How to avoid examination phobia

By Caleb Mutua

May-September semester is almost over and students are doing their exams. I have noticed with less difficulty the irritation and fear that has started to linger in UoN main campus to a point of crippling library services.

Cases of students committing suicide because of examination phobia are not new and in the developed world, parents take their worried children to psychiatrists for treatment. This begs the question: what is examination phobia and how can students overcome it?

Exam phobia is a deep irritation or fear for exams. When exams approach, even the class “noise makers” try and read or cram their notes because the hour of reckoning is near.

But why wait the last minute before you start preparing for exams? I always overcome exam phobia by attending classes and listening keenly to lectures.

Having a timetable and obeying it is my other secret. After attending the first few lectures at the beginning of the semester, I allot more time to those units I feel I’m week.

When exams commence, I avoid reading and just relax and try to remember what we’ve been taught. This is also a period when students should avoid eating junk at all costs. Eat nutritious food and foods rich in vitamin A like fish, liver,  green leafy vegetables, carrot and ripe mango in order to boost your brain power and your ability to remember. Doing an exam with an empty stomach is educationally unhealthy.

Finally, believe you can do it. Remember that whatever the outcome, it will not be about success but achievement. Go and achieve and don’t worry when people think that you did not succeed.

First published in August 2011.