Exam Season recap: Mentally ready

Hello there!

As I said yesterday, I came back to stay and today I’m posting again. Feels so good to write freely again!

Today it’s been a bit of a sad day because it was quite rainy and gray and I personally was quite tired as all the actual weight of exam season kicked in and I just realized how tense and tired my body was just now.

I want to use this topic for today’s blog post centering more in the mental aspect. How much pressure can exam season put on students? How did I personally feel?

Picture we took after our ballet exam yesterday

Well, before I start I would like to clarify that before I came to Germany I never did any kind of exam before. Back in Spain, my conservatoire gave the note with a trimester evaluation that was continuous, so it rated your evolution throughout three months and your attendance, attitude and so on was also inside this given note.

When I came to Mannheim, three years ago, I had to face for the very first time a full season of exams. That was completely new to me and I’m not going to lie, the first year was very scary.

I didn’t do too bad as I took it as a kind of audition where I needed to show my best self and try to enjoy it as much as possible. Of course, the contents of the exams in my first year had nothing to do with the contents I had to show in the latest exams.

For people who doesn’t understand what kind of contents they may ask in a ballet exam, I’ll do a quick explanation.

In ballet there’s a certain amount of steps that are basic and need to be done properly in order to dance a full classical choreography afterwards. (And any kind of choreography actually, as from a strong basis you are able to open up your range of styles without a problem) For example, in the program for second year of Bachelor of Arts in my school they asked for a coda of eight pirouettes en suite from fifth position en pointe and sixteen tour attitude en avant en suite sur la demi pointe.

In the last year they ask for a coda of fouettés en pointe. You get the point.

So coming back to what the exam experience is: it can be terrifying at first. It gets you anxious and stressed about something that actually is not that big of a deal. And you discover that throughout doing more and more exams.

My first year of exams was scary but the contents were not that hard so I was confident in my performance and I knew that everything they asked for was reasonable and achievable so there was nothing to be scared about.

Picture after my first ballet exam.

My second year was a bit of a drop. The contents were harder and I did the worst thing that I could have done: over working on every single step. I was at the studio for hours every single weekend and thought that if I didn’t work every single day nothing was going to be possible leaving apart one of the most important parts: resting.

The result was having some clumsy exams were I was extremely nervous, anxious and I didn’t show my best self. It was a shame because looking back at it I know that all steps and combinations in the program were possible to achieve for me, but I had a very wrong mindset.

So what happened this year? I personally went for the calm and serenity mood and I think that worked perfectly fine for me. The ambiance I lived during this year was full of ups and downs and towards the end I could solve everything that disturbed or simply annoyed me so that I could face my exams in the best way possible.

I will talk about what this things mean in the near future but for now let me explain what I mean with being calm. It’s not just about having meditation and yoga sessions and chill in class and reserve energy.

It’s more about realizing that all the work that can be made until now it’s already done and there’s no point on trying to find more issues and faults to correct two days before any exam. I’m focusing now on the ballet exam because it’s the biggest one at least for me, but it can apply to any other subject I’ve had an exam of.

Picture from this year's pas de deux exam

I strongly believe that the day to day work it’s the one that’s going to bring your performance at its best. It’s good to sit down sometimes but some others you really need to overcome some small difficulties that may be on your way and push yourself to take that one class that seems impossible to do. When you know you’ve worked hard, you’ve paid attention to your teacher’s corrections and you’ve really tried to apply them, there’s nothing to worry about because you’ve done the best you could during the full year.

In one day you’re not going to be able to be perfect but you can’t be worse either. So calm means confidence to me as well. Specially because this was my very last school year, it was an opportunity to really perform my exam, enjoy it and show my own improvement.

It’s something that teacher’s sometimes miss to say and forget to give importance to this aspect in an exam. They say "enjoy it", yes, but they can’t stop themselves from getting anxious and over stress the wrong students sometimes. I believe that a good work environment is vital for a successful exam season and that starts from the teacher’s side and also the inner attitude of each student.

We must begin to distinguish every student by its work and improvement rather than just physical aptitudes. Sometimes teachers can get stuck in their own concepts and mindsets and they lose track of who’s actually working well and conscious and who’s not doing so well.

I say this in general as an aspect I’ve witnessed in several classes in different places and I just wanted to remark it because it’s important to understand that exams are a proof of the students and their teacher’s work. All together.

Exams can be exhausting but they're not impossible to achieve!

Anyway, exam season is hard, but facing it with a good attitude can make those days much easier and happier. Be confident, work hard but smart and enjoy it as if it was a performance at a theater!

I hope you liked this post and if you’re interested in this kind of personal opinion posts don’t hesitate to tell me in the comments down below!

I wish you have a beautiful afternoon and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Love,

Muriel