Australia's PM tells students to be "chilled" during end-of-year exams

Australian students have been reminded by none other than the prime minister to keep their cool while sitting end-of-year exams after a recent study revealed more than half felt the heat during the annual testing period.

Thousands of Western Australian students begin taking their final exams this week -- with other states conducting their exams over the next few months -- and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered a few words of encouragement.

"There's no point being anything other than chilled when you do the exam," Turnbull said in a short video to support the government's ReachOut mental health campaign on Thursday.

"There's life after Year 12 exams ... you've whole life ahead of you."

ReachOut Australia chief executive Jono Nicholas echoed the prime minister's words of wisdom, and said it was important students understood their was more than one path to a professional career.

"We've looked at some research done out of Melbourne University which said that around 51 percent of young people were saying there is too much pressure put on them during this period," Nicholas told the Australian Broadcast Corporation on Thursday.

"The message is really that (exams are) important, but not life- defining and really what we're trying to communicate to young people, as well as their parents, as well as schools, is that we need to take some of that pressure off."

Turnbull revealed he enjoyed history in school and did not pay enough attention to subjects like math.

"I wasn't as stressed out about as perhaps I should have been -- I was pretty confident," the 60-year-old, who sat his exams in 1972, said.

"I felt I'd done enough work and, as long as I stayed calm, I'd do reasonably well. The most important skill is employability."

Despite his shortfalls during his time as a student, Turnbull rose to the post of Australia's 29th prime minister last month. Endi