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True story about exam anxiety: 10+ years ago I was a teaching assistant ("tutor") for undergrad physics lectures, responsible for a group of about 12 or so, 2 of which women (for what I recall now). 1/
Exam time nears. This one is an important qualification test, deciding about whether the students will be admitted to advanced classes and can write their master’s thesis. 2/
One of the women in the class is an A+ student. I am perfectly sure she’ll ace her exam. But she has bad exam anxiety, the totally destructive “will faint” type. I do my best to reassure her, but don’t really know how to help her. 3/
The day of her theoretical physics exam comes. This is a verbal test in which only the student, the prof, and a witness are present. I didn’t at the time have a PhD so wasn’t allowed to be present. 4/
The prof asks the first question. She doesn’t faint, but she doesn’t bring out a word either. He’d later tell me she couldn’t as much as say her own name. 5/
Noticing her distress, the prof decides to postpone the exam by two hours, hoping she’ll manage to calm down. Technically he wasn’t allowed to do this, she should have been marked “fail”. But he figured no one would know the exact time anyway. 6/
The student now doesn’t know what to do, so she comes to see me in my office. Alas, I am not in, because I didn’t expect to see her so soon. 7/
Instead she talks to my office mate, who had been tutoring some other group. He goes to have a coffee with her. He finds all the right words to help her calm down. He brings her back to the prof to have her exam. 8/
This time around, she does manage to speak! She ends up getting the best possible grade. (Well, I told you she knew her stuff.) 9/
But, wait, that’s not it. She begins dating my office mate. Soon enough, they’re a couple. She graduates. They move together. Today they’re married and both tenured profs for physics. The End. 10/
Lesson: Exam anxiety (and ditto for speaking anxiety) is a real problem and it can be a hurdle even for highly qualified people. Don’t belittle people who suffer from it, try to help them. If you are affected, don’t be ashamed to ask for help. 11/11 #MentalHealthAwareness
