Do You Feel Anxious During Exams ? What Should you do?

Do you feel anxious during exams? Or find yourself in a state of low self-esteem; asking yourself questions like I can’t do this? Your heart beats faster and it becomes hard to breathe?

Approaching the examination hall brings a feeling of a churning stomach and anxiety. In fact, any situation which involves performing a task and the awareness of being evaluated for the performance is an anxiety-provoking situation for most people.  Some people are more likely to suffer from exam anxiety than others. So why did this happen? And what can you do to calm your mind?

What is Exam Anxiety? Do You Feel Anxious During Exams? 

Whenever there is tension, nervousness, or whatever you are afraid of before an exam, or any test, we call it exam anxiety because there are more students who have a lot of tension before the exam. 

Even if something happens, there is a fear in the mind that what will be the exam, what will be the result? This is called exam anxiety. At the time of exams, most of the students feel anxious during exams. And it directly affects the result of the child. In this case, everyone thinks about what they should do to escape from this type of problem. 

So, don't worry now you are at the proper destination, where you find how to treat anxiety at the time exams from the expert psychologists of My Fit Brain. Basically, exam/test anxiety is the experience of feeling an intense moment of fear or panic before and/or during an exam or assessment.

Types of Anxiety:

There are two types of anxiety:

Low anxiety:  Students who experience low anxiety may feel a little nervous about an upcoming exam but are still able to focus their attention on their studies or the questions asked during the assessment. Usually, low anxiety students are not struck with intrusive thoughts or feel debilitated by the exam.

High anxiety: Students who experience high anxiety show an immediate anxiety reaction when exposed to the feared test situation. They attempt to avoid the situation by not showing up to the exam, or may endure it but with extreme fear. High anxiety can tip some into a sense of panic: I just really can’t do this!

Students with either high or low anxiety can respond to tests in different ways. But managing anxiety effectively can actually help with exam performance.

Symptoms of Test Anxiety:

Physical symptoms may include:

• Headaches
• Dry mouth
• Rapid heartbeat usually a heart rate above 100 beats per minute characterizes a rapid heartbeat
• Sweating
• Shortness of breath.
• Light-headedness
• Extreme body temperature, either excessively hot or cold.
• Gastrointestinal discomfort. This can be characterized by nausea, diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain.

The physical response is usually experienced in high levels of anxiety when the fight or flight response is triggered. This is how our bodies respond to a perceived threat and while uncomfortable, it is not harmful.

Test anxiety can also result in behavioral and cognitive symptoms such as negative thinking and difficulty concentrating.

Cognitive and behavioral symptoms can include -

• Blanking out on answers to the test
• Drop out of school
• Substance abuse can also occur since many students attempt to self-treat their anxiety
• Negative self-talk
• Trouble concentrating on the test
• Racing thoughts

Emotional symptoms

• Depression
• Low self-esteem
• Anger
• Feeling of hopelessness.

Causes of Test/Exam Anxiety:

A few potential causes of test anxiety include:

Poor testing outcomes: If you have done poorly on tests before, either because you didn't study well enough or because you were so anxious, you couldn't remember the answers; this can cause even more anxiety and a negative attitude every time you have to take another test.

Being unprepared: If you didn't study or didn't study well enough, this can add to your feeling of anxiety

Being afraid of failure: If you connect your sense of self-worth to your test scores, the pressure you put on yourself can cause severe test anxiety.

Some tips to Avoid Exam Anxiety:

If You want to overcome your exam anxiety and If you want to feel relax then I am going to tell You some tips to avoid Exam Anxiety:

• If you focus on studying in the daily routine before the exam, that means You have to study regularly whatever topic is being done in the school, college, you will not get this problem in the exam.
• If you have an exam fear in your mind, then you can practice with the gas paper before the exam.
• If you have any thoughts that are not necessary for you, then you can replace those negative thoughts with positive ones before the exam.
• If you have an anxiety problem, then you have to identify it yourself, that is, you can identify through your physical activities to reduce your problem.

Impact of High Anxiety on Performance:

Research has shown that people who have high-level anxiety problems will show that They slowly start to see a lot of change in their performance. People who have more anxiety or nervousness in their minds than studies, sometimes they may also see a drop in their performances. Sometimes you feel that this guy is taking a lot of tension of the exam, it means that he will top in it, but in fact, his mind is worried because of that, he is distracted by his performance. So then the result becomes the reason for his anxiety. Due to exam anxiety, your ability also comes down and at the same time the ability to do as much as you can.

Biological Causes of Test Anxiety:

In stressful situations, such as before and during an exam, the body releases a hormone called adrenaline. This helps prepare the body to deal with what is about to happen and is commonly referred to as the Essentially, this response prepares you to either stay and deal with the stress or escape the situation entirely. 

In a lot of cases, this adrenaline rush is actually a good thing. It helps prepare you to deal effectively with stressful situations, ensuring that you are alert and ready.

For some people, however, the symptoms of anxiety they feel can become so excessive that it makes it difficult or even impossible to focus on the test.  Symptoms such as nausea, sweating, and shaking hands can actually make people feel even more nervous, especially if they become preoccupied with these test anxiety symptoms.

When Anxiety is useful and when not? 

Anxiety can be useful in certain situations - for example, if you are in danger (jumping out of the way of a car). It can also help to increase our attention to the threatening event and improve our response.  A certain level of anxiety is definitely essential as it motivates and pushes us to put up our best performance but a high level of anxiety becomes a hurdle in optimum performance and achievement. 

An anxious individual is highly aroused physiologically and emotionally and hence is not able to perform to the best of her/his abilities. But it is not so helpful when the threat we are faced with is cognitive, like an exam. The thoughts involved in exam anxiety usually include negative thinking about performance and or the physical reaction to thinking about the upcoming exam: I’m going to fail, I quit, I can’t focus.

Exam anxiety may also interfere with your ability to show your academic and cognitive capabilities. An examination is a potentially stress-provoking situation and like other stressful situations coping involves strategies i.e. Monitoring or taking effective action, and Blunting or avoiding the situation. Monitoring involves taking effective and direct action to deal with a stressful situation.

Management strategies for Anxiety:

The following strategies can be used.

Prepare well: Prepare well for the examination and prepare well in advance. Give yourself ample time. Familiarize yourself with the pattern of question papers and frequently asked questions. This gives you a sense of predictability and control and reduces the stress potential of the examination.

Have a rehearsal: Make yourself go through a mock examination. Ask your friend to test your knowledge. You can also rehearse mentally in your mind. Visualize yourself taking the examination with ease, completely relaxed and confident, and then passing with flying colors.

Inoculation: Inoculate yourself against stress. Exposure through rehearsals and roleplaying prepares you physically and mentally to face the examination situation better and with confidence

Analyze your thought patterns: Often when people suffer from anxiety, they focus on overwhelmingly negative thoughts. You may say to yourself "I'm definitely going to fail this test," or "If I fail this test my life is over." 

These thinking traps are a symptom of anxiety, as well as a cause of greater anxiety. If you find yourself thinking this way about a test, you can take some steps to address and remedy those thoughts

Positive thinking: Have faith in yourself. Structure your thoughts by systematically listing the thoughts that worry you and then rationally dealing with them one by one. Emphasize your strengths. Suggest to yourself to be positive and enthusiastic.

Put negative thoughts in perspective: When many negative thoughts are put in a real-world perspective, they don't seem so serious. For example, you're scared that you will fail the test. But you've gotten good grades on every test this semester so far. 

Past experience is on your side here. This new perspective makes your fear seem more unlikely since you've already established that you're good at that particular test.

Use positive self-statements: When people suffer from anxiety, they usually use negative self-statements like "I can’t do this." These kinds of statements can easily cause you anxiety and threaten your self-esteem. 

Here you need to replace negative statements with positive ones. Silence these negative statements and make an effort to tell yourself "I have studied well for the subject, I'm tough," "I can do this," or "Everything will be okay." That way you can cut negative statements out of your thinking and improve your happiness and mental balance.

Relaxation: Learn to relax, Relaxation techniques help you calm your nerves and allow you to reframe your thoughts. There are many different relaxation techniques. In general, this involves sitting or lying down in a comfortable posture in a quiet place, relaxing your muscles, reducing the external stimulation as well as minimizing the flow of thoughts and focusing.

Exercise: A stressful situation activates the sympathetic nervous system. Exercise helps in channelizing the excess energy generated by this. A brief period of light exercise or active sport will help you concentrate better on your studies.

Reach on time or early for the test: Getting to the test late may set off your anxiety before you even start the test. Do everything you can to be on time for the test. 
That way, you can sit down and relax for a few minutes before starting. You'll be able to gather your thoughts and focus on positive thinking. This relaxation period before the test is very important to get off to a good start.

Stop and breathe if you feel anxiety: A little bit of nervous energy is to be expected during the test. But if you find yourself starting to blank out, lose concentration and feel any of the physical symptoms of anxiety, stop working. If you go on without relaxing, you could have an anxiety attack during the test. Close your eyes and take some deep, full breaths. Once you start feeling better, get back to work.

Seek support: Do not hesitate to ask for help from your friends, parents, teachers, or seniors. Talking about a stressful situation to a close person makes one feel light and helps gain insight. 

The situation may not be as bad as it seems. On the other hand, blunting strategies involve avoiding a stressful situation. True, avoidance is neither desirable nor possible in an examination situation, but the following techniques may prove useful.

Get help sooner rather than later. Many people try to ignore their anxiety until it's gotten so bad they can't control it anymore. By getting help early on, you can get a handle on your anxiety before it starts hurting your life and relationships.

Therapy and Medications can also help:

• If you need extra support, make an appointment with a counselor or counseling psychologist nearby.
• Depending on the severity of your symptoms, the counselor may also recommend cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), anti-anxiety medications, or a combination of both. CBT focuses on helping people change both the behaviors and underlying thoughts that contribute to unwanted behaviors or feelings.

Conclusion:

Although, I am going to say that If you want to overcome your anxiety problem then you have to clear yourself. The problem of anxiety during exams is only in your mind. If you are good at studying then You don't need to worry. I hope you will like this article and If You need any help related to anxiety fears and anything else then you can contact me anytime. If you are also feeling such anxiety during exams, do visit a psychologist. You can connect us online as well as clinically. 

MY FIT BRAIN with the team of counselors is providing online counseling services, making it easier for their clients, to seek a solution to the problem they are facing in their life.

Feel free to contact us now !!