'Exam anxiety' can get you out of tests

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Exam anxiety is a recognized disability, which may require using other methods to test what students have learned. (COLIN CORNEAU / THE BRANDON SUN ARCHIVES)

Exam anxiety can disable students to the point where they're incapable of sitting in a room with other students to write a three-hour test.

Exam anxiety?

It's a recognized condition, says Dr. John Walker, director of the Anxiety Disorder Program at St. Boniface General Hospital.

The University of Manitoba's disability services office last year registered 136 students who have medical certification that they suffer exam anxiety and must be accommodated with some other form of evaluation.

"It's a clinical problem if it causes you a lot of distress or affects functioning," said Walker, who's seen kids as young as six suffer anxiety from school tests. "It's a real problem."

Both U of M and the University of Winnipeg offer a wide range of options -- writing the test alone, with one supervisor in the room; taking an oral test; having more time to complete the test; writing an assignment that demonstrates knowledge of the subject.

But Walker and education officials emphasized that no one gets a university degree or high school diploma without having been evaluated.

"We don't want to say, this person should never have their learning evaluated," Walker said. "We work towards helping them successfully take exams.

"(Schools) don't abandon evaluation, they develop alternate ways."

U of M disability services director Lynn Smith said the university urges students to come forward during the summer, present their documentation, and work out with staff just what kind of accommodation they'll need.

"It could be from a medical doctor, or a specialist in the field, a clinical psychologist," she said. "Some students may even pay for further assessment."

Students may come out of high school with exam anxiety, Smith said. But a life event -- health or social issues, a death in the family -- may trigger anxiety or depression. It can develop over a semester.

"It can be stress that comes from another event," said Smith.

Disability services tells a professor that it is accommodating a student, because the professor would then have to provide exam material, but the student's personal and private health information would not be disclosed -- no reason for the accommodation would be given to the professor. "We have a high degree of protection," she said.

"Some students are quite open about their disabilities," Smith said. It is usually readily apparent to the entire class if a student is being accommodated for vision or hearing issues, through a note taker or interpreter, said Smith -- they make up many of the 958 students that disability services accommodated last school year.

Walker said exam anxiety often gets worse the more critical the exam -- scholarships on the line, entrance to a professional school, passing or failing.

"Comprehensives (for doctoral candidates) are a good example -- it's do or die."

Walker said his first goal is to help students be able to take their exams under normal conditions.

U of W offers workshops each year to help students deal emotionally with upcoming exams.

"We do recognize anxiety as a disability," said a U of W official.

But, she pointed out, while "Accommodations are in place to remove barriers students might face using traditional educational tools, they do not replace the expectation that they will have to demonstrate competency in the course material; the expectation to demonstrate knowledge is not waived."

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

F won't block PhD: prof

A University of Manitoba professor is alleging that a doctoral candidate in a small program twice failed his comprehensive examination, then appealed to be reinstated on the basis that he suffers from the disability of extreme examination anxiety.

The professor -- who asked not to be named -- said he has filed a complaint to the U of M senate alleging that a senior administrator reinstated the student into the doctoral program and ruled that the student's PhD will be determined solely on the basis of the student's doctoral thesis.

The professor says that U of M has reprimanded him for allegedly revealing to members of the university community the details of the student's medical conditions, which are protected by provincial privacy legislation.

The professor says that his reprimand includes a threat of potential dismissal.

However, the professor has not been able to provide any university documentation confirming his allegations.

U of M will not comment on personnel or student matters, because they are protected by provincial privacy legislation, says public affairs director John Danakas.

Danakas would not confirm if the U of M senate is dealing with the matter behind closed doors.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 22, 2010 A5