This paper delineates a treatment group, including three Chinese undergraduate participants, run for managing examination anxiety and facilitating performance, principally derived from the stress management programme designed by the Hypnosis Unit of University College London. The treatment group comprised four sessions spread over two weeks and was carried out just before, in between and immediately after the examinations. Hypnosis was utilized as an adjunct to cognitive-behavioural therapy in tackling the stress in relation to examinations, and in facilitating revision, sleep and examinations. Although formal assessments of achievement anxiety showed only mild changes, personal reports reflected improvements in both anxiety management and performance during examinations along with changes of perspectives towards learning and examinations. to get as deep as possible into the state. This might lead them to believe that it should take a long time for them to do self-hypnosis. Solution 2: The participants could use rapid self-hypnosis for future progression, anxiety management, or posthypnotic suggestions for confidence and success, instead of the standard one. Alternatively, they could practise self-hypnosis during sleep. This had a secondary advantage of facilitating sleep for HL. NL very much agreed in that he found that by using self-hypnosis the quality of his rest and sleep showed great improvement. Rapid hypnosis, which did not take much time, could indeed also be used for facilitating revision (e.g. to clear and focus mind quickly, and to facilitate absorption, etc). Problem 3: It was difficult for NL to focus his attention on his self-hypnosis routine because of the noisy environment, including at home. Solution 3: After group discussion and clarification by the psychologist, it seemed that it was not necessary to practise self-hypnosis in quiet situations. In dealing with this problem, he could try paying attention to the noise first instead of circumventing it, and by then shifting his attention internally.
Outcome of treatmentAs mentioned in the assessment section, the participants' pre-AAT scores were above the average. This was even more so after the treatment group. Both NL and FN showed a mild improvement in AAT, in both anxiety as a motivator (as measured by the facilitating scale) and the degree to which anxiety interfered with performance (as measured by the debilitating scale), although HL showed no significant difference in pre-and post-AAT (see Table 2). SUDS indicated a decline of general examination anxiety throughout Cognitive-behavioural hypnosis for examination anxiety management 79