A parents’ guide
Guy Kelly reveals the part mum and dad can play in their offspring achieving their best
As June arrives, seemingly towing sunshine with it, spare a moment’s thought for the nation’s young people currently holed up in their bedrooms battling through exam season. As they are nose-deep in revision notes and guides (and, most probably, any number of Whatsapp groups) parents are downstairs feeling their own stress about what they can do to get their offspring over the finish line. While you can’t take the exams for them, there are definitely things you can do to get them exam-fit.
Here, Yvonne Wake, a public health nutritionist and well-being consultant, who also happens to have had three children go through university, explains what you can do to ensure their minds and bodies are in an optimal state to take even the most daunting of exams.
The build-up
In the weeks before a big exam, students tend to either be on study leave if they’re at school, or abandoned to their own devices if they’re at college. There is little structure, even less routine – and a lot of temptation. Whether it’s in relation to work patterns or diet, Wake recommends discipline. “They need to concentrate on themselves and see it as a job, with their task being to get themselves through those exams with the minimum amount of distraction,” she says, so no nights out, no alcohol, and serious attention to diet.
Pizza, white pasta, white bread, junk and sugar should be replaced by structured and balanced meals containing a small amount of protein, with as many plant-based foods as possible.
Apart from feeling less lethargic, you’re minimising risk, Wake says. “You are less likely to be ill, or have an upset stomach, or get food poisoning or feel bloated – all these things that could cause trouble won’t happen.”
Wholegrain foods, such as bread or brown pasta, digest far better than their white cousins, but ideally Wake recommends chicken, and oily fish such as mackerel and sardines as a light protein that can boost brain health. Revision snacks should consist of nuts and berries, or dark chocolate.
“Always eat between 8am and 8pm, too, otherwise the food won’t be metabolised properly overnight, and don’t skip meals – even missing one will make you tired.” And then sleep, she says, for a good seven to nine hours, after having no caffeine, no snacks and perhaps a herbal tea, and without blue-light distractions or dramatic changes to your schedule.
This is without argument: regardless of the cliché of the nocturnal student, the overwhelming evidence indicates that healthy sleep relates to higher concentration levels.
The night before
Wake has bad news for students hoping to do a year’s worth of study between dusk and dawn on exam eve: “Cramming has never worked.”
Relaxation is the key, she says, otherwise “brain fog” will occur.
“A bit of exercise the afternoon or evening before an exam would do a lot of good, if you’re a regular jogger or squash player, for instance, or if you’re a yoga type. Then early to bed.”
Hydration is vital. The recommended two litres a day for men and 1.6 litres a day for women are there for a reason, and a study in 2012 found that those who brought water into an exam hall performed on average 5per cent better than those who didn’t. So students must go to bed hydrated, wake up and have a big glass of water, and keep drinking through the day.
The morning of …
Breakfast is essential. “A big breakfast, too,” Wake says, “as much as you can eat. You want something with a low GI [low-glycemic] which drips energy into your blood rather than making you want to snack, so porridge is the best, but muesli and wholegrain bread work as well.
“If porridge sounds like trouble, go for overnight oats, and throw on some chia seeds, which contain antioxidants and fibre.”
She also suggests eggs and “healthy fat from avocados, with orange juice”.
“You want to stop yourself feeling peckish or getting that fog-brain that comes when you feel hungry,” Wake says. “Think of an exam like a long car journey: you would never set off on a three-hour journey without having a meal first, because you know you’d feel awful and lose concentration. So force something down if you have to.”
Caffeine comes with caveats. Coffee and tea, especially if they are part of your ongoing routine, are essentially fine in very small doses, but Wake advises against them being used as a concentration aid.
“Anything that makes your heart beat faster and gives you that jolt of energy comes with the down afterwards,” she says. “And energy drinks are the worst idea. The hit of sugar and caffeine together will give such a short-term buzz and comedown that you could easily get a headache and be really affected.”
The study is one thing, but what could ruin their chances? Tiredness, thirst and hunger. “Those things are avoidable, so they might as well do all they can to avoid them.”