Don’t panic!
RECOGNISE AND CONFRONT THE FEAR OF EXAMS, SAYS RICHARD CURTIS
I’ve got one of those old Second World War posters by my desk; it’s quite plain, having simply a red background on which is written in large white letters the words: ‘Keep calm and carry on’.
If ever I sense a slight panic attack looming I find it strangely comforting to focus on that poster, breathe deeply, recite my tax mantra and this usually does the trick. Generally speaking, the wet towel round the head and a little lie down in a darkened room is reserved for the more extreme circumstances.
My tax mantra? Since you ask, it’s ‘Between nine and five, if at all possible, I won’t use the words “fair” or “logical”’. In my experience, it never fails to help in the understanding and resolving of a knotty tax problem.
And those of you who have recently taken your ATT or CTA exams or are currently studying for future exams will, I am sure, have met quite a few knotty tax problems along the way. When you are in the office, things are rather different. Got a knotty problem, try my mantra. That didn’t work; what about a nice cuppa tea and a biscuit? Taking a few minutes out might enable you to see things from a different angle. And if that still didn’t work, there’s always a colleague who may be able to advise or failing that you could send the query to the ‘Readers’ Forum’ page of Taxation magazine.
Pushed for time
The Readers’ Forum page isn’t really a practical option when you’re sitting an exam; time, as they say, is of the essence. That’s when you really do need to ‘keep calm and carry on’. But that’s easier said than done and a recent article in New Scientist magazine caught my eye as a possible explanation of why this might be doubly difficult in an exam situation.
The dog owners among you (bear with me here the rest of you) will probably have noticed and wondered why dogs always seem to bark at people who are already frightened of them. Well, research by a Dr Bettina Pause of the University of Dusseldorf found that students taking exams can smell the fear of other examinees and empathise with this.
How was this discovered? Absorbent pads were put under the armpits of students one hour before the exam and again during the exam. Students then sniffed the sweaty pads while their brains were scanned. (You’ve really got to wish that you’d been in the room when these ideas were dreamt up, haven’t you?)
Apparently, the ‘sniffers’ could not consciously tell the difference between the before and after pads, but their brains could. The pre-exam sweat stimulated activity in different areas of the brain, ‘lighting up areas that process social and emotional signals, as well as several areas thought to be involved in empathy’.
It seems that the chemical released by the body when in a state of anxiety ‘bypasses conscious experience, automatically triggering similar feelings in anyone who sniffs it’. The advantage of this on an evolutionary basis means that fear spreads quickly in a crowd and prompts a faster response to flee danger.
This may explain why some of you who have sat exams have experienced that almost uncontrollable urge to run screaming from the exam hall. Don’t worry, you’re not alone and if this research is correct a substantial proportion of the rest of the room are probably also waiting for the first one to do this, when they would almost certainly join the headlong rush for the door.
The smell of fear
But now you know why you have these uncontrollable urges (to flee exam halls should you need reminding!), you can recognise these sensations for the prehistoric safety measures that they are. Confront that fear; don’t worry, you’re unlikely to come to any physical harm. Let’s face it, it’s highly unlikely that you will be trampled by a mammoth or savaged by a sabre-toothed tiger in the twenty-first century confines of the examination hall.
So if you are starting to panic, don’t. Stay in your chair, take a deep breath and start to break that question down into more easily digestible portions. Just think how scared that question is going to feel when you start to eat it rather than vice versa!
Ditch the dread
Remember, you’re a twenty-first century tax adviser. You don’t need to get sweaty armpits and an urge to flee at the first sight of the exam paper. But if you do, be aware that it might not be you, but your subconscious picking up the fear from the rest of your ‘pack’. Remember that you’ve done the difficult bit – all those months of studying, the late nights, the revision plans, the not going down the pub, the lack of a social life.
These exams aren’t a modern version of some stone-age threat, with the examiner an animal-skin clad hunter from the next valley who wants to trap you with an obscurely written question. The exams are actually an opportunity for you to demonstrate your depth of knowledge and your skill in explaining complex matters to others.
So to return to the beginning: ‘keep calm and carry on’. Read each question carefully. You don’t want to think that you’re facing a ravenous beast of a question, when it’s actually a pussy cat. You need to be answering the question that has been asked, not the question you think has been asked.
Below, there’s a list of some exam and study tips. I’m sure that you have a few of your own to help you through; perhaps it’s the wholegrain breakfast, high-fat foods can make you feel sluggish. Do you take B vitamins? I hear they help memory function. Maybe you just go to bed a bit earlier.
Finally, I’m not too sure what to advise with regards to Dr Pause’s research. I suppose you could try blocking up your nasal passages during the exam. I guess that really would give a whole new meaning to ‘having a nose for tax’.
Top ten exam tips
- Avoid last-minute cramming. Have a study plan and stop studying an hour before the exam; it really is too late then.
- Eat and sleep sensibly before the exam.
- Know where the exam is and how to get there. Don’t add to your anxiety by worrying about whether you’ll get there on time.
- Be positive. Don’t think ‘I’m going to fail’, think ‘I’m going to do my best’. And visualise yourself doing this.
- ‘Careless talk costs lives’. Don’t add to your anxiety by talking to others about the exams beforehand.
- ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. Read the exam and plan your approach. And don’t be afraid to ask if you don’t understand the exam instructions.
- Don’t freeze. If you get stuck try another question or start noting down some ideas that might be relevant to stimulate your memory.
- Time out. If you are starting to panic, relax, concentrate on your breathing, and then return your concentration to the exam paper by refocusing.
- And talking of timing, keep an eye on the time that you are spending on each question and the time remaining.
- Remember, it’s only an exam, not a sabre-toothed tiger.
