The situation presented by this case study is one that too many of us face—test

anxiety. Sadly, I can see a lot of myself in this scenario and I empathize with Katya's

struggle. Basically, Katya is a college student struggling with the pressures of college,

which is worsened by her current predicament: an upcoming exam that could potentially

lead her to losing her scholarship. Unfortunately, stress in college is simply unavoidable

and no matter what we may believe, we all have to struggle with it. Also, because Katya

and I are in similar situation this paper will be an opportunity for me to explore how to

deal or fix my struggle with anxiety. While Katya's situation is difficult it was comforting

to learn that there is a way out. Katya does face a difficult situation and she feels

powerless to overcome it, but the good news is that there are ways that she can build her

self-efficacy and be better prepared to deal with the stress of her experience in college.

Clearly, Katya faces a challenging situation. She has to do well on an up

upcoming chemistry exam to keep her scholarship—the pressure is definitely on. To

make things worse, her exam is only days away and she is suffering so bad from her

anxiety that she is starting to have panic attacks, which probably makes her feel even

worse because she may feel that she is being taken away from valuable study time. I can

definitely relate because I suffer from general anxiety and tests (especially during finals

week) are a particularly difficult time for me; you can feel like you are trapped, like your

world is ending, and like you are powerless to fix the situation. Katya studies diligently

and this brings her no sense of relief or grounds to believe she can overcome the

situation. Again, I feel the same way and I am battling with how to overcome this very

feeling.

Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute

behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments. (Carey & Forsyth, n.d.)

It is important that we learn to be optimistic—to have positive self-efficacy— about our

ability to deal with not only college and exams but with life. According to Lohmann

(2016), “The good news is you can defeat your test anxiety and it begins with changing

your mindset.” (Lohmann, 2016, para. 2) Although this may be a simple even obvious

idea it was very comforting to come across this concept because you often feel

completely powerless with anxiety and this quote allowed me to see that I can improve

my situation. Stress presents itself as means of helping us to achieve; although stress can

be unpleasant we have to change our concept of it to view stress as a thing that pushes to

study, prepare, and use caution when taking exams (or do anything really). (Lohmann,

2016, para. 3) I would recommend that Katya follow me in learning to change our view

of stress, that it exists to help. Without much time left before the exam, this is a quick

mentality change can help.

From a health perspective, it is important to, again, use behaviors that are

generally part of a healthy lifestyle to helps us decrease our anxiety (or test anxiety) and

increase our optimism or self-efficacy: eating well, sleeping well, and being active.

(Lohman, 2016) Eating well when dealing with test anxiety could mean avoiding or

reducing our consumption of foods that contain sugar and caffeine as these can trigger or

make anxiety worse. (Guillory, n.d.) So, I would encourage Katya to join me in cutting

down on things like coffee, candy bars, cookies, etc.—all things that are eaten when we

are stressed. (Lohmann, 2016, para. 5) Going for a run can improve our mood and give us

energy; and, while it may be tempting to study instead of sleep, it may be better to relax

by getting a good night’s rest as this can help calm our anxiety. (Lohmann, 2016, para. 6-
7) Also, some other great tips that I came across involve accurately thinking about the

task at hand and breaking up that task (chunking) so that it becomes more manageable.

(Minahan, 2018, p. 47-48) Sometimes we feel that we don’t know anything on a test and

so it may be helpful to get a realistic view of the exam by look at the material and ask

ourselves how difficult each topic really is, how long it we actually need to spend

studying, and what feel we know or don’t know that well. (Minahan, 2018, p. 47-48)

Once we use that idea, then it might be wise to break down our study material into

smaller chunks and do our best to spend more time on what we actually struggle with,

instead of just thinking that we struggle with everything. (Minahan, 2018, p.48) Although

therapy would be a good long-term solution for Katya to seek out to help her with

challenges in future semesters, it may be best to use the tips I mentioned now and see if

they can be carried over going forward. I know I will be using all of these to help my

struggle.

Katya’s struggle with test anxiety is one that I am sure many students face—I

know I do. It is extremely important that students like Katya and I learn that our struggle

has a solution and that there are things we can do to build our self-efficacy in order to be

able to deal with our lives because stress is unavoidable; furthermore, stress is there to

help us achieve in our lives. Though Katya does not have much time, I hope that by

following the tips in this paper she can at least help herself a bit in the short-term as they

can quickly be used.

 References

Carey, M. P., PhD, & Forsyth, A. D. (n.d.). Retrieved December 07, 2018, from
https://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/education/self-efficacy.aspx

Guillory, S. (2017, August 14). Foods That Trigger Anxiety. Retrieved December 06,
2018, from https://www.livestrong.com/article/273839-foods-that-trigger-anxiety/

Lohmann, R. C., Ph.D, LPCS. (2016, May 02). Test Anxiety: Five Strategies for
Overcoming Test Anxiety. Retrieved December 07, 2018, from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/teen-angst/201605/test-anxiety

Minahan, J. (2017). Helping Anxious Students Move Forward. Educational

Leadership, 75(4), 44. Retrieved from
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search-ebscohost-
com.ezp.pasadena.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=128250333&scope=
site