Dealing with Exam Anxiety
It is the exam and assessment season once again. Visit any home with a young adult and you will see that life practically comes to a halt around this time of the year for every member of the family. Whether it is meal timings, family gatherings or festival celebration, everything gets structured around the examination schedules of the student, especially if this student belongs to the fateful group that is appearing for board exams. Sometimes, in the entire hullabaloo, the student develops exam or test anxiety – an extra demon to beat in the wake of all the pressure that comes with appearing for examinations in our nation. Test or exam anxiety is a combination of physical and psychological symptoms that manifest differently in various individuals. In my experience as a psychologist who works closely with cases of exam anxiety, I usually see a peak in such cases right before exams are about to begin, particularly in the period January to March. All through the academic year, parents and teachers rarely talk about exam performance and a child is exposed to all dimensions of the student life. But come January, when the academic year is about to come to a close and end-of-the-year assessments start doing their rounds, everyone is only talking about marks and percentages and future prospects; which really adds up to the mind boggling pressure that students face these days. Let me give you some examples from my counseling sessions and you will get a better idea of the varied ways in which exam anxiety manifests. The examples below are two variations of exam anxiety, often experienced by students. Daniel*, an all rounder who displays a really good understanding of his subject matter is appearing for his class 12 exams. He is excited to note that he knows answers to all the questions in the paper but when he begins to write, he draws a blank and comes back with an unfinished paper. Shreya*, a 10th standard student has been average in studies throughout her academic life, and her parents don’t mind as long she passes satisfactorily. A month before the exams, Shreya, who was usually easy going about her exams, develops extreme anxiety and experiences panic attacks every time she
thinks about her exams. She tries to study late into the nights, but her thoughts run wild after focusing on the study matter for 5 to 10 minutes. She is also experiencing sleepless nights. Here are a few common causes for the exam fear: •
Fear of failure: Most students worry about their exam performance because they fear failure. Of course one should not enjoy failing but fearing failure and thinking repeatedly about what will happen if they fail, can take the focus away from the studies. As parents and teachers, we should be supportive and not threaten the children with dire consequences, if they don’t do well in exams. •
Lack of preparation: Poor study habits, lack of concentration while studying, not revising the concepts often, etc., are some of the habits that add to the anxiety levels. Better time management, a planned out study preparation schedule, usually helps. •
Poor test history: If in the past, a student has not done well in the exams, they usually feel more anxious about the upcoming exams. I have seen several cases in the past, where the students became anxious after receiving their pre-board results. Some tried and tested methods for tackling examination anxiety are: •
Preparing well in advance instead of keeping things for the last minute. Help your children draw a schedule or keep to-do lists on a regular basis; develop good study habits on a regular basis instead of in the last month before exams. •
Another crucial requirement is not comparing your children and their performance with neighbor’s children or friends. Every individual has his/her own capacity and frequent comparison with others only reduces one’s self–worth and will further add to the existing anxiety levels. •
As a parent show your confidence in your child’s ability and also model a positive attitude in front of your children. Being in a positive mood improves our focus and attention and also contributes positively to exam performance. •
Lastly, take up regular meditative practices in your schedule. Do relaxation exercises together as a family. Practicing relaxation on a regular basis has a positive effect on every part of our lives. In terms of examinations specifically, relaxation greatly reduces stress and improves focus and thereby results in better performance. Some relaxation strategies that can be used to reduce exam anxiety are deep breathing and positive visualization So, help your children enjoy the process of studying and evaluations and let them tackle the examinations to the best of their capacity. *All names have been changed to protect the children’s identities. Also see more info @ http://www.parentedge.in