While a recent psychological study suggested that pre-exam anxiety can lead to boosted test performance for young students with good memory, experts at Boston University said the findings could apply to college students as well.
Researchers surveyed 96 students between the ages of 12 and 14 and found when working memory was good, anxiety would help to produce higher test results, according to the study published Friday by the British Psychological Society.
Although the study examined younger students, anxiety in the middle of the spectrum can serve as a helpful motivator for college students, professionals said.
“Anxiety is a more future-focused, future-oriented emotional state [compared to fear] with the primary function of preparation, so to have some anxiety leading into a test can get you motivated,” said Todd Farchione, intensive program director at BU’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. “It can be really advantageous to us.”
Farchione said moderate levels of anxiety coupled with strong memory can lead to higher results, but very low or very high levels of anxiety can negatively affect grades.
“The idea [is] that very low levels of anxiety will result in poor performance and very high levels of anxiety will result in poor performance,” he said. “So there is this optimal range where if you are moderately anxious and emotionally stimulated you will actually perform better.”
Exam anxiety for college students is often a result of time constraints, said David Gehrenbeck-shim, a practicing clinical psychologist and professor at BU.
“In fact one of the things with anxiety in particular is the effects of time testing,” Gehrenbeck-shim said. “If someone has only 50 minutes to do something and then they are given the same task in two hours in a different setting, what do you think is going to happen? It’s going to be much more manageable.”
He said anxiety can help performance when it is in a proper range and coupled with strong memory.
“[Anxiety] actually fuels you,” he said. “You get the jitters. Remember anxiety is adrenaline, it can pump you up and get you going or you have something called an adrenaline dump.”
Anxiety can exacerbate weak memory abilities, Gehrenbeck-shim said.
“What happens is that under the best circumstances, a person with limited memory is already going to have problems, and the anxiety compounds on that,” he said.
Treatments for memory problems and anxiety problems are very different, Gehrenbeck-shim said.
“You can’t in fact increase your memory capacity,” Gehrenbeck-shim said. “What you can do is develop better mnemonic skills or memory tasks.”
Some students said they find moderate pre-exam anxiety helps them perform better.
“I always have some pre-exam anxiety and I guess it helps me perform better,” said Ali Miniutti, a College of Arts and Sciences senior. “It definitely helps if I have a little bit, but if I’m really anxious on tests I don’t think it helps after a certain threshold.”
Ryan McNaughton, a School of Engineering freshman, said he experiences excessive anxiety during exams under time pressure.
“You get five minutes to do what looks like it might take a long time you start to freak out,” he said. “You try to think too quickly and you end up not thinking at all.”
Oliver Rocos, a School of Law graduate student, said while he does not notice a personal correlation between test anxiety and performance, memory and anxiety are linked.
“I was a barrister in London, and we put people under pressure and they forget things all the time,” he said. “Then they would make things up, and then they get under more anxiety. It’s a cascading process, I’ve always found.”
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