I generally don ' t get very anxious about exams . Everyone gets absolutely freaked out in my cohort . Pull overnighters . Cry . Talk about how hard things are over and over . I just quietly study , walk in , take the exam . Granted , a HESI is coming up so I am feeling a little anxious about that , but I got my angst out and now it ' s time to prepare . On the other hand , I get SUUUUUPER anxious before clinical shifts . The period leading up to a shift and then the first 1020 minutes are extremely nerveracking for me . I ' m bumbling around , sweating , useless . But then report is done , vitals are done , my RN is nice , and suddenly that feeling passes and I feel pretty confident for the rest of the shift . A lot of students I know either don ' t feel nearly as anxious as I do or fail to admit it . But I don ' t think that lack of anxiety stems from being super nurses at this level yet . I think I ' m just unbelievably introspective and that leads to me questioning myself , which is both good and bad . Good because it allows for selfreflection and improvement . Bad because it stifles my confidence and makes it harder to progress . I need therapy .