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How to turn performance anxiety into excitement

Do you sometimes find yourself worrying about situations in which you might panic and fail?

These are common feelings, especially leading up to something pivotal like an exam.

So how do you mitigate this? The good news is: it’s possible to turn anxiety into excitement.

What is performance anxiety? 

While performance anxiety is sometimes referred to as stage fright, this type of anxiety isn’t just reserved for actual performances.  

Performance anxiety is defined as a fear about one’s ability to perform a particular task. This is the type of anxiety you’re likely to feel before an exam or major assessment. 

You may not be gearing up to perform or speak in front of a group of people, but anxiety may arise at the thought of failing at the task at hand.   

If you’re feeling internal or external pressure to do well on an assessment, you may notice performance anxiety rearing its ugly head and hindering your ability to perform at your absolute best. 

The symptoms of performance anxiety are similar to those of regular anxiety symptoms; racing heart, sweating, nausea and shortness of breath.  

How to overcome performance anxiety in an exam 

With VCE exams on the horizon, many students will be faced with symptoms of performance anxiety. These feelings can be overwhelming, but it’s important to remember that you’re not alone in them. A recent study by youth mental health service ReachOut found that almost 50 per cent of VCE students are highly stressed in the lead-up to exams. 

However, there is something you can do about these uncomfortable feelings. Performance anxiety can actually be turned into excitement.  

So, how do you do it? 

Here are some tips on how you can flip those pre-exam feels: 

Manage your thoughts and your ‘head talk’. Replace negative thoughts with an identify, challenge, and replace technique. For example, notice how  ‘I am going to fail’ is likely to have negative effects on your anxiety and motivation, try to replace this with something more helpful and realistic, e.g., ‘I’m going to perform as best as I can in this exam’, or replace ‘I must get 100% on this exam’ to ‘I will do my best but no matter what the result is I will learn from this experience.’   

Act calm and remind yourself you can only control what is in front of you. Don’t let yourself be influenced by the nervousness of those around you.   

When it comes to routine, try and keep things as mainstream as possible. Try to reduce other potential stressors and give yourself time to prepare.  

Attempt every question, but if you get stuck on one, move to the next one and come back to it later. This will allow you to feel as though you are progressing through the exam and you won’t feel like you’re falling behind. Just try and focus on one thing at a time, and be compassionate with yourself if something is challenging or outside of your knowledge. 

Meditation techniques for dealing with performance anxiety 

There is also meditation techniques you can use during the exam, which can go a long way in turning your performance anxiety excitement. 

The first technique is an autogenic relaxation technique. When practicing this technique, you will visualise yourself in a peaceful setting. From here, you can slowly relax yourself reducing your stress levels turning your anxiety into excitement. 

The second technique is progressive muscle relaxation. This involves tensing the muscles and then relaxing them. This is best performed in a quiet space, so our tip would be to try and perform this when arriving in the exam room. Start with your head and work down to your toes; tense for five seconds and then relax each muscle for 30 seconds.  

The third technique is visualisation. This is a popular choice, as it can be done anywhere. Picture yourself somewhere you love. Relaxing visualisations can reduce stress levels, which in turn allows you to perform better. In the lead up to your exams, experiment with these tips for turning anxiety into excitement.

Is performance anxiety the fear of the unknown? 

So, is performance anxiety just lingering over us because we are worrying about the potential outcomes if things don’t go to plan? 

We’ve all played out the ‘what if’ script before a highly anticipated event.  What happens if I fail? What happens if the crowd doesn’t enjoy my speech? What happens if I don’t know the answer?   

Deakin University’s Dr David Hallford believes performance anxiety stems from these questions we subconsciously dwell on. 

‘Performance anxiety typically relates to a fear of negative outcomes when engaging in a task, such as doing poorly, being judged negatively, being overwhelmed with distress, or embarrassing oneself.  

However, individual differences in the tolerance of uncertainty might also be a factor in performance anxiety. That is, for some people simply being uncertain about how something will go, or not feeling 100% in control of the outcome, can be the cause of distress, particularly in the context of perfectionistic tendencies.’ 

These are all common feelings prior to commencing something important like an exam. However, all it is, is the unknown.  

It’s like a grey cloud – it may bring rain, it may not. However, it really is up to you how you approach that cloud. It might be as simple as deciding to dance in the rain instead of worrying about the storm.  

Use your meditation techniques and keep an eye on that self-talk. With practice, you’ll become a pro at turning your performance anxiety into excitement.

 

 

*2022 Student Experience Survey, Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT)

 

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Dr David Hallford
Dr David Hallford

Senior Lecturer,

Faculty of Health,

Deakin University

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