How to manage exam day stress and anxiety

The week before: Setting yourself up for success#

Exam day performance starts well before you enter the testing room:

• Taper your studying: light review and flashcards in the final week, no new topics (plan the weeks before so this is possible).
• Keep your routine: regular sleep and meal times. Aim for at least 7 hours a night, the adult minimum recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
• Check logistics: PRC posts school and room assignments on its website two to three working days before the exam. Work out your route and travel time, and visit the building beforehand if you can.
• Pack from PRC's list: Notice of Admission, official receipt, a metered-stamped window envelope, No. 2 pencils, black ballpens, one non-programmable calculator, long brown and clear plastic envelopes, and food and water in clear containers. For Day 2, add your drafting tools and a clean, unmarked printout of Rules VII and VIII of the NBC IRR.
• Rehearse the process, not the result: picture the morning, the room, and exactly what you'll do on a hard question. Students who mentally rehearsed how they would study did better on their midterm than students who pictured getting a good grade (Pham and Taylor, 1999).

The night before: Quality rest#

The night before is mostly about not undoing the previous twelve weeks:

• Stop studying early in the evening so you have time to wind down before bed.
• Put the phone away: reading on a light-emitting screen before bed delayed sleep and melatonin compared with a printed book (Chang and colleagues, 2015, PNAS).
• Light dinner, and no late caffeine.
• Prepare everything: lay out the white collared top PRC requires, double-check your documents, set more than one alarm.
• Accept nervousness: some is normal, and the next sections show how to use it.

Morning routine: Starting strong#

The morning is about arriving with margin. The PRC rules below are from the January 2026 exam program; check the program PRC posts for your own exam, since details can change:

• Report early: PRC sets a reporting time for each exam (before 5:30 AM on Day 1 in January 2026, before 6:30 AM in June 2026) so you can find your room and seat, and late examinees are not admitted.
• Eat properly: something with protein and complex carbohydrates, and bring the rest of the day's food, since no one may hand you food once the exam starts.
• Leave bags and phones behind: bags of any kind, phones, and smartwatches are prohibited in the room.
• Limit social media before you go in: other examinees' worries are contagious.
• Physical grounding: a few slow breaths or simple stretches to release tension.

If you're prone to test anxiety: write it out#

In classroom and lab studies, students who spent about ten minutes writing freely about their worries just before an exam scored better than those who did not, and the benefit was concentrated among highly anxious students (Ramirez and Beilock, 2011, Science). If you know you freeze, try it at home on the morning of Day 1, before you leave, and throw the sheet away. Notes aren't allowed inside the exam premises.

During the exam: Staying centered#

When it starts to go sideways mid-session:

• Breathing: if panic hits, pause. Breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 6. Repeat 3 times.
• Read carefully: anxiety makes you rush. Read each question twice before answering.
• Change answers when you have a reason: across 3,291 answer changes on real exams, about half went from wrong to right and only a quarter from right to wrong (Kruger, Wirtz and Miller, 2005). If rereading turns up something you missed, trust that over your first pass.
• Skip and return: stuck on a question? Mark it and move on. Don't let one question derail you.
• Time checks: note the time every 30 minutes. Stay aware without obsessing.
• Physical resets: shoulder rolls and neck stretches at your seat help release tension.

Managing specific anxiety triggers#

Common situations and how to handle them:

• Difficult question: 'I don't know everything, and nobody in this room does. Eliminate wrong answers and make an educated guess.'
• Time pressure: 'I'm moving at a reasonable pace. If needed, I can adjust speed.'
• Others finishing early: 'Everyone works differently. I'm focused on accuracy, not speed.'
• Mind blanks: 'Take three deep breaths. The information is there, so give my brain a moment to retrieve it.'
• Physical discomfort: 'Discomfort is temporary. I can handle this for a few more hours.'

Between subjects: Recharge strategically#

Day 1 has a one-hour break between the morning and afternoon subjects. Use it well:

• Move: stretch wherever the proctors allow. Don't sit and ruminate.
• Eat from what you packed: something light, plus water. Heavy meals make the afternoon harder.
• Limit exam talk: comparing answers can't change your score and mostly feeds doubt.
• Reset: put the morning away and think only about the afternoon subject.

Reframing: Use the nerves#

How you interpret stress changes its impact, and this one has evidence behind it:

• Arousal is fuel: students told that feeling anxious during a test can actually help performance scored higher on practice GRE math than students given no such message (Jamieson and colleagues, 2010).
• Say 'I am excited', not 'calm down': people who reframed their anxiety as excitement before a stressful task performed better than those who tried to calm down (Brooks, 2014).
• Doubt to trust: 'I've put in the work. My preparation will carry me through.'
• Perfection to passing: 'I don't need a perfect score. I need a 70% average with no subject under 50%.'