原文標題：
Exam nerves’ real cause
High anxiety
Anxious exam candidates’ problem is the run-up, not the main event
考試焦慮的真正原因
高度焦慮
考生的焦慮問題在備考階段，而不是因為考試本身

Anxiety does not cause bad results in exams
焦慮不會導致考試成績不佳

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EXAMS ARE nerve-racking, especially for those already of an anxious disposition.
考試讓人緊張，對已有焦慮傾向的人尤是如此。

The silence of the hall; the ticking of the clock; the beady eye of the invigilator; the smug expression of the person sitting at the neighbouring desk who has finished 15 minutes early.
考場的寂靜；時鐘的滴答聲；監(jiān)考老師的機警眼神；鄰座考生提前15分鐘交卷的得意表情。

It therefore seems hardly surprising that those who worry about taking tests do systematically worse than those who do not.
因此，那些擔心考試的人比那些不擔心考試的人一貫表現都更差，這似乎并不令人驚訝。

What is, perhaps, surprising, according to research published recently in Psychological Science by Maria Theobald at the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education and her colleagues, is that it is not the pressure of the exam hall which causes the problem. It is the pressure of revision.
萊布尼茨教育研究與信息研究所的瑪麗亞·西奧博爾德及其同事最近在《心理科學》雜志上發(fā)表的一項研究表明：也許令人驚訝的是，不是因為考場壓力而導致成績不佳，而是因為復習壓力。

[Paragraph 2]
Dr Theobald theorised that if anxiety was truly interfering with a student’s ability to transfer known information from brain to paper via pen, then those with high levels of it would perform worse in a real exam, when it actually mattered, than in either a mock beforehand or during online practice sessions.
西奧博爾德博士理論認為，如果焦慮真的干擾了學生用筆將腦中已知信息寫到紙上的能力，那么焦慮水平高的學生在實際考試中的成績會比考前模擬測試或在線練習中的成績更差。

Moreover, she expected this performance-drop to correlate with levels of self-reported exam nerves.
此外，她預計這種成績下降與自我打分的考試焦慮水平有關。

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She therefore worked with 309 German medical students who were preparing for their final state exam, the most important that they take.
因此，她與309名德國醫(yī)學生一起合作完成了研究。這些醫(yī)學生們正在準備最后且最重要的全國醫(yī)師考試。

This test consists of 230 questions split into three five-hour sessions over three days.
這項考試有230個問題，分三天考，也就是3個五小時的考試。

[Paragraph 4]
During the 100 days before the actual papers, all her volunteers used a digital-learning platform which presented them with old exam questions and logged their performance.
在正式考試前的100天里，她所有志愿者們都使用了一個數字學習平臺，上面有舊的考試題目，還可以記錄他們的成績。

They also sat a mock examination, clearly presented to them as such, 40 days before the real thing.
他們還在正式考試前40天參加了一次模擬考試，題目就是從舊題庫里抽取的。

To assess their levels of anxiety, they were asked, every day for 40 days in the run up to the real exam and also on the day of that exam, to respond on a five-point scale to statements like, “I feel tense and nervous”.
為了評估他們的焦慮程度，在正式考試前的40天內，以及在考試當天，每天詢問他們“我感到緊張和惶恐程度”這樣的問題，并按照5分制打分。

On the day of the mock they were similarly asked to rate statements like, “I worry whether I have studied enough”.
模擬考試當天，詢問他們“我擔心我是否學習夠了”之類的問題，并進行打分。

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What Dr Theobald found was not what she expected.
西奧博爾德博士的研究結果超出預期。

Anxiety on the day of the test did not predict exam performance at all. What did predict it was the level of knowledge a student displayed in the mock exam and the earlier digital-learning activities.
考試當天的焦慮并不能預測考試成績。但可以通過學生在模擬考試及更早數字學習中所展示的知識水平來預測考試成績。

Those who performed well in these also did well in the real thing, regardless of how anxious they were on the day.
在前期練習中的成績優(yōu)異者，他們在正式考試中也成績優(yōu)異，與他們考試當天的焦慮程度無關。

[Paragraph 6]
What actually hampered students, it turned out, were high levels of anxiety during the weeks before the exam took place.
事實證明，真正影響學生成績的是考試前幾周的高度焦慮。

The greater a student’s anxiety in the days before the exam, the lower his or her knowledge-gain was during that period, leaving that student with less material to regurgitate during the exam itself.
學生在考試前幾天的焦慮程度越高，他們在考前階段獲得的知識就越少，這使得學生在考試期間調用的知識就越少。

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And this, paradoxically, is a positive discovery, for it suggests a change of approach to revision by the anxious might help improve their results.
矛盾的是，這是一個積極的發(fā)現，這表明考試焦慮者改變復習方法可能有助于改善他們的考試成績。

Dr Theobald notes that test-anxiety is at its worst when students have low expectations of success and simultaneously know that passing the exam is exceedingly important.
西奧博爾德博士指出，當學生對成功的期望很低，同時又知道通過考試極其重要時，他們的考試焦慮程度最高。

To reduce this anxiety, she proposes a two-fold strategy for students to consider as they revise.
為了減少這種焦慮，她提出了一種雙重策略，供學生在復習時參考。

First, they can raise their belief in their own abilities by reminding themselves of just how much they know.
首先，他們可以通過提醒自己“我已掌握的知識”來提高自我效能感。

Second, they can diminish the significance of the test by reminding themselves that, while it is important, it is not a life or death situation.
第二，他們可以通過提醒自己“盡管考試很重要但無關生死”，來降低考試的重要性。

It really isn’t. Really…
事實并非如此。真的…

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量594左右）
原文出自：2022年11月5日《TE》Science & technology版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路
本文翻譯整理: Irene本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學習交流使用。

【補充資料】（來自于網絡）
在德國，醫(yī)學并非是我們大家熟悉的本科-碩士-博士制，而是類似于一個總學時為6年零3個月的大學學習課程，結束后得到的畢業(yè)證書也并非一般的學位證或畢業(yè)證，而是行醫(yī)資格證（Approbation）。德國的醫(yī)師考試難度的確比較高，有筆試和口試兩部分，大約需要3天的考試時間。通過的同學可在德國境內就業(yè)，工作比較好申請。

【重點句子】（3 個）
The silence of the hall; the ticking of the clock; the beady eye of the invigilator; the smug expression of the person sitting at the neighbouring desk who has finished 15 minutes early.
考場的寂靜；時鐘的滴答聲；監(jiān)考老師的機警眼神；鄰座考生提前15分鐘交卷的得意表情。

Those who performed well in these also did well in the real thing, regardless of how anxious they were on the day.
在前期練習中的成績優(yōu)異者，他們在正式考試中也成績優(yōu)異，與他們當天的焦慮程度無關。

What actually hampered students, it turned out, were high levels of anxiety during the weeks before the exam took place.
事實證明，真正影響學生成績的是考試前幾周的高度焦慮。