Written by Tracy Westlund

ara June*, a petite girl standing 5 feet tall with curly red hair, immediately sits down at her desk in her bedroom, grabs a purple pen and begins to doodle circles and swirls on a notepad. She is nervous, although the test she has to take is still weeks away.

About a week before an exam, June, 20, comes unglued. She can't sleep. She develops a headache, a stomachache and a cold, or she becomes nauseous. She either can't eat or her nervousness makes her binge.

The night before her exam, she gets even worse. She is physically sick and throws up. She sweats. She shakes. She stays up all night studying, worrying and wondering what lies ahead.

On exam day, she wakes up early with sweaty palms. She breathes heavily and her heart races as she tries to study. She walks into the classroom, takes her seat and blanks out even though she studied desperately. She can't focus and she puts down any answer on the test just so it will end.

Finally, the test is over. But even a few days later, she still is shaken up. June, a student at Santa Fe Community College, has been diagnosed with severe test anxiety by doctors.

According to the University of Texas Learning Center at Austin, “an estimated 20 percent of college students may suffer from nervousness so severe that two things happen: their grades drop because the anxiety interferes with their mental processes, keeping them from doing their best, and the quality of their life lessens, making them miserable.”

Robert Schleser, a psychology professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, says that test anxiety is when a student experiences heightened fear or anxiety in a testing situation that is greater than the situation calls for. A student prepares well for a test, for example, but suddenly feels upset and fearful when sitting down to begin the exam. The situation should not cause fear because the student is prepared, he says.

Schleser says all those who suffer from anxiety have the same types of physical responses.

“At a physical level, there's a specific pattern of response, such as increased heart rate, adrenaline being released into the system, increased respiration rate, your skin actually gets a little tougher and blood flow is directed to major muscle groups like your legs or arms,” he says.

But at a psychological level people experience it differently. Some are more apprehensive, some are more hyperactive and can't sit still. They will drum their fingers, and thoughts—characterized by dread or fear—will race, he says.