Exam Anxiety

Being nervous when taking examinations is very common, whether it's for tests at school, taking finals, or even a driving test. I started using cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and hypnosis with groups of students for this problem many years ago when living in England. There were many reasons why students worried about taking tests, some of which were due to their teachers' off hand remarks; some due to high expectations by parents; but most were caused by what the students were telling themselves. They were saying very negative things about how they were going to do, producing a lot of unnecessary anxiety. This caused their minds to go blank during the exam (as anxiety interferes with concentration and memory), causing them to do poorly, despite having studied and known the material.

 
According to CBT, our thoughts determine our feelings, and our feelings determine our behavior. Thus, if you tell yourself that you're going to do badly in something, chances are you'll get very anxious, and that anxiety will then get in the way of doing your best. The students were taught how to challenge negative thoughts and to use self-hypnosis to relax, both mentally and physically. We also reviewed their study habits, some of which were working against them.

Some weeks later, after their next exam, the students who attended our seminar were asked to complete a questionnaire about how they did and whether the seminar helped them. Almost all of them said that the seminar was very helpful, and most claimed to have done better in the most recent exam than in previous ones. We published the results of this and the reference is Hart, B.B. & Hart, C. (1996) Managing Exam Anxiety. Contemporary Hypnosis, 13(3), 84-88.

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