UNAIR NEWS – Exams are often considered as something worrying. Fear of the bad results and various factors such as examiners may also lead to anxiety. Furthermore, the exam preparation process is also exhausting, both physically and mentally.
According to a lecturer of Clinical Psychology and Mental Health Department, Faculty of Psychology, Afif Kurniawan M.Psi., Psychologist, a person’s anxiety persists but it can be managed even though it is not easy. Anxiety can be overcome by pairing it with the right response to reduce it.
“For instance, when we feel anxious, we need to think of what it has to be paired with so that it will decrease and become manageable,” he said on the Webinar Test Anxiety 101: Managing Anxiety in Facing Exams.
According to Afif, there are three factors to manage anxiety: physical factors, rehearsal, and thought.
Physical Factors
According to Afif, anxiety does not appear suddenly, but it is indirectly prepared by the individual. One of the preparations is physical, which is not prepared properly. Physical factors here include relaxation, rest, and time management.
“Many of those who experience test anxiety usually have a lack of sleep at first. Moreover, they do not prepare their physical factors properly nor pay attention to relaxation. They allow themselves to be exposed to these risks,” Afif explained.
Afif continued, physical exposure to stimuli in anxiety causes the body to be shocked. Although the stimuli are usually used for psychological states, all commands are in the brain.
Everything perceived as anxiety by the body will be responded by the brain by releasing chemical compounds and giving signals to the nervous system.
“For example, the breath becomes short, the heart rate becomes faster, and so on. Especially if we are tired,” he explained.
“If the body is tired, even though you want to suggest yourself with positive sentences such as repeating the words ‘I can do it. I can survive,’ you will not be able to do that because your body is tired,” added the lecturer of Clinical Psychology and Mental Health Department.
Rehearsal
To prepare for an exam, logic and reasoning are needed so that the brain becomes trained. In addition, physical and mental conditions can get used to the received stimuli.
“A lot of people think they can overcome their anxiety by thinking about the expected conditions. If the situation goes like this, I will be like this. However, they do not train their logic and reasoning,” said Afif.
Afif said that proper practice is necessary to pass an exam or something else well. Nonetheless, the practice should also be repeated continuously.
“If you want to pass an exam, you feel like you have to memorize everything. That thought is wrong. Instead, you have to not only look at powerpoint slides, but also read a lot of books and develop your logic and reasoning by practicing it again and again,” he explained.
Thoughts
Afif emphasized that anxiety does not appear by itself. It is not the situation that makes you anxious but the way a person perceives the situation.
Afif then gave an illustration of two people taking the same exam but looking at it from different angles. The first person sees the exam as something that has to be faced because it is one of the learning processes that must be passed so that they must prepare well. Meanwhile, the second person thinks that he will definitely fail because he is not smart and unable to compete.
“The situation is the same, but the way they think is different. One thinks constructively, has good reception, prepares himself well, and has good management. Therefore, the anxiety can be managed,” he said. (*)
Author: Tata Ferliana W.
Editor : Binti Q. Masruroh (YA/AP)
