Like many of my fellow first years, I spent the Easter holidays somewhat wracked with terror about the forthcoming term. Horror stories of 6 weeks living in the library without seeing another human made me more than a little apprehensive about returning, not to mention the thought of my first Cambridge exams. I felt that I'd (mostly) kept on top of my work, but the culture of terror around a term which has actually been rebranded "exam term" by many students didn't exactly make me feel chilled out.

So when I did finally return to college, clutching my cue cards and multi-coloured pens tightly in my hands to ward off any approaching exams which might jump out of a shrub and attack, I was even more astonished to find out that it was sort of...nice. It is (well, was) sunny, my friends are here, and there's even more nice things going on around town than usual; zumba classes, biscuits by the library and even a bunny rabbit-petting zoo. Why do we need to call it "exam term", when it's just another term but with some exams in it? This name has become so overused that its real name has almost been forgotten; one of my fellow first years didn't even know it was called Easter term. Admittedly it's true that the bar is a little emptier and the library a little fuller, but all those tales about the sleepless nights and fretful days just haven't transpired, and we've got to remember that nobody is actually going to die from exams. Contrary to popular belief, there is no medical evidence that they can kill you. I grant there is a chance that you might find the question you revised for all Easter has been replaced with something you're sure was never on the syllabus, but the chances of this question actually murdering you are, in reality, pretty slim.

The problem is that someone somewhere hatched the mad plan of taking several thousand of the most exam-neurotic students in the world and placing them in one small town. It was never going to work out well. According to a survey conducted by studentbeans.com, almost a fifth of students claim to suffer from anxiety attacks during exam period. In these situations, stress stops just being a little silly and actually becomes terribly unhelpful. Suddenly people who you thought you could rely on to be perfectly rational have relocated their lives to the library, only emerging to swig a strong coffee at the bar before returning for the rest of the night. The library itself has evolved into some sort of post-apocalyptic disaster zone full of crazed caffeinated expressions and stacks of books reaching the ceiling, and I would advise you only visit it if watching people fall apart is a hobby of yours.

But it really doesn't have to be that way. Now I realise I may sound like one of those very annoyingly over-organised people who will stroll into their exams, neatly write accurate and perceptive answers to all the questions and saunter back out with a self-satisfied grin, but I can assure you this is not the case. I do believe, however, that exams are nothing for us to panic about. They're simply routine: we've been doing exams at this time every year for at least the last half a decade, and we ought to realise that we're probably not too shabby at them if we managed to get into Cambridge in the first place. If we could all calm ourselves down a little, and trust in the work we've been doing all year, we'd probably realise this is a very nice place to be.

The welfare teams within college and outside are doing lots of lovely things to keep us cheery when the workload is heavy, and apart from that we've all got friends and family who are happy to help if things do seem a bit much. Just remember that the exams can't kill you, the sun's (sometimes) out and we're living in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's not so bad.

@ellie_g