Focused breathing techniques can make all the difference when it comes to college test stress.
Trying to alleviate anxiety, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Spanish instructor Liliana Sciarrotta said she added yoga breathing to before-test routines.
“The students want to do it most of the time,” she said about her typical pre-test routine. “They want to take time to relax and sit back and all meditate.”
The conscious breathing brings students to the present–instead of being fearful of what may occur in the future. She said there is discipline when we are “present.”
At the conclusion of a study session to prepare for the final exam in her Spanish class, Sciarrotta helped the two dozen students in the room relax through conscious breathing–something that is commonly done in her classroom.
She tells students to close their eyes, place their feet on the ground and hands on the knees or tops of their legs to feel grounded–rooted in the present moment. As they inhale through their noses, they are instructed to send the air to the base of their lungs and to the lower back and feel the sensation of breathing and how the body responds to the inhalation and exhalation.
The group uses the practice of exhaling “as a tool to let go of the tensions of the body and stresses of the mind,” she said.
UW Oshkosh student Alicia (Moon) Ott, a junior who lives in Neenah, who is in her third semester of Spanish and second year with Sciarrotta, said conscious breathing helps her forget about stress.
Green Bay native Trevor Tillmann, who has attended UW Oshkosh for three years, said he likes the conscious breathing led by his teacher.
“It helps you calm down,” he said. “It helps you get ready for the test.”
Tillmann said he had more studying to do, even after spending eight hours in the books a day earlier.
Eve Jewson, a sophomore from Sun Prairie, said she has had issues with anxiety and the breathing exercises help her combat her nerves.
“It puts you in the right state of mind,” she said.
Freshman Diego Rosas, who hails from Durand, Ill., is a member of the UW Oshkosh wrestling team. He said he’s had some experience with yoga during his years as a wrestler and with some of the teachers at his Illinois high school.
“It does seem to help,” he said about the yoga breathing, “but it gets me sleepy sometimes.”
Rosas noted he was at a 5:30 a.m. “lift” in the weight room on the day he attended Sciarrotta’s mid-morning exam preparation session. He said he felt prepared for his exam and said it helps that Spanish is spoken at his home.
Test-taking anxiety–a reality during this final week before the semester ends–can be calmed with the yoga breathing that Sciarrotta practices and teaches. Students say they appreciate the benefits.
“I’m giving them a tool that’s accessible,” Sciarrotta said. “They can do it always, anywhere, all the time.”
She noted that distractions of life impact students all over campus. The instructor said mobile phone use has become a significant addiction in society. She doesn’t allow students in her class to be distracted by them.
“They’re somewhere else,” she said of students who are focused on their phone screen. “The ability to multitask–that is a myth.”
She said students who practice conscious breathing feel more confident and improve their well-being and are operating in the present.
Sciarrotta has been teaching at UW Oshkosh for eight years and has taught a yoga class at the Neenah YMCA for the past 10 years. She received yoga training in Japan where she completed her master’s degree in international development at Nagoya University.
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