As it turns out, smart people tend to make more mistakes because of blind spots in their logical reasoning.

Often, it is likely to be the intelligent people that are excessively confident and arrogant.

The trouble isn’t with intelligence itself.

Like almost everything, it is how we use it that determines the outcome.

Careless mistakes are totally preventable, if only we had been paying closer attention.

An overloaded schedule, disorganization, and stress can all cause us to make unintended mistakes.

If we know why the mistake was made, we can correct the problem if we want it to be less likely to happen ever again.

Some steps that you can take to prevent careless mistakes include:

1. Rushing through your work. Time management skills are vital whether you are doing your homework, practicing on a test paper from another school, or actually taking the school/national exam. You need to know exactly how much time you can afford to spend on each type of question. And what is the maximum amount of time you can spend on that question – no more than that, because any delays will affect the quality of your responses to the other questions in that exam.
2. Recognize the patterns of mistakes you keep making. These patterns show to you the issues that you need to prioritize and address. If you keep making the same types of mistakes over and over again, you have to break the cycle. Ask your tuition teacher or school teacher why you are misunderstanding the exam question, and why you keep giving the wrong answers.
3. Get mentally prepared before you start to answer the questions. When you get started, you will be able to focus completely on the task at hand rather than having to stop and panic when you are not sure how to answer the question. You will find yourself rushing through the question once there are too many interruptions to your thought processes. And this will lead to an even great risk of making many mistakes.
4. Slow down. If you leave something to the last minute, you will be under pressure to squeeze in information that are important or trivial. The stress and tension of that pressure leads to mistakes, as does the tendency to take short cuts just so that you can meet the deadline. Sometimes, it is hard to figure out how much time you need to complete your answer – especially if it is a question that is unexpectedly more difficult than what you had been practicing for. Just give it your best guesstimate, then add at least 30% more time than the time you estimated you would take to answer that question.
5. Leave time to double-check. Carefully go over what you have done, so that you can correct any mistakes you might have made. Always review your work when you think you are done. This gives you the opportunity to catch any mistakes and rectify them before they cause bigger issues.
6. Focus. Do not allow your mind to drift. When you keep your mind focused on the task at hand rather than allowing it to wander off, you will often find that a lot of those careless mistakes become a thing of the past. You are most likely to make careless mistakes when you are doing something you have practiced so many times before that you think you no longer need to think about doing it now. You have become so accustomed to the methods that you rely on that you stop questioning if what you are doing is relevant to being able to correctly answer this particular question. We can become complacent to the point where we no longer think our decisions through properly. Because you are not paying enough attention, it is easy to miss something. Whenever you feel your mind drifting, bring it back to be in touch with the important tasks at hand.
7. Do one thing at a time. You will make fewer mistakes if you do not multi-task. It may seem like because you are under time pressure, you will need to get a lot done. In reality, you will get more done with fewer mistakes when you give your full attention to one task at a time. Having to constantly switch gears as you move from one thing to another is a good way to make mistakes you could have avoided if you’d just focused.
8. Make checklists and to-do lists. Create lists so that you can get rid of mental clutter. If you’re trying to remember a dozen things, your mind is not focusing on the task at hand and a careless mistake is more likely to happen. Get in the habit of writing things down to prompt you on where your thought processes and conclusions are, and you will free your mind to concentrate better.
9. Prioritize the content in your answers. Do important and complex tasks first when your mind is fresh. Look at what you have to do in order to answer the question well, and rank them in order of priority. If you get those out of the way when you have the most energy, you’ll be less likely to make mistakes.

Stress is a physical reaction to a person’s emotions.

Both positive events (for example, an upcoming birthday party) and negative events (for example, school exams, a change in family circumstances) can cause stress.

Two hormones are released when we feel stressed: epinephrine (the hormone responsible for the flight-or-fight response), and cortisol.

When there is too much cortisol in our bodies, there will be a long-term, negative impact on our metabolic rate, and ability to remember.

When we are stressed, we are likely to have some of these symptoms:

1. Physical signs: Increased heart rate or blood pressure, tense muscles, regular and severe headaches, tiredness, sweating more than usual, faster breathing.
2. Emotional signs: Feelings of helplessness, worthlessness; isolation and loneliness; anger, irritability and hostility; constant worrying and anxiety, and obsessive thinking; inability to enjoy yourself even when you used to love those activities.
3. Behavioral signs: Unexplained gains or losses in weight, prolonged periods of having difficulty in getting good quality sleep.
4. Cognitive signs: Pessimism, fearing that something bad is going to happen, inability to focus or concentrate, memory loss and absent-mindedness.

The following key tips can help you reduce how much stress you feel, and can improve your ability to cope with and eventually properly manage stress:

1. Get enough sleep. Try to have at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. Try to wake up and go to sleep at the same time each day. This might not be realistic every night of the week but it is good to aim towards this goal more often than not. When you regularize your sleep routines, you will be able to have deeper, more restful sleep. This is essential in reducing stress and improving your mood. You will have better memory recall, have a clearer mind, and be less likely to fall sick or be irritable. Your mental health and well-being depends on you getting enough sleep, as no one functions at 100% when they’re tired.
2. Eat well. Having a balanced diet, and making the effort to eat nutritious meals can help you combat stress and boost your mood. Having the occasional treats of chocolate and fried food is fine, as long as at least 80% of your meals consist of fresh, healthy carbohydrates and proteins.
3. Moving your body regularly. This balances the nervous system and increases blood circulation, helping to flush out stress hormones. Even a daily 20-minute walk makes a difference. Any kind of exercise can lower stress and improve your mood ― just pick activities that you enjoy and make it a consistent habit. Regular light and or heavy exercise improves your overall cognitive abilities and increases the amount and regularity of endorphins in your body. Exercise can help your body feel tired and fall asleep more easily at night. There is no need to overdo the intensity nor frequency of exercising: short walks around your home/school 3 to 4 times a week can lead to much improvement of mental health and a reduction of tense moods.
4. Establish realistic expectations and goals. Try to manage your time schedule, workload and objectives so that you have enough time to study and relax. Keep track of the amount of work you need to do, and break them down into manageable chunks so that you can keep up with deadlines. Read tips about preparing for exams – revising for Math involves different techniques than studying for Science. Reduce any tendency you might have to compare yourself with others. Comparing yourself and your productivity to what others claim to have or be is a recipe for insecure feelings and stress.
5. Don’t wait until the last minute to get important things done. Procrastinating might feel good when you are feeling lazy and unmotivated, but it always leads to increased stress. By pacing your time wisely when you are able to steadily complete tasks that you know are vital for your preparation for homework, assignments, assessments and exams, you can avoid a lot of panic. Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? People often get stressed when they feel that they are running out of time to complete a task: this could be study-related or even stem from feeling overwhelmed with social activities. However, simple time management techniques can help you to feel more relaxed and focused. Try to create a written schedule, allocating yourself time every day to relax or socialise. Divide your work into urgent and non-urgent tasks, and important and non-important tasks.
6. Have a hobby. Stress is inevitable, and can never be completely avoided. Finding a sustainable and healthy way to reduce stress can go a long way in keeping the pressure from overwhelming you. You might want to consider spending time with family and friends, developing a hobby, baking/cooking, creating handicrafts, listening to music, watching Tik Tok or Youtube during the time when you are not spending on studying.
7. Relaxation techniques. Easy methods include slow, calm and deep abdominal breathing; visualizing peaceful scenes; and repeating soothing words to yourself like “relax”, “calm”, or “everything is fine”.
8. Take a vacation or short mental break from the things that are causing you so much stress. Getting away from it all can reset your stress tolerance by increasing your mental and emotional outlook, which makes you a happier, more productive person upon return. Remember to switch off your handphone, and disconnect from social media too!
9. Laugh. Laughing out loud increases oxygen and blood flow, which immediately reduces stress. Spend time with a funny friend, or watch something silly online.

Stress can sometimes rise to dangerous levels and affect our physical, emotional and mental health.

Short periods of stress are normal and can often be resolved by something as simple as completing a task which reduces or by taking time to relax.

Work out what it is that’s making you feel stressed.

For example, is it exams, family or relationship problems? Try to find ways to change your circumstances so that you can ease the pressure you are under.

If we are constantly under stress, most of us will eventually start to function less well. 

Ideally, we should establish a daily and weekly routine to engage in stress management strategies, because this helps us to respond to challenges and helps to minimize the feelings of being overwhelmed.

It is important to recognize stressful situations as they occur because it allows us to focus on managing how we react.

We all need to know when to close our eyes and take a deep breath when we feel tension rising.

Self-care is really important when we are facing challenges and experiences that have the potential to overwhelm us and create stress.

Stress is a natural part of life. However, too much stress can harm our health, especially if it continues every day.

This is chronic stress and can put you at risk for heart problems like heart disease and depression.

When you start to feel that you are not able to cope, do contact an adult, school counsellor, doctor, or friend whom you feel you can speak to about your concerns.

Stress thrives in the dark.

It convinces us we can’t cope, so it is always very useful to reach out to people who can help. Talking about what’s stressing you out can certainly be helpful.