Thanks for the idea, but it says its for women, and umm, I don't qualify there =). I do believe my anxiety is far beyond what is normal nor what should be typical. I had a script for Xanax but that also dulls your mind, so its a double edged sword, and didn't work that well this time.

Well, crud. Bueller?

Hello folks. I'm new here and joined up because I recently had my third not very fun anxiety freakout on a PhD Midterm. Not fun.

I'm a third year part time PhD student. I have a full time job so I attend night classes. In my first year I got DX'ed with a rare brain condition which, after 6 months of tests, was deemed to be stable and I'll just live with knowing I can never, ever play any contact sport again (sigh). Concurrent with this, I had my first episode of a panic attack during an exam. It's definitely not under-preparation, but some combination of a fear of failure and a sense of urgency due to that head issue. I survived my first year, thrived in my second, just got published!!!!!, and then had a freakout last week and I'm pretty sure I badly burned a midterm exam.

I'd like to know from others who had test anxiety how they dealt and got it under control, and any advice on talking to this professor about how I can remedy a poor midterm test performance.

Thanks folks,

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Slowmo,

In my first year of my PhD, I was diagnosed by a random Sinus CT Scan to have a rare form of Hydrocephalus. Wiki that and you can easily see how much I freaked out. Thankfully, the short version has it being something that wasn't any immediate concern (I found out 6 months later that I was born with the condition and did not require any surgery because it was stable). Medical stuff freaks you out. Because of that, I think I developed major test anxiety which I struggle with (but that is another post).

I believe that because we have more tests and they get better all the time, we find out that everyone has something crazy wrong with them at some point. For most of us, we just go on living, which I believe will happen in your case. I do sympathize with you and if I can help with any of the coping strategies I developed while I was being diagnosed, PM me.

EDIT: Darn it, turns out you came out fine. I should read threads through. Sorry