Article Source: https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/2026/september-2026/worried-about-your-year-12-exams-three-ways-to-help-anxiety

The high-stakes nature of Year 12 exams can bring out sudden anxiety in the best of students. We are clinical psychologists who research academic stress. Here’s what can help.
You might have felt this before or during an assessment. Sometimes it feels like a rising panic in your chest. Other times it’s like your mind has gone blank and you can’t remember anything. These feelings can make it difficult to focus.
The key to good exam performance is learning to manage your anxiety.

Academic stress is common
Research shows one in six students experience extreme levels of stress during the final years of schooling. This involves unrelenting stress that disturbs sleep and wellbeing. While moderate stress is okay, too much stress can negatively impact academic performance.

In its simplest form, exam anxiety is a stress response like any other. It’s the activation of the body’s flight-or-fight response, which is triggered by the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system takes care of things like your blood pressure, heart rate and digestion – the things you don’t think about.

The flight-or-fight response occurs when our brain perceives we are in danger, whether it is physical danger, such as fear of being bitten by an angry dog, or psychological, such as stuffing up a speech.

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