Overcoming anxiety to study anxiety!

 Nardeen Soliman, Verrazano Class of 2019, completed a degree in Psychology with minors in biology and chemistry.

Looking back 4 years ago during my freshmen year and seeing my senior friends doing their capstone for Verrazano was quite intimidating. I remember thinking repeatedly about my capstone project and how I would manage to start mine. After my first semester in freshmen year, I was confident that I wanted to major in psychology. I always knew I wanted to pursue a career as a Physician Assistant and I admired how psychology and biology always intertwined. During my sophomore year I started working in Dr. Cohen’s social psychology lab, I was fortunate to witness and help with various projects throughout the time I spent in the lab.

                                                          Nardeen at the Undergraduate Research Conference

Besides concentrating on my academics, since my freshmen year I have been actively involved with student life on campus, which gave me a good exposure to different types of students around campus. Through my experience in the past 3 years, I have continuously heard stories from many students about how they did worse than expected because of having test anxiety.

I decided that I wanted my capstone to relate to the students of this college and the struggles they face during their undergraduate years. Research supported the fact that test anxiety leads to declining grades, especially with college students. Therefore, I wanted to concentrate on one of the factors I hypothesized would increase test anxiety. I wanted to see the effect of time pressure during standardized exams, specifically questions from the GRE and if it influences test anxiety. Indeed, after running the experiment on 100 students of the College of Staten Island; time pressure showed a significant impact on increasing test anxiety. As my results suggested, most standardized exams do not provide enough time for students to finish each section which increases their test anxiety. 

Overall, this capstone experience was challenging, yet very rewarding. It taught me valuable skills as well as gave me a better understanding of developing ideas and expanding them. In addition, being part of the Verrazano program pushed me into getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things, which I am confident that I will use as I start my journey in Physician Assistant school.