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How can I relax during a test?

Question: How can I relax during a test?

Thanks for the question. With mid-terms starting, it’s great timing.

First I want to clarify what we are talking about when you use the word “relax.” I’m going to assume, since I can’t ask, that you want to have just enough nervous energy to do well in the exam, but not so much that it interferes with your thinking and memory. It’s important to make this distinction because nervousness that leads you to feel pumped does support exam performance. You really don’t want to be relaxed in the way you would be watching television or chatting about this and that with friends. So some tolerance for the anxiety you feel around exams, might be helpful.

I’m going to give you some quick tips but I also want to let you know that we have a live webinar scheduled on Thursday December 5 at 7 pm, in time for final exams, on managing exam anxiety. You can find the link on our events calendar and you can join a live presentation that allows you to ask questions via a chat feature.

The first tip will seem lame, but it is one of the most frequent contributors to exam anxiety. The problem is that sometimes students don’t have the skills to do well on exams (having strategies for answering multiple choice questions, for example). They might not have the study skills needed to understand the material at the level of depth required to do well on the exam, or they underestimate the time needed to learn the material. Having a sense that you don’t have a handle on the material does not help your focus. As well, confusion about why you don’t do well despite thinking you have studied enough will also create exam anxiety. If this is the case, Student Learning Services runs all kinds of workshops to help you be more effective in your studies. As well, if you don’t do well on an exam (despite studying) make the time to figure out what went wrong by talking to your instructor or studying with students who do well to understand what they focus on and how they learn the material.

If you are studying, and typically do well on exams, and still feel that anxiety interferes with your performance, then finding some strategies before and during the exam are another thing to try. These other tips have to do with what is going on in our inner conversation and with our physical reactions. Before the exam, check your thinking. If you are imagining yourself failing, this will activate your alarm system. Many of the thoughts people have about exams are not based on their actual experience, nor do they focus on how they have prepared and studied for this task. Anxiety Canada has some great tools, including helpful ways to talk to ourselves. Just before the exam and during, it may also be helpful to engage in some actions that help to down-regulate your over-activated nervous system. Just making a fist, holding it for 3-4 seconds, and suddenly letting go to feel the relaxation response, can help to relieve some of the muscle tension that comes with nervous system activation. Regulating your breathing can also help. Try the following: count to four for the in-breath, hold your breath for a count of four, breathe out for a count of four, and hold the empty breath for four counts. There are many breath practices online that you search and try out to find one that works for you.

Both the breath practice and tensing and relaxing your fists tend to have the effect of getting you to focus on the present moment. This can be helpful to interrupt anxious thoughts about the future. An important caveat: Any strategy that focuses on down-regulating your physiological symptoms of anxiety are most effective if you use them daily and develop your abilities at times when you are not anxious. So start the day with a breath practice. Try progressive muscle relaxation before bed a few nights per week. 

Hope that helps get you pumped and ready for your exams!

Mirjam Knapik, Ph.D., R. Psych.

Student Counselling Services