The Waiting Weeks: Supporting a Teen Between Exams and Results
The exams are finished. The papers have been collected. And now… nothing.
After months of revision timetables, past papers and counting down to that final exam, suddenly there’s nothing left to do. And weirdly, that can be quite hard.
For some teenagers, the wait between finishing their GCSEs and results day can feel almost as stressful as the exams themselves. During revision there was always something to focus on. Once the exams are over, all they can really do is wait.
They might sleep until lunchtime, stay up far too late or suddenly remember question seven from a Maths paper they sat three weeks ago and convince themselves they’ve completely messed it up.
As parents, we can’t change the results. But we can help make those waiting weeks a little easier.
Why the Waiting Weeks Hit So Hard
Waiting is an odd form of stress because you can’t do anything about it.
During exam season you had somewhere to channel the pressure. Revise. Sleep. Sit the paper. Repeat. Now there’s no outlet – and that’s where the spiralling begins.
And there can be a strange comedown after exams too. For months, everything has been building towards GCSEs. Teachers have been talking about them, revision has taken over evenings and weekends and there’s been a date in the diary to work towards.
Then suddenly it’s all over.
Add in the uncertainty about sixth form or college, whether they’ve got the grades they need and what their friends might get, and it’s understandable that some teenagers find the waiting difficult.
Racing Thoughts: What’s Really Happening at 2am
Ask any teenager what they hate most about waiting and you’ll pretty much get the same response.
Night time.
It all goes quiet in your house. You’ve run out of distractions. You keep thinking about the same three or four things on repeat. What if the grade boundaries shift? What if everyone else cried during paper two because they found it so easy?
That loop is what people typically refer to when they talk about racing thoughts. Trying to tell a teenager not to think about something is about as effective as telling them not to think about a red bus.
What helps is giving the brain something physical to do instead.
One simple technique some people find helpful is the 3-3-3 grounding technique. Name three things you can see, three things you can hear and move three parts of your body. The idea is simply to bring your attention back to what’s happening around you rather than getting caught up in worrying about what might happen on results day.
There are other grounding exercises they can try too, so it may be worth finding one that feels comfortable and easy to remember.
A few other things that might help quiet a busy head at night:
- Unload your thoughts onto paper. A five-minute brain dump before bed can help get some of those worries out of your head rather than going over them again and again.
- Move worry time earlier. If they want to talk through all those worst-case scenarios, try doing it earlier in the day rather than just before bed.
- Keep phones out of the bedroom. Group chats that consist mainly of “what did you put for Q4?” are just fuelling the madness.
- Make your wind-down routine boring. Same time every night, lights off, cool bedroom, nothing stimulating on any screens.
None of these things are guaranteed fixes, but having a familiar bedtime routine and something to try when their mind won’t switch off may help.
Giving the Empty Days a Shape
I don’t think teenagers need every minute of their summer holidays planned. They’ve just finished GCSEs and they absolutely deserve some downtime.
But weeks of going to bed at 3am, waking up at lunchtime and having nothing much to do can make the wait for results feel even longer.
A little bit of structure can help. It doesn’t need to mean a packed calendar. Just having something happening on most days can give them something else to focus on.
- A part-time job or a few volunteering hours
- Exercise of any kind, ideally outdoors
- A project with an actual end point – learning something new, sorting out their room or starting to learn to drive
- Time with friends who are not in the same exam group
- One thing to look forward to that has nothing to do with school
It doesn’t really matter what they do. The idea is simply to give the day a bit of shape and give them something else to think about besides results.
Talking About Results Without Making It Worse
Good intentions abound and they make waiting even worse. One question… typically:
“How do you think you did?”
There is no good answer you can give to that question. It either pressures a teen into justifying wishful thinking or verbalising their biggest fear. Asked every day, it can make the whole house feel like a countdown clock.
Better conversations tend to sound like this:
- “I can see you’re worrying about it.” Sometimes acknowledging it is enough without trying to fix it.
- “Whatever happens, we’ll work out the next step together.” A useful reminder that results day isn’t the end of the road.
- “Do you want to talk about it or would you rather be distracted?” Let them decide what they need.
It can also help to know what happens after GCSE results day. If the grades aren’t what they hoped for, there may still be options around sixth form or college places, alternative courses, GCSE resits or asking the school whether a review of marking is worth considering.
When Nerves Turn Into Something Bigger
Most teenagers will have some nerves about results day, and those feelings may come and go. But if anxiety seems to be affecting everyday life rather than just cropping up occasionally, it may be time to get some extra support.
Watch for changes such as:
- Regular panic symptoms such as a racing heart, chest tightness or shaking
- Significant changes to their usual sleeping pattern
- Withdrawing from friends or activities they normally enjoy
- Frequent headaches, stomach aches or other physical complaints
- Talking hopelessly about the future or mentioning self-harm
One of these things on its own doesn’t necessarily mean something is seriously wrong. But if you’re concerned about changes in your teenager’s behaviour or wellbeing, speak to your GP or another appropriate healthcare professional. If they talk about harming themselves or you believe they’re in immediate danger, seek urgent help.
The Waiting Won’t Last Forever
The strange thing about the weeks between GCSEs and results day is that there’s nothing left to change. The exams have been sat and the answers have been written.
So perhaps the best thing we can do as parents is help our teenagers enjoy a bit of their summer.
Give them space. Encourage them to get out of the house. Try not to ask “How do you think you did?” every other day (even when you’re desperate to know yourself).
And remind them that whatever appears on that results sheet, there will be a next step.
Results day will come soon enough. Until then, they deserve a bit of a break. And after GCSE season, I think we parents probably do too.
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