- Books Name
- Psychology Book Class-12
- Publication
- PathSet Publications
- Course
- CBSE Class 12
- Subject
- Psychology
Examination Anxiety
- Involves feelings of tension or uneasiness that occur before, during, or after an examination.
- Exam anxiety may be helpful in some ways as:
- it can be motivating
- creates the pressure that is needed to stay focused on one’s performance
- Examination nerves, worry, or fear of failure are normal for even the most talented student.
- However, stress of formal examination results in such high degrees of anxiety in some students that they are unable to perform at a level which matches the potential they have shown in less stressful classroom situations.
- Examination stress is characterised as “evaluative apprehension” or “evaluative stress”
- Produces debilitating behavioural, cognitive, and physiological effects no different from those produced by any other stressor.
- High stress can interfere with the student’s preparation, concentration, and performance.
- Persons who are high in test anxiety tend to perceive evaluative situations as personally threatening; in test situations, they are often tense, apprehensive, nervous, and emotionally aroused.
- Moreover, the negative self-centred cognitions which they experience distract their attention and interfere with concentration during examinations.
- High test anxious students respond to examination stress with:
- intense emotional reactions
- negative thoughts about themselves
- feelings of inadequacy
- helplessness
- loss of status and esteem
- Generally, the high test anxious person instead of plunging into a task plunges inward, that is, either neglects or misinterprets informational cues that may be readily available to her/him, or experiences attentional blocks.
- While preparing for examinations, one must spend enough time for study, overview and weigh one’s strengths and weaknesses, discuss difficulties with teachers and classmates, plan a revision timetable, condense notes, space out revision periods, and most importantly on the examination day concentrate on staying calm.