Choking Under Pressure

An athlete chokes when he or she fails under pressure: The golfer missing an easy but critical putt; the football fumble on the final field goal attempt; or the missed gear shift on the final race restart.

Choking also happens in exams. The main culprit: paralysis by analysis or simply over thinking. Stress and anxiety can consume valuable space in your working memory . . . its limited mental space that you need for more important things right then, like the exam. Lots of advance practice questions are a proven effective way of better understanding topics and retaining them, while calming those nerves. Passit questions can help (1) quell the jitters and anxiety, while building your self confidence; and (2) embed more facts into working and permanent memory for recall on exam day.