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Jasmine Estrada

Professor Apiafi

Health 044

05 June 2020

Project 3: Case Analysis

The case study scenario focuses primarily on a young student named Katya, who is a

freshman in college and experiences intense test anxiety before exams. She is a quality student,

who studies religiously and has a 3.0-grade point average. Despite being a good student, and

working hard to achieve satisfactory grades, Katya suspects that even if she works diligently, her

efforts will make no difference in her exam outcomes. Approaching the end of the semester,

Katya has a chemistry exam in two days, she must do well otherwise she is in danger of losing

her scholarship. Due to the overwhelming stress of having to perform well on the exam, one

afternoon while studying she has a panic attack.

If I were put into Katya’s’ position, I would research strategies that may reduce the test anxiety I

am experiencing. Since test anxiety is a physiological condition, I would fundamentally focus on

methods regarding relaxation and preparation. In the case that the strategies I find do not

succeed, then I would seek professional help. Ultimately, I would want to resolve the issue on

my own first, knowing that I tried all possible outcomes prior to acquiring professional help. I

have been in Katya’s’ situation on certain occasions, such as midterm and finals week, however,

I would add that my test anxiety was not as drastic as hers. I would experience stress and fear of

failure while preparing for intense exams, such as mathematics. Having said that, methods that

operated well for me were to study with other students, we would encourage each other and
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identify areas we individually needed to improve on and provide assistance to one another, so

that we may succeed. Another technique that functioned well was to communicate with my

professor, explaining how I felt in preparation for the exam. She went over the material that

would appear on the exam, as well as provided suggestions to guide me to success.

When researching articles concerning test anxiety, I came across a study, “Identifying Patterns of

Appraising Tests in First-Year College Students: Implications for Anxiety and Emotion

Regulation During Test Tasking” which concentrated on first-year students’ coping strategies,

test anxiety, and emotions when preparing for an exam. The study was conducted by three

psychologists; Heather A Davis, Christine DiStefano, and Paul A. Schutz. While conducting this

study, psychologists established, in order for test anxiety to appear in students, they must

perceive the exam in question as important in order to attain their academic or personal goals.

Psychologists comprehended that emotions and their judgments also are key factors when it

comes to text anxiety, meaning that in order for students to perform well on exams, they must

feel happy, confident, and feel in control of their abilities to do well. In the study, it was argued

that anxiety was more likely to appear in students who lacked confidence and the ability to

control their emotions. It was discovered that many students who have low test anxiety used a

method called attentional deployment. Students would use this method by centering their

attention to questions they believed to be primarily easy, in many scenarios this relieved test

anxiety for the students, since it allowed them to compare the numbers of hard and easy

questions on the exams. This boosted the self-confidence in students and allowed them to

perform significantly better when it came to difficult questions. Individuals who transferred their

focus over to areas of the exam they could control such as: finding main ideas in the questions,
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eliminating responses, and reading directions instead of their emotions and thoughts about

themselves also did remarkably better.

In Conclusion, for students to perform well on tests and limit their test anxiety, they must

approach the exam with confidence and be certain of their abilities to perform well. Constantly

focusing on negative thoughts, results in a negative outcome. When students make pessimistic

judgements on their capacity to understand questions on the exam or their ability to do well, test

anxiety would surface, making it difficult for the individuals to improve. In addition, individuals

must remind themselves to stay positive and calm. Moreover, manage their time wisely, and shift

focus to elements you can control.

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Work Cited

Davis, H. A., DiStefano, C., & Schutz, P. A. (2008). Identifying Patterns of Appraising Tests in

First-Year College Students: Implications for Anxiety and Emotion Regulation During Test

Taking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(4), 942–960. https://doi-

org.ezp.pasadena.edu/10.1037/a0013096