Elizabeth Sun

Professor Apiaf
Health Ed 15 Section 30781
01 March 2015
Project 3: Case Study
OVERVIEW OF THE SCENARIO
Katya is a hardworking student with a B average in her freshman year.
However, despite her success in school, she still experiences test-anxiety
and fears that her hard work and effort will have no effect on her scores.
Katya now has a chemistry test coming up, the results of which will
determine whether or not she will continue to receive her scholarship in the
future. The pressure and signifcance of the upcoming test has caused Katya
to have a panic attack while studying for her test. She has two days to
overcome her test anxiety enough to get through her test without breaking
down.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
In my personal experience, I fnd that if I have been present and alert
during every class and understand the material, I tend to have less anxiety
before tests. However, I have also noticed that, when taking tests, I tend to
second-guess myself even when I do confdently know the test material. In
such cases, odd though it may be, I fnd that I doubt my skill and ability most
when I tested on concrete materials such as Math and Science as opposed to
more abstract subjects like History and English. When faced with test

anxiety, I frst make a list of study materials and then rank them in order of
how well I know them going from least to best. The next thing I do is study
the concepts I know the least and work my way down the list. Allotting a
certain amount of time for each concept helps me visualize how long I need
to spend preparing and also keeps me on track so that I can get everything
done without spending too much time on any one concept.
I have never experienced test anxiety as severe as Katyas but I have
been so anxious about doing well in school that when assignments looked to
be difficult, I would put them off to the last minute because I felt that I wasnt
going to do well on them anyway. This would lead to missing one
assignment, which would snowball into my missing many assignments and
failing the class, horribly. After failing the majority of my classes one
particular semester, I decided to seek out professional help because I needed
to learn to be successful in school despite my anxiety. In seeking out help, I
was able to view my anxieties and fears in new ways that didn't inhibit my
success in my classes.
RECOMMENDATIONS
One thing that Katya can do to help keep her fears and anxiety at bay
is to write out her fears on a sheet of paper at the start of her study session.
Research shows that this will help her reevaluate her fears and determine
the validity of her fears which in turn will allow her to relieve some stress and
release some of the anxiety that she has. In one study, students who wrote

about their fears before testing scored higher than those who did not
practice what is known as expressive writing. (Bower, 9)
Another thing that Katya can do is to take her chemistry concepts and
think of real life instances in which she would be able to apply her learning. A
study of how nursing students felt about math showed that students who
could apply their math skills to how this would relate to patients found that
being able to successfully complete practice calculations helped increase
their confdence during a test. (Walsh, 228) One thing that I was taught is to
visualize the anxiety leaving my body and entering a tangible yet separate
vessel of some sort to keep myself from feeling overwhelmed. After that, my
anxiety lessens and I can get to my studies.
Works Cited
Bower, B. (2011). The write stuff for test anxiety. Science News, 179(4), 9.
Leggett, H., Sandars, J., & Burns, P. (2012). Helping students to improve their
academic performance: a pilot study of a workbook with self-monitoring
exercises. Medical Teacher, 34(9), 751-753.
doi:10.3109/0142159X.2012.691188
Walsh, K. A. (2008). The relationship among mathematics anxiety, beliefs
about mathematics, mathematics self-efficacy, and mathematics
performance in associate degree nursing students. Nursing Education
Perspectives, 29(4), 226-229.