No one likes to be examined and have someone closely observe his or her life. It threatens our character and makes us feel like we may not be good enough. This is the underlying reason why many teens find it difficult to cope with exams - will I be good enough?

These are what I call 'gremlin thoughts', the thoughts that pull you down and make you stress out when you know that you have exams coming up.

Gremlin thought 1: Will I be good enough? Will I let people down?

These thoughts are on the top of the list when it comes to exams.

Good enough for who? Your parents, your school, your friends, your teachers, the university or course you want to study in the future.

Letting your parents and others down is one of the biggest fears a teenager can have when it comes to exams. I encourage you to talk to your parents about these fears and thoughts.

Your parents care about you so much and they can see how great you are (even if you can't see how great you are). Therefore, they will push you harder than you would push yourself and this will add to your stress levels.

If you do not let your parents know how much you worry about letting them down, the thoughts you have will go around in your head and stress you out more. By speaking out your thoughts, it gets them out of your head and releases the stress with them.

Many of you underestimate yourself based on what you think others might think of you.

This will create more stress in your life because you don't have enough confidence in your own skills and abilities.

Therefore, you are always looking around for others to give their approval. This needs to stop if you want to lessen your stress.

Your first step in getting ready for your exams is to start to build up your confidence level in yourself rather than putting your energy and thoughts into what others think of you.