Exam anxiety: what actually helps

Why anxiety costs marks

Worries occupy working memory – the part of thinking you need to solve the problems. If you keep wondering during the exam what happens if it goes wrong, you have less capacity for the task itself. That’s exactly where the most effective strategies come in.

1. Write out your worries beforehand

In a widely noted study, students wrote about their worries for ten minutes before an exam. The anxious ones in particular did clearly better afterwards than a comparison group (Ramirez & Beilock, 2011). The worries are “offloaded”. The app has an exercise with a timer for this – the text is deleted afterwards.

2. Reframe the nerves

A pounding heart and fast breathing are not a sign that something is wrong but your body providing energy. People who understand this perform better under pressure (Jamieson et al., 2010). Instead of “I must stay calm”, “I’m excited” tends to help more (Brooks, 2014).

3. Practise as if it were the exam

Frequent testing doesn’t just consolidate knowledge – it makes the exam situation familiar. In a survey, many learners reported that regular small quizzes made them less nervous before exams (Agarwal et al., 2014). Past papers under time pressure are the best dress rehearsal.

4. Breathe – long out

Slow breathing with an emphasised exhale dampens the stress response. In the physiological sigh you breathe in twice through the nose and out long through the mouth. In a study, five minutes of it daily improved mood more than mindfulness meditation (Balban et al., 2023). Two minutes before the exam are enough to calm down.

5. Give rumination a place

Instead of fighting worries all day: write them down and postpone them to a fixed “worry time” in the evening. This technique from behavioural therapy limits rumination to a time slot (Borkovec et al., 1983).

6. Sleep is study time

What you learned is consolidated during sleep (Diekelmann & Born, 2010). An all-nighter before the exam costs more than it gains – and makes you more vulnerable to stress.

7. Check catastrophic thoughts

“If I fail, everything is over.” Thoughts like this can be examined like evidence: what speaks for it, what against it, what would be a balanced thought? This thought record is a core tool of cognitive behavioural therapy.

When to get help

If the anxiety lasts for weeks, you avoid exams or it runs your life, that’s not a weakness but a good reason for support. Most universities offer free counselling. In a crisis, call your local emergency number or a crisis line in your country.

Frequently asked questions

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