This week is Gaokao week. Over 13 million students across China will walk into exam halls on Sunday. Most of us have been through it, or know someone who has. And almost all of us have heard the same advice: "Don’t be nervous."
But here’s the thing—that advice is probably making things worse.
Let’s start before the exam. What’s the most common thing parents and teachers say? "Stay calm." Right? But according to a well-known experiment, there’s something far more effective. That phrase is: "I’m excited."
In 2014, Harvard Business School researcher Alison Wood Brooks ran an experiment. She had participants complete a high-pressure task—giving a public speech. They were randomly split into two groups. The first group was told to say to themselves, "I am calm." The second group was told to say, "I am excited."
Here’s the crucial part: both groups felt the same amount of nervousness. The only difference was the way they labelled it.
The result? The "I’m excited" group gave more confident, persuasive, and richer speeches. The "I’m calm" group actually performed worse.
Why? Because on a physiological level, nervousness and excitement are almost identical. Racing heart, sweaty palms, shallow breathing, intense focus. These reactions happen when you’re nervous, and they also happen when you’re excited. The difference isn’t in your body—it’s in how you interpret it.
Call it "nervousness," and it becomes nervousness. Call it "excitement," and it becomes excitement.
So when you tell yourself to "calm down," you’re essentially asking your body to slam the brakes while it’s already racing down the highway. That’s hard. Your body is already in high gear. Trying to shift it into low gear mid-drive is like stomping on the brakes—the car jerks, you lose control.
But "I’m excited" is different. It doesn’t ask your body to change anything. Your body stays in high gear. You just change the story you tell yourself about that gear. Instead of "I’m afraid," you say, "I’m ready to fight." The physical state stays the same, but your mental state shifts.
Now, that’s for before the exam. What about after? Most people think the hard part is over once you put down the pen. But actually, the period after Gaokao is just as critical. Two or three months of unstructured time, with no clear goal, no daily routine, no classes. That’s a recipe for what psychologists call a "post-goal slump."
Think about it. You’ve been sprinting toward a single target for years. Suddenly, the finish line is gone. Your brain doesn’t know what to do. So it either freezes or starts looking for another high-stakes thing to worry about—like checking your answers online, comparing scores, refreshing the admissions page every five minutes. That’s not relaxation. That’s just trading one source of anxiety for another.
The real trick is to treat the post-exam period not as a void, but as a pivot. You don’t stop managing your state. You just change what you’re aiming at.
Here’s a practical move: deliberately plan a new project, something you can throw yourself into the day after the last exam. It doesn’t have to be academic. It could be learning a new skill, starting a side project, reading a stack of books, or even building something with your hands. The point isn’t what you do—it’s that you keep momentum.
Because the same principle applies here too. Your body is still revved up from years of focused effort. Trying to suddenly shut it down is like hitting the brakes again. You’ll feel empty, restless, and confused. But if you redirect that energy into a new channel, you turn the post-Gaokao period from a crash landing into a smooth transition.
The key takeaway? Don’t fight your state. Reframe it. Don’t try to shut down your energy. Redirect it.
Whether you’re about to walk into the exam hall or already sitting at home wondering what comes next, here’s the simple rule: your body is already doing its job. Don’t fight it. Just tell it a different story.
"I’m excited." And then, keep moving.