01/06/2022
Exam Anxiety: A Few Coping Strategies
Denise Gex-Collet-Ganzmann 20.01.2020
Exam anxiety, often resulting in black-outs during tests, is not unusual in children, teenagers and young
adults. In fact, I, myself, needed to become a grown adult before I could deal properly with said issue. In my
teenage years my poor exam performance -even though I had studied hard- led to self-doubt and a loss of selfconfidence.
It made me believe that maybe I should not aim so high.
Just recently, and that is many years later, I came across a book by J. Poole a paediatrician who specialises in
ADHD/ADD. His description of the effects of exam anxiety reminded me a lot of myself in my younger
years. Here is what he wrote:” Anxiety causes a sequence of psychological responses to take place, which
ultimately short-circuits the brain’s ability to perform well- which creates more stress and the vicious cycle
has begun. A child becomes particularly frustrated when they know the answers to a test but fail to perform”
(Poole 2020, p. 120)1. His suggestions on how to stay calm during exams resembled to a great extent what I
had found had helped me to perform well in my exams. For all who recognize themselves or their children in
Dr. Poole’s description, here are some of his suggestions that have actually helped me overcome my blackouts
during exams:
• Practice relaxing breathing techniques before and during exams, breathing in slowly for 10 seconds
and breathing out for 10 seconds
• Break tests into smaller more manageable parts and first do and complete the easier parts before doing
the more difficult parts.
• If easily distracted, ask to take the test/ oral exam alone
• Make sure you sleep enough before an exam
• Eat healthy (fruits, vegetables, healthy proteins, healthy fats) and exercise. You might choose to cycle
to school or take a walk before the exam start
• Practice taking timed tests beforehand (Poole 2020, p. 121)
Some additional tips I can give to any aspiring academic are to allocate a specific amount of time to each
question and to initially skip the questions to which you do not have a ready answer. If you have prepared
well for an exam, the answer is in your head and it will often come to mind when answering other questions.
Secondly, reduce your own expectations! You can remove a lot of self-made pressure by aiming only slightly
higher than in your previous exams instead of going for the top grade from the onset.
And, finally, do not pay
attention to what others do during their exams. There might be students who turn in their exam papers before
the time is up but this does not necessarily make them the ones who get the top grade.
These techniques can help you when trying to deal with exam anxiety but according to Poole (2020), an
encouraging environment with room to talk about possible underlying fears of failure and parents who show
their child that they value their child no matter their achievements at school are the most essential things when
addressing exam anxiety (p. 121, 122).
1 OECD survey findings seem to at least partially confirm that notion. They show that 63% of the 25% lowest performers
in the science subjects report exam anxiety no matter how well prepared they are and girls in the top quarter of
performers in science report that the dread of making mistakes impedes their exam performance (in Pascoe ed. al. 2019,
p. 107).
Pascoe, C. ed. al. 2019. “The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher
education.” International Journal of Adolescence and Youth DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2019.1596823
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673843.2019.1596823 (Accessed October 25, 2019).
Poole, J. MD (2020). Flipping ADHD on Its Head. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Llc
(2020). The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher education. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth: Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 104-112.
