Wei Wei Zheng

It is very often that students of all education find themselves dealing with pressure and

stress before tests. In this one case, Katya is a freshman who is finding herself having a panic

attack due to an exam that is coming up because of the high amount of pressure it puts on her.

She is afraid of losing her scholarship. In this situation, the exam is in two days and she is

extremely stressed and needs help. Katya is experiencing what many students have to go through

while growing up. Stress is a major component of growing up. However, in order for Katya to

get through situations like this, she must build better self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as

one’s belief in their own ability to accomplish a task or goal. Although self-efficacy is similar to

confidence, it roots further than so. Building self-efficacy is one of the most difficult parts about

life. In order for stress to lower and for Katya to get through this exam without as much panic,

she must believe in her ability to be able to accomplish the task at hand without as much fear of

failing. The fear of failure is what haunts many people as they head into a challenge. However, it

is believed that the key is to not worry about the fear of failing but rather focus on your ability to

succeed. More often than not, people find themselves focusing too much on the idea that they

can fail. In one example is it similar to whether you see the glass half empty or half full when

filled halfway.

I’ve come to understand growing up that focusing on the negatives such as failing will

not help me to succeed any further. I’ve always been a believer of “if you can believe it you can

achieve it”. In my personal experience, while growing up during finals week or huge exams, I

often found myself extremely stressed and staying up all night focusing on just the test. With

many repetitions of this same scenario, I started to see that when I was not as stressed and had a
bit more confidence, I often did better and did not panic as hard. Many people end up having the

same results. I believe self-efficacy plays a huge role on how well you perform on tests, projects

and many other important tasks you must do in life. In these situations, I don’t believe I would

seek professional help but rather ask my professor for some help. I think I would ask my

professor for help because it is the best way to calm down. More often than not, I found myself

stressing less once I had time to ask questions specifically about any task to my professor or the

person who assigns it.

From a health perspective, I believe there are many actions you can take to help decrease

anxiety and be more optimistic about projects and tests. It is said that repetition plays a huge part

in helping you learn. According to Brian Holtz, in his article “Building Self-efficacy for exercise

Among Rural High School Students: It takes ongoing practice”, he says Self-efficacy is

foundational to several theories and models widely employed by health educators. Holtz does a

test that proves that gradual review of material and content you are studying is much better then

cramming things in all at once. One very effective way of decreasing your anxiety is just

studying the material and content you have to more frequently. Holtz found that just studying it a

little by little each day would help in the overall scheme of learning. Another way to build self-

efficacy is watching others do the tasks or studying with others. According to mentalhelp.net,

when you watch others do the task you slowly gain confidence based off how others can do it. It

is in our human nature to not be left behind. When you learn with a peer, it drastically helps a lot.

I believe that can help raise your ability and confidence to do tasks and projects as well. Lastly, I

also think the biggest part is just believing you can do it. According to excelatlife.com, the key to

success in sports is just the confidence that they can do achieve it. It is said that your potential is

as good as you believe it is. Sometimes, you just have to believe you can do it or else you won’t
be able to. Many success stories arise from the confidence of achieving success. I believe that is

the case. You have to want it and believe it is possible for it to be possible.

To conclude, Katya’s situation can be contained by slowing down, believing in herself

and learning with others slowly. I believe the best way to form realistic expectation at the

beginning of each semester is just creating goals that you believe are achievable and slowly work

towards them everyday of the semester. Anyone can achieve their goals as long as they put the

effort into it.

 Works Cited

Hortz, B., Petosa, R. L., Grim, M. L., & Stevens, E. (2015). Building self-efficacy for exercise among

rural high school students: It takes ongoing practice. American Journal of Health

Education, 46(6), 351-356. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19325037.2015.1077489

“Building up Your Self Efficacy.” Mental Help James Marcia and SelfIdentity Comments,

www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/building-up-your-self-efficacy/.

“Self-Efficacy: What Is It? and How to Increase It.” Excel At Life, Excel At Life, 17 Oct. 2017,

www.excelatlife.com/self-efficacy.htm.