Help! I'm Suffering From Text Anxiety!
Many students struggle with text anxiety, sometimes of a content-specific nature (e.g., math anxiety), sometimes of a more generic sort. While I can offer no magic cure, no quick fix, here are some time-tested, theoretically sound strategies that may help.
1. Break the all-or-nothing mindset. One main reason many of us stay stuck (in some aspect of life or another) is because we think in black/white, all/nothing terms: "Either I stick on a 500-calorie/day diet, or I might as well eat whatever I like." But in fact, to work and to persist over time, effective change needs to be gradual and manageable. So, whether you're trying to lose weight, save money, or manage your test anxiety, start small... aim for a 10% improvement in your target behavior over the next several months, not a "perfect" cure. This works for many reasons: one of them is that you may well do better than 10%, and then you'll feel great about yourself because you exceeded your expectations. (In contrast, you'll almost certainly do worse than 100% improvement, which sets you up for self-blame and despair.)
2. Pay attention to your self-talk. "Self-talk" means what you say to yourself in a given situation. Usually, it's not the specific situations of life that trigger anxiety; it's how we think about them, how we interpret them, what we tell ourselves about them. The next time you get anxious in an exam, note how you feed that by telling yourself things like, "Oh, no, it's happening again!" or "I'll never be able to get this" or "I must be either hopeless or stupid." Now that you recognize this, you can counteract those powerful thoughts with a more rational replacement, like, "This is tougher than I thought, but I know I can do it." Often, self-talk is in the form of mental images or emotive memories, such as the picture of your hostile, abusive fourth-grade teacher humiliating you in class. But she's not around any more, so why let one person's opinion of you carry that much weight today?
3. Break problems down. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. When faced with an "impossible" problem, see if you can break it down into a series, chain, or sequences of smaller problems. "Let's see now, what should I do first?" Then focus on that mini-problem only until it's solved; handle one piece of the problem at a time. This means you will experience a string of little successes (not just one massive failure). Often this means, at a minimum, partial credit.
4. Coach yourself. The fancy word for this is "metacognition" (as if you care). It means that you can talk your way out of a mental corner, either by offering yourself reassurance ("You've solved these problems before, I know you can do this one") or by strategizing ("Let's see, how can we figure out how to tackle the start of this problem?") Imagine that a knowledgeable, friendly tutor is working through the problem with you; what would s/he say to help you get through the block?
5. Learn how to relax on cue. Most people can easily learn to produce a relaxation response by saying a word (like "relax" to themselves and then associating that with a relaxing image, like lying on a warm sunny beach and watching the clouds drift lazily overhead). Because relaxation and panic are opposites (incompatible), this will often stop useless fear responses in their tracks. Or wear a rubber band around your wrist and, when you first feel the panic start to rise, quietly snap it and say to yourself, "Stop."
6. Simulate the exam process when you study, because much learning is "state-dependent". There won't be a radio blaring during the real exam, so study in silence. You won't be eating during the exam, so put away your munchies. You'll be under time pressure, so get in the habit of self-testing yourself (make up little quizzes for yourself, or trade them with a friend) with a timer set for a reasonable time period. If nothing else, you'll have a much more realistic sense of how ready you are for the real exam. Take advantage of pretests or practice exercises when offered in the same way. Don't fool yourself by peeking at the answer key and then engaging in the delusional thought, "Sure, I knew that."
7. Know your optimal learning style. There are four types of learners: concrete-linear (observational, detail learners); concrete-nonlinear (experiential, hands-on learners); abstract-linear (conceptual, logical learners); and abstract-nonlinear (associative, creative learners). Know which you are (click here for help) and know what that means about your learning strengths and weaknesses (here).
8. Don't waste energy berating yourself for failure when it does happen. In the first place, it's rarely the end of the world; put it in perspective. (Many happy, successful people were not straight A students in college, for instance.) In the second place, it doesn't mean that you can never improve; it simply means you need to do a specific diagnosis (with your instructor's help) of what went wrong and how to fix it. In the third place, it doesn't mean you are a failure; it means that you haven't yet found the optimal strategies for yourself.