Question

Describe the physiological responses that they might be experiencing before, during (especially), and after a test and how might they interpret this arousal. Discuss the thoughts that might be going through their heads and how their beliefs and attitudes may affect their thinking. Describe how their test-taking behavior may be affected by the anxiety. Finally, what coping strategies would you recommend to them and why?

Answer 1

Physiological responses and emotions experienced during academic examinations vary from one individual to another. The details which I will be sharing below will be on generic grounds.

Physiological responses that people generally experience before & during examinations:

1. Increase in levels of perspiration due to fear/anxiety/nervousness
2. Increase in levels of dopamine – when someone is motivated while writing the examination, he/she may be feeling motivated because of the test, which may seem easy. Dopamine is said to be released when a human being experiences attention, love, lust, addiction or gambling.
3. Increase in heart rate, pulse rate due to anxiety and fear.
4. Increase in level of adrenaline
5. Threat & Stress releases norepinephrine

One of the thought processes which usually affects the performance in an examination is called self-efficacy, which plays a major role in success and failure in an examination.

According to Albert Bandura, there are 4 types of self-efficacies which may. Affect the success or failure of a task performed.

1. Mastery Experiences: increase and decrease of self-efficacy depend upon personal experiences. If one has constantly been getting grade ‘D’ in a subject which has arithmetic calculations and numerical problems to solve, his efficacy to perform in the examination of that particular subject may be low, as per his past experiences. The same case reversed, if one has been getting straight ‘A’s in his subjects, and has a special liking towards numerical sums, may have a high efficacy while writing the examination, since his past experiences were good with number related subjects.
2. Vicarious experience: usually through observation. Let’s assume Tim is the smartest boy of the class and loves doing math problems. In a math exam, if he himself finds the paper difficult, and manages to communicate to his bench partner, that the exam is extremely difficult, his partner may have a decreased level of efficacy. His bench partner might have even been able to solve the paper easily, but when he understands that ‘Tim, the smartest guy of the class finds math paper difficult’, is enough to low his self-efficacy. Hence, vicarious experience is a way how self-efficacy is affected in an individual by observation/hearing from a role model. In this case, Tim was the role model.
3. Verbal persuasion: When Dean is writing an examination and gets stuck often in the middle, external motivation from an influential source, like his subject teacher can work wonders and increase self-efficacy. Hence, being persuaded that we possess certain capabilities in order to successfully accomplish certain tasks will be a boost in the self-efficacy level. In such cases, any individual is more likely to put in more effort and hustle hard which such problematic situation arises. but it can have an inverse reaction if one is persuaded in a negative way.
4. Emotion & Physiological state: Flu, Fever, Depression, etc are conditions which may impair our self-efficacy to do a task. Giving an examination while having a high fever, or when the person is going through clinical depression, there will definitely not be any success rate in the task. Positive emotional states can help boost productivity during exams, but in a negative mood, the self-efficacy will drop. Moreover, in case of a poor physiological state, where the individual may be unwell, the efficacy will drop.
5. Imaginal Experiences: This was suggested by Psychologist James Maddux, which says ‘an art of visualizing yourself behaving effectively or successfully in a given situation.

Taking tests is something which is inevitable in the academic course of life. If anything at all, there are going to be more increased levels of anxieties which will happen due to increase in competition of good grades, social acceptance, pressures, etc.

Coping up with anxiety & stress.

1. Limit alcohol & Caffeine consumption, especially before exam
2. Balanced & Healthy Diet - Always
3. Proper sleep - Always
4. Positive attitude – Never back down
5. Meditation
6. You can’t control you surrounding situations all the time, accept that fact.
7. Always see the brighter side/silver lining
8. Competition is with yourself, not with others – when you compete with yourself, you’ll keep performing better, but when you compete with others, that’s an open door for anxiety to walk all over.
9. When things don’t work out, don’t panic, go easy on yourself.

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