Mental Health Awareness Week Blog 2026

Mental Health Awareness week is always in May and often aligns with the start of exam periods for a lot of young people across the country. Whether GCSEs, A levels, Degrees or even SATs, they can be a huge period of stress for people sitting them. There often feels like a huge amount of pressure to manage, and this can have a huge impact on our Mental Health and Wellbeing, both for the individuals undertaking exams, but also the family and friends around them who are supporting them.

It is many years now since I had my own experience of exams, but I still clearly remember how I felt. I did not enjoy exams. I found them really difficult and often found that the anxiety around them significantly impacted on my ability to focus and do well within the exam itself. My results at A level were not what I had been ‘predicted’ and didn’t really reflect how I had been as a student during those two years, and at the time the impact of that felt huge. I remember a narrative in my sixth form college about the importance of those exams and the pressure and expectations that put on me felt really overwhelming at times.

It can be easy to say, nearly 30 years on, that I can now reflect and see that, while important, they weren’t ‘everything’ – despite how I felt at the time. Yes I had to make some changes compared to what I thought would come next. I studied a slightly different subject than I had planned and I went to a different university. But it didn’t prevent me from progressing in a career that still aligned with those ambitions I had at 18. I am now in a Senior Leadership position at an Academic Institution as well as being Co-Chair of the PPN in the North West, and I am also undertaking a doctorate – things that felt impossible to believe initially following my A level results.

There is no one right way to survive the exam period. Some people love exams and find the pressure helps them focus. Some people succeed at managing the balance and plan their work and apply their best on the day. Some people may feel as I did, where the anxiety and stress can become a distraction from the subject you are trying to focus on. Some people may feel usure about how to best prepare for exams in the first place or avoid or choose not to do the preparation. There is not one ‘normal’ way to respond to exams, and therefore there is not one right way to manage them. There are, however, lots of helpful sources of information on different ways to manage these periods in your life, for example:

Exam stress

Info on exam stress - for 11-18 year olds | Mind

Coping with exam pressure - a guide for students - GOV.UK

Tips on preparing for exams - NHS

What is universal, however, is the importance of knowing what works for you and taking positive action to put those things in place. This includes a revision schedule that keeps the right balance for you in the amount of study, rest, family time and fun still featuring (albeit perhaps not as much for that short period of time during the exam period).

I hope if you are currently preparing for exams or supporting someone in your family to prepare for exams that the next few weeks can be a healthy space to be the best they can be.