With results typically coming out in August and universities starting in September, there is a narrow window for making changes to your plans if things don’t turn out as expected. This can cause many students to feel very apprehensive in the lead up to results day. I know firsthand how daunting the wait can be and my emotions were all over the place before I received my results.

There was a lot of uncertainty about if I would obtain the grades I needed to meet my conditional offer from Queen’s, due to some personal circumstances. The thought of opening my results and seeing grades that didn’t reflect my effort was terrifying, but I learnt plenty of anxiety-busting tips and tricks in the run-up to results day that I think might help some nervous students.

^{Results Day can be daunting for many students}

Make a plan for if things don’t go as expected

When you’re particularly anxious the last thing you want to do is think about the worst outcome coming true, but planning for it can be helpful. It’s a good idea to sit down with a pen and paper and research other options.

Some things to consider would be looking at Clearing courses on other university websites that have lower entry requirements than those you have applied to, or researching foundation courses which could help you gain access to the pathway you want to go down. Write down numbers to university clearing phone lines and keep them on hand. The last thing you want on results day is to become even more panicked because you can’t easily access resources.

^{Pre-planning and preparing a plan B can be useful}

Rest

When you’re feeling anxious it can be very hard to fully relax. You might lose sleep during the night or constantly feel on edge during the day. Taking a few hours to just fully rest in the lead up to results day to curl up on the sofa with a book or watch a movie can do the world of good. Even if you can’t get a good sleep, your body will appreciate a chance to wind down.

^{Don't let anxiety get the better of you}

Spend time with friends

As results day approaches it becomes clearer that many people are in the same situation. Most of your friends will also have worries about what will happen and it can be great to talk to them about it. We set rules in our friend group that we wouldn’t mention the actual exam papers or what grades we wanted, but we could talk generally about what we were worried about. This really helped settle my worries by getting it all off my chest and the issue became a lot smaller when I talked about it out loud.

Make sure to make time for some fun activities with friends that will take your mind off things such as going to the beach, seeing a new movie at the cinema or going to play mini golf.

^{Discuss your concerns with your friends and family}

You can’t change the past

It can be helpful to remember that your assessments are in the past. Worrying over minor details of questions is doing nothing but harm to your mental wellbeing. I vividly remember waking up in a cold sweat, panicking about answers that I had written and doing calculations over and over again. This is really not helpful. Keep your mind on the future and what your goals are.

Think only about yourself

It’s important to always focus on yourself. A lot of my anxiety around exam results was due to worrying about how I would compare to my friends or what my family would think of my results. Trying to concentrate only on yourself will help to reduce nerves. You should try to remember that what you decide on results day should be what’s best for you and not anyone around you.

^{Be kind to yourself on Results Day, no matter the outcome!}

If you think it would be kinder to yourself to avoid friends and family on results day then you absolutely should. I opened my results alone, in my room and didn’t share the results with anyone until I was ready. Of course, my parents were anxiously waiting downstairs, but having time to myself to process things and check my UCAS status was the best thing for me. It also meant that had things gone wrong, I would have been able to handle my emotions privately, knowing that my family were only a shout away if I needed support.

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Charlotte Lock Geography| Undergraduate Student | Northern Ireland I am an 18-year-old Geography student at Queen's and I am really loving it! Something that makes my degree so special is that it is so open and mixes sciences and the humanities together. I'm really enthusiastic about learning about Earth's amazing processes and how our future might look on a warming planet. Outside of the lecture hall, I love to do all sorts of crafts and travel with friends all across Ireland and beyond!