My sister will be very tense and anxious these days. The anxiety peaks at about 10:00 AM in the morning every 4 days or so. If I talk to her the response I get is far from logical. If at all I get one. The only thing that occupies her mind is exams and the anxiety of "whats gonna happen". But amazingly she tops her class always... well almost ;-).
Did you ask for my commentary ? A Bad case of exam-anxiety is what I can say about my sis. But don't we all suffer from it (except for a few 'cool dudes' of the class who were Marijuanated by the time our exams started). The degree to which an individual gets affected and the symptoms vary. But every one has it and its only natural. Its body's mechanism to keep us alert when something important is gonna happen. If it weren't for that excitement/nervousness/anxiety I would simply doze off just before or during the exams :P.
Well this is how my typical exam anxiety pattern was.
The exam anxiety would peak before 5 minutes the exam actually started. The pen would be slippery. I would even notice the cold sweat that drenched my armpits. Irrational thoughts like "what if the questions are tough?" "What if out of syllabus questions were in the paper?"
Just before I would "Open" the paper the anxiety would be at it max. I would always gasp before 'opening' the paper.
I would size up the paper before proceeding. The very first question would be tough to read .. but almost always turn out to be a easy one and that would ease me very much.
By the time I finished answering the first question if anybody were to ask me "What is exam anxiety ?" I wouldn't know the answer. :-)
When attending academic exams. The stakes were very high. If you flunk, you would lose out a semester or even worse I wouldn't finish the course. Parents might take me to task (at least they used to do when I was in high school). Might loose few friends (coz they would move on the next grade). You can only take the same exam after say about 3 or 6 months. You will have to prepare hard for the exam. A 100 other such terrible things in the list.
Now how would u like an exam in which u can flunk 1000 times and no-body would utter a word about failing. In fact people would only appreciate the fact that you 'approached' the exam. Further, the stakes are all in your favor. If you fail you loose nothing and may be even gain some experience. If you win however.. do the math yourself ;-). This is the kind of a business in which u invest very little, loose almost nothing but the rewards are huge. And this exam can be taken every five minutes and nobody gives a s**t about it. Every time u take up the exam u learn something new. :-)
