Oral exam candidates have told me how anxiety has been a stumbling block and how it has ruined their chance to pass the oral exam.
What really happens when you're anxious?
Well when you're anxious, you can't think straight. Your concentration is off so you can hardly focus on the task at hand. You sweat and have palpitations. You stammer. You feel that your muscles are tensed. In addition, you can hardly breath. Worse, you get tremulousness.
While all these physical changes are taking place, you begin to develop catastropic thoughts about the end result. Such cognitive distortions further feeds the physical manifestations of anxiety.
As you become more anxious, both the patient and the examiners in the room can inevitably sense your anxiety and level of distress. Whether you like it or not, this can create a scenario where the patient can actually feel worse during and after your interview.
Obviously, this is something that you don't want to happen. Examiners are watching.
They want to make sure that you as a candidate can actually help patients feel better or at least, prevent them from getting worse during the interview. They want to see if patients will be better off after the initial contact with you. They want to see if your presence can actually be "therapeutic" in a way.
To pass the oral exam, containing excessive anxiety is a necessity.
