Many people I know have had some iteration of this dream. The details are different, but it's typically set in school, some event that sets off butterflies in your stomach and you're mortified at your inability to perform.
I try to remember this feeling when I see students whose primary complaint is school-related anxiety. In my line of work, I've met students who have literally shown up in my office right before an exam shaking, or throwing up, or have hands so cold and clammy and their faces so pale you'd think they saw a ghost. The cynic in me always questions if it is real or if the student is faking it or if such anxiety could really exist. And then it does hit me: I've always been pretty good at school. If I get a bad grade, it's usually because I didn't study. School was not a scary, unkind place for me. And yet, I still get these anxiety dreams where I wake up relieved to find out I did not have a test that I forgot about. The anxiety must be a million times worse for students who have not had the smooth sailing experience I had in school.
I know some students have anxiety or develop it because of the high stakes nature of tests and exams. When I first started work as an educator, I equated a high stakes exam with the SATs, or LSATs, or GREs, or MCATs. I've since come to realize that for many of our students, high stakes isn't just one of those acronymed tests, but every single mid-term or quiz or final could be a high stakes exam. I really understood this when a student I worked with stood to lose financial aid, his income and possibly housing, if he didn't pass his accounting course; a student I'm working with this quarter stands to lose her health insurance if she doesn't get a pass in her math requirement- a really big deal if you are chronically ill with a debilitating disease. High stakes at the community college really takes on a whole different meaning.
Other students develop what I call school-related PTSD as a result of their experience in elementary and secondary school. They didn't read at grade level, or could not keep up with math, or always tank standardized tests and exams. People tell them they are smart, but the tests always say otherwise. Or they're the ones that teachers pick on- "Sit down", "Don't squirm", "Pay attention", "Don't be careless.", "Read carefully", "Try harder". What happens afterwards is this: I see perfectly smart, bright students second guess themselves in exams.
"I think the answer is (B), but I'm always wrong, so it must be (C)."
"Where's the trick in this question?"
"Can it really be this easy? I must not be seeing or understanding the question correctly."
All this second guessing results in a bad grade, and the anxiety ensues.
There was a time when I wished we had some superpower to fix, tutor and remediate all of these students' anxieties away. But a really wise colleague of mine (Margo Dobbins) once said it's not the content of the class that matters, but the contact with the student. Coincidentally, this quote from Maya Angelou surfaced on my Facebook newsfeed this week:
So I guess what I'm trying to say, in this albeit long-winded way, is that I remember this the next time a student freaks out in my office, or cries over an exam or worries out of control. I hope they leave feeling just a little less anxious.
PS: If you want to learn more about anxiety disorders, here are some totally scientific, peer reviewed links that I think are awesome.
Panic Disorder
Test Anxiety
Facts about Anxiety
Reducing test anxiety=> I really like this one. It's produced by ETS, the same folks who produce the SATs.
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