Jessica Wynn

Students having panic attacks on test day, depression, burnout, imposter syndrome.

Some students get so anxious they physically fall apart.

There's reports of sudden migraines, nausea, shaking hands, racing heart.

That awful feeling like you can't quite get a full breath.

It's all incredibly common.

Yeah, I saw somebody walk out of the GRE like five minutes in and they were visibly shaking.

And I remember somebody barfing before it.

People get freaked out and it messes with your brain, too.

There are plenty of documented cases of students just blanking on material they absolutely know.

Many report staring at the page, unable to comprehend the test like it's written in another language.

And others fixate so hard on the clock that they don't finish.

And some people just shut down.

And it can get even more extreme.

There have been medical emergencies during high-stakes exams, people fainting, people collapsing.

None of this is uncommon.

I was going to bring this up.

It was a young, healthy woman who had graduated law school.

Yeah.

And she collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.

She was OK.