Maraiah Jaramillo

Professor Apiafi

Health Education 044

June 15, 2019

Project 3: Case Study Overview

Katya is a college student in her freshman year and she has a 3.0 grade point average.

Although she studies rigorously, Katya suffers from anxiety before tests because she lacks the

confidence in herself that she will do well. At the end of the semester Katya has a chemistry

exam that she has to perform well on in order to keep her scholarship at her school. The pressure

of the close approaching exam is making her anxiety skyrocket and leads to a panic attack while

she is studying one afternoon. Her chemistry exam is now fast approaching and only two days

away. She needs help to ease her stress and do well on the exam.

In my personal experience, I have suffered severe anxiety and depression this last spring

semester at PCC. I had a full course load and a job while tackling my last semester at PCC.

Except that it wasn’t my last semester at PCC after all. I struggle with exams and I also took

challenging classes this semester. My acceptance into UCI was threatened when I realized I

might not pass all of my classes. I was stressed and it affected me both mentally and physically. I

knew I had to perform well on my exams to stay admitted to UCI, but I couldn’t mentally handle

the course load and I found myself failing two of my five classes. This sent me spiraling into

sadness knowing that I would have to stay a year in order to make up two classes and then have

to reapply to colleges. I didn’t get to pass those classes and in hindsight I know how I could have

helped myself to possibly get my desired grades. Having a strong support group, balance, and
finding ways to cope with the stress all helped me and kept me grounded after the deafening

blow of failing.

In my opinion, I handle things very poorly when considering my mental health but I

know what I should be doing. So my advice to Katya is coming from someone who has these

same experiences, but is aware of ways to cope. When things are becoming too overwhelming

for Katya while she studies, then she needs to take a step back, breath, and write down her fears.

After she takes the time to vent about her fears and anxieties, it will give her a way to “cleanse”

those worries even for a moment and to get back to studying once those short breaks are taken. I

recommend she times her studying and her breaks in blocks to ensure she doesn’t burn out like I

so often do. Balance is everything and it’s hard to get that so once she has a routine down for the

day, it should be a less stressful experience.

Future recommendations for Katya would be to write about her unspoken fears related to

failure and all of her anxieties so that she has a chance to reevaluate all of those worries. This

might help her and other students recognize that these thoughts can lead to bad outcomes through

a self-fulfilling prophecy. The negative emotions and defeating thoughts can be worked through

in activities like this. Once students who are generally anxious for tests take part in this activity,

research presents they earn an average of 6 percent higher on a test than those who don’t. (PCC

resource: Bower, Bruce/ 2/12/2011, Vol. 179 Issue 4, p9-9. 1/2p.)

It’s best not to put yourself in the shoes of a disaster that hasn’t happened yet all for a test

or two. Take things step by step rather than looking at the bigger picture. When the test is

actually in front of you, it’s a good idea to budget time. Think about how long each question will

take you as you glance over all of the questions. Tackle the ones that are longer or worth more

first to earn as many points as you can. After you handle those then it’s less stressful to answer
the smaller ones. (Georgetown University Student Health Services, retrieved from

http://studenthealth.georgetown.edu/health-issues/stress-aniety-depression/text-anxiety/)

Realize that having anxiety is sometimes more habit than medical problem and if you

realize you are capable of breaking this habit than practice it. So when it comes to taking a test or

even any big life moment, remember that your expectations are what will set you up. Katya will

either have passed or not but she will have a new semester and she will have new instructors and

possibly new study habits. A fresh start is something anyone would find exciting and it’s a great

time to enforce new or old good habits. Putting some of our goals into words – and possibly

putting them on paper – will make them more real, and will serve as a reminder as the semester

progresses. Don't think about the fear but think about the next step and keep on task, step by step.