Coaching practices for How to Overcome Anxiety During Exams

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • Right before the test or the big moment, my head is so jammed with what-ifs and dread that there’s no room left to actually think
  • Even once the worst of it passes, I can’t get back into the room
  • There’s a big thing coming up
  • Even when I face the thing and nothing bad happens, my mind just shrugs it off as "I got lucky this time" and the dread stays exactly the same
  • Before I can even start facing my fears head-on, I have to stop them ambushing me at every hour

Practices that may help

  1. Write about your worries before a high-stakes performance
    Offload performance anxiety by writing it out in full immediately before the event.
    Choking Under Pressure, Made Practical
  2. Engage with the present moment
    Once the edge comes off, redirect attention fully into an activity or your surroundings.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
  3. Apply EFT to specific performance anxiety triggers
    EFT has the strongest self-guided evidence for test anxiety, public speaking, and sports performance stress.
    EFT Tapping: What It Is, How to Do It, and What the Evidence Shows
  4. Set realistic expectations before each exposure
    Before you enter the situation, write down your feared prediction — then check it against reality afterward.
    The Fear Ladder: Graded Exposure Made Practical
  5. Worry stimulus control: confine worry to a designated time
    Schedule a 20-minute daily "worry period" and postpone all worry outside it.
    Worry Exposure, Made Practical
  6. Rehearse the response before you need it
    Learn and practice the four steps in low-stakes moments so they are available under pressure.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
  7. Run toward the feeling
    Actively invite more of the anxiety rather than waiting nervously for it to pass.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
  8. Behavioral experiments
    Test an anxious prediction in real life and compare what you feared with what happened.
    The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
  9. De-activation Strategies for Over-Arousal
    Use targeted techniques to reduce arousal when anxiety or over-activation is undermining performance.
    The Yerkes-Dodson Law: Finding Your Optimal Performance Zone
  10. Drop the safety behaviors
    Let go of the small avoidances and crutches you use to feel "safe" from anxiety.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical

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