Managing Exam Stress and Anxiety

Exams are stressful. That is not a flaw in the system — it is an inevitable consequence of facing a high-stakes challenge where your performance matters. Every student experiences some degree of stress before and during exams.

But there is a crucial difference between normal exam stress — the kind that sharpens your focus and motivates you to prepare — and debilitating exam anxiety, which can undermine your performance and affect your wellbeing.

This lesson will help you understand the difference, recognise when stress is becoming harmful, and learn practical strategies for managing it.

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Some Stress Is Actually Helpful

In 1908, psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson described a relationship between arousal (stress) and performance that became known as the Yerkes-Dodson law:

• Too little arousal: You are not motivated. Performance is low because you do not care enough to focus.
• Moderate arousal: You are alert, focused, and motivated. Performance is at its peak. This is the "sweet spot."
• Too much arousal: You are overwhelmed. Anxiety takes over, thinking becomes muddled, and performance drops.

The relationship forms an inverted U-shape: performance rises with stress up to an optimal point, then falls as stress continues to increase.