If you search for ‘dyslexia and exams’ on Google, a lot of results will come up. From the tech solutions and accessibility arrangements that level the playing field to revision tips and tricks to have up your sleeve when you’re preparing for your paper, it’s actually a fairly written-about idea. But there’s a side we don’t often touch one: the mental health aspects of the end of exam season, and how this might feel when you’ve got dyslexia or literacy differences.
Exams are stressful, and for somebody who is neurodivergent, they might be even more stressful still. You’ve got the whole thing of walking into the hall knowing that your brain works slightly differently to other people’s and it’s likely to make you nervous no matter how strong your accommodations and support system are – and it’s natural. But again, you won’t struggle to find information on dyslexia and exam anxiety, either – there are actually quite a few sources out there that have info on how to beat the stress and boost confidence on the big day.
What we don’t tend to talk about is the waiting game we all play over summer as we anticipate those results dropping into our inbox, and how this can have a huge impact on our mental health as learners with dyslexia.
Destination worries mean anxiety is amplified.
It’s a fact that there are some university and college courses that have limited places. And this can worry some college- and university-age students with dyslexia. If there’s a university course in your subject that assesses predominantly on placements and performance and one that assesses predominantly on written exams, many of us may gravitate towards the one that has a more practical basis for assessment and cut out the heavy reliance on texts and tests. But traditional academic courses that assess on in-class performance and placements are relatively few compared to those that teach and examine in the standard way, so it might worry some learners about their future if they miss out on the results they need.
The difference might be a further learning experience that doesn’t play as close to your strengths, and it’s a worrying thing to think about – especially with the job market being tipped to contract and some talk of a global recession on the horizon. If you miss out on the grades for one of these more practically integrated courses, the best thing to do is call your institution and ask about adapting their grade criteria in your case before accepting another place at your second choice or via Clearing, if you’re at university level.
You may also be worried that your college results mean you might not be able to progress to your intended destination at all, and you don’t know where to turn if this turns out to be true. You’ve got a couple of options in this case: talk to your institution about re-sits, go via the Clearing platform to find another course that will accept you, or even look for opportunities outside traditional academia, like apprenticeships and vocational courses. It’s pretty rare that a ‘bad’ set of results means that this is the end for your academic or professional career – there are many roads still available to take to get you where you want to be.
It’s easy to internalise 'bad' results as a reflection of self-worth.
Receiving a set of results that aren’t the ones you were expecting can be anywhere from mildly irritating to completely devastating. But if you’ve got dyslexia, the experience of getting some lower results than you thought you’d be receiving can actually have a powerful mental health effect on us when we begin to see them as an accurate representation of our worth.
Every day, people with dyslexia have to rally against the stigma of the ideas that some people still wrongly hold about dyslexia: that it means you’re not academically, minded, not destined for further education, that you’re not smart. Nothing could be further from the truth, but opening a set of disappointing grades might mean that you begin thinking about these statements and internalising them- after all, you’ve just opened email evidence, right? And this can lead to anxiety and depression not so far down the line.
Try to remember that set of bad results doesn’t mean you’re any less academic or ‘smart’ than the person next to you – some of the smartest, most innovative and most creative people in the world have never got a good grade in their lives. Use the experience as a learning opportunity and dig into how the learning, exam and revision process could have been made better for you to help you out next time- and remember, many different paths can lead to the same destination. Reach out to parents or guardians, charities and your educational institution if you feel like you need some support.
Stressing about the future can leave you feeling scared and stuck.
Best-case scenario: you open up your email and find that you’ve got the grades you were expecting, and it’s off into college, uni or training. Congrats! …but what happens next?
Especially if you’re off to university this time, you might be feeling like you’re about to step away from your support network. The support professionals who have guided you for the past couple of years will no longer be accessible to you, your family will probably be further away, and your new institution will have a whole set of new procedures for accommodations and support that you’ll need to learn to navigate. And that’s scary.
Call up or email your new education provider about what it is you’ll need to do to facilitate these new support arrangements when you get there. You may even be able to sort it out virtually, so that everything is all in place when you get there in September or October. And don’t forget – university and college open days will likely have neurodiversity services on hand to chat to, and it’s completely legit to pick your institution based on who you think will offer the best support for you, rather than the course.
Student mental health is often a little fragile after exams – there’s the tension of revision, the stress of exam season, and then the slump and recovery as we come out into the summer. Emotions are running high for months on end, and dyslexia is likely to complicate these emotions further – there’s a fear of getting bad results, but also probably a little fear of getting good ones too, because that often means more challenging learning ahead.
If you’re able, take time out to practice mindfulness as you wait for your results, and if you’re a parent or guardian, encourage students in your household to talk about what may be bothering them. You can also reach out and find facts at these places, who can offer professional information or help and support when it comes to your mental health during these next steps👇