A program reduces anxiety before exams, through the mobile

The results of the study have been so revealing that the pilot program, which began this year, will be extended to more students. Through mobile messages they have calmed the anxiety of the students before taking the exam and have then evaluated the response obtained. The Psychology Area of the Rey Juan Carlos University launched this experiment with 30 university students to reduce the stress caused by the exams. With this study they will soon help other engineering boys and girls from the Móstoles Campus.

Laura Susin Ascaso

The dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Carmen Gallardo, was the promoter of this experiment and encouraged the teachers of the Psychology Area of the URJC to start it. Thus, some 30 students from the different degrees of Health Sciences voluntarily submitted to the pilot program at the beginning of the course.

Shortly before the exams began, the psychologists assessed their anxiety, playing a series of videos to detect their thinking and their degree of relaxation. They entered their mobile phone numbers on a platform so that they would automatically receive a message before each exam. Through it they were asked what situation they were in and a series of recommendations were included to deal with the tests. Once they finished them, they automatically received a new one SMS, in which the student was asked to explain how he had felt after passing it.

Thus, it was found that, through a few simple questions, they were able to calm their anxiety and keep them somewhat calmer. One of the promoters of the experiment is the head teacher of the Psychology area, David Martínez. He explains that “at such levels of anxiety, performance worsens” and, therefore, “the more nervous one is, the more difficult it is for him to reason”.

After presenting the results at the URJC Online Teaching Innovation Conference, a number of teachers were interested in helping their students with this program. And soon they will apply it to engineering boys and girls from the Móstoles Campus who voluntarily participate in the program to reduce their anxiety. After four months the results will be made public.

Professor Martínez assures that “it is a very good opportunity to transfer and obtain tangible results”. In other words, he believes that applied sciences such as psychology should be used more often to help the population. He also adds that in some cases "anxiety motivates unhealthy habits such as smoking", and it does not seem unreasonable to think that "by regulating stress we are also influencing other behaviors".