Professor Claudia Sava, who has been teaching Romanian Language and Literature at a college in Iași for 33 years, told Agerpres that national exams have two components – an academic one and a psychological, emotional one that must be managed.

"The academic component is the one that requires intellectual effort, concentration, careful reading of the requirements, whether we are talking about the National Evaluation or the Baccalaureate exam, understanding the requirements, the given texts and focusing on what is expected to be covered. A thorough reading of the questions, as we teachers often say, means that half of the task is already completed. There is also another component to these exams. It is the emotional component. And this is where the difference is made between students who are good competitors and those who are more hesitant. Good competitors manage to control their emotions. There are no exams without emotion, but they manage to build. These emotions help them focus on what they need to solve", said Claudia Sava, who currently teaches Romanian Language and Literature at the "Mihai Eminescu" National College in Iași.

According to her, proper time management before the exams is very important.

"It's about rest and relaxation. It is known that scientific, academic information is fixed through rest, through sleep. Also, the family climate is very important, meaning how parents empathize, support and help the child. Adolescence is, by excellence, an age with emotional storms, and surely there is no recommendation valid for all children. It might not be bad for parents to tell their children that the pressure is not so great and that most people who are now 15 - 16 years old, if we refer to the National Evaluation, or 18 - 20 years old, if we refer to the Baccalaureate, have gone through this experience and survived. So, it is a necessary experience, it is a threshold, and approaching it naturally and calmly will surely bring better results than extraordinary stress", says Claudia Sava.

Before and during national exams, not only are students subjected to stress, but parents also prove to be anxious in many cases.

"Perhaps it wouldn't be bad for parents to try, as adults, to control their emotions, because they have a different life experience. Also, it wouldn't be bad for them to relate to what they themselves experienced during the exam periods and remember that it wasn't easy for them and precisely because of this, try to create a balanced and empathetic emotional climate for their children. And if they feel they can't do that, surely, there are ways. I drop the child off at the exam and then find a spiritual way to support them", explains professor Claudia Sava, PhD.

However, it appears that the students experience the strongest emotions when the exam topics are brought into the room.

"There is a moment when students receive the exam topics, regardless of the subject and their age. And at a quick scan, the child might identify some topics that seem like a blank slate in their mind. It seems to them that there are some topics they don't know. 'It's clear I won't manage'. In such situations, it is good to identify the topics they feel they can handle, start working on those elements from the test, and they will notice that in the background, the brain identifies solutions for the other requirements too, so with a lot of patience, calm and concentration, they will manage to solve everything they need to. So, they shouldn't be scared if they find very challenging topics or ones they feel they know nothing about. In fact, they do know, but the brain is so bombarded by what is happening that it can't make all the connections at the same time. These are made gradually during the exam. They can even write down on the draft with an exclamation mark the topic X that needs to be solved from then on so as not to leave anything unsolved", mentions the teacher.

She explained to Agerpres that before the exam, there is a habit among students to repeat everything quickly, with some resorting to such "tactics" even a few hours before the exam, or there are students who stay up the night before the exam to review the material.

"This is absolutely wrong. It is recommended to have relaxing activities the day before the exam, walks, a cheerful movie, pleasant reading. That's before the exam. Also, make sure to rest well the night before", is the teacher's advice.

Regarding the most common mistakes students make during written exams, she warns: "Students don't read the questions carefully. There are situations where they have to identify two or three situations and hastily identify only one or two, saying, 'I couldn't find anything else', because they don't have the patience to approach the topic calmly, without pressure. So, this is where the frequent mistakes identified by us as teachers usually lie".