declines, thereby increasing the time taken to learn and remember in cases of long hours of continuous study, reducing effectiveness. It is therefore recommended to take regular short breaks after about 50 minutes of reading to maximize memorizing and concentration levels.
Coping with Anxiety
Exam time is stressful for children. However, with the support of parents, children can defray stress.
Tips

• Be affectionate but don’t make the child uncomfortable with over-attention. A hug in private just works fine.
• Spend some light moments with your child. It could be sitting at the dinner table and sharing some jokes with the family.
• Forget about an exam as soon as your child has appeared for it, ruminating over it is not going to help you or your child. Inculcate the same in your child.
• Spend some time together with your partner.
• Do one thing that gives you joy or happiness every day. Encourage the same in your child.
• Do not set down rules for your child; let the child follow his or her routine while studying
• Encourage your child to take adequate breaks.
• See that the child gets eight hours of shut-eye.
• Nutritious food is essential for your child but steer clear foods that are high in fat and sugar. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the best bet.

It is however recommended that in extreme cases of stress, insomnia and tearfulness expert consultation should be sought.
In the exam hall
The exam hall is where it all counts! All those hours of preparation and practice, hence you will be suffering from some amount of stress. However, there is a way to bell the cat and we have enumerated these for you—

1. Map your time. This is the primary rule of writing an exam. Read the questions carefully and allot time to writing answers to these. While solving numerical questions if you are getting stuck, it is a good idea to move on and return to the question later. Always strive to have 15 minutes in hand so that you can revise the answers before handing your answer-sheet.
2. Avoid irrelevance. This is not going to fetch you any mark.
3. Write in a legible handwriting and avoid grammatical and spelling errors.
4. Underline important points. Leave a line between paragraphs and between the answers. They may sound common sense, nevertheless are overlooked in the hurry to complete the answers.
5. Start your answers with crisp definitions, and give relevant diagrams wherever necessary.

Finally, remember external pressures around exams can be huge. It can be hard to deal with, especially with family and people you respect, but you need to remember that it’s your life and your exam, with you in control. Also try to put the last exam out of your mind and look ahead to the next one – you can’t go back and change things.
Dr.Vinita Jha is a Gurgaon based psychiatrist and runs her own wellness company