Her nerves become tense and her stomach does "flips and flops." Like most students, Sedha Vann must deal with her body's physical reaction to test-taking stress.

But some time during the exam, the tension usually wears out and Vann (junior-French) becomes totally focused on the test. Many students experience test-taking stress and cope with it, but a very small number of students can never gain control of the situation. These students suffer from test anxiety disorder.

It cannot be found in any diagnostic manual, but it is a problem students face in varying degrees. Test anxiety disorder is a rare condition that can hinder a student's test-taking ability.

"It is a problem and it needs to be addressed seriously," said Peter Behrens, assistant professor of psychology at the Allentown Campus who has helped students with the disorder.

Every student approaches exams with anxiety, which is good, but for some it goes to extremes, Behrens said. Physically, the student may experience dryness of the mouth and a rapid heart beat. Mentally, the student completely blanks out, regardless of the extensive hours of studying.

The mental block can be attributed to students expending all their energy just trying to get themselves into an undesirable environment, such as a classroom test-taking situation. And because all their energy is used up, their thinking process slows down and they cannot form cognitive thoughts, he said.

Patrick Connelly (senior-broadcast cable) said he studies extensively for tests, but his mind goes blank during test-taking situations.

"I know what I want to say, but I just can't put my thoughts on paper. It's there, I just can't retrieve it," he said.

Dennis Heitzmann, director of Counseling and Psychological Services at the University, compares students who suffer from test anxiety disorder to circuit breakers.

"When a person experiences test anxiety disorder it's like overloading a circuit breaker," he said.

But Dennis Hall, advising program coordinator, warns that students sometimes think they have test anxiety disorder when in actuality they may have performance anxiety, which stems from many different sources, such as lack of sleep. Hall said there is only a small prevalence of true test anxiety disorder.

"A lot of times it's anxiety related to performance, you then have to look at many different causes," Hall said. Such causes could be poor study habits and poor time management.

To differentiate between test anxiety disorder and a general "healthy" test anxiety, Heitzmann said students who freeze up when studying, go blank during exams, worry about exams days in advance and suffer from various physical reactions like sweaty palms and a rapid heart beat probably suffer from test anxiety disorder.

Students who experience those symptoms should not feel defeated because there are many ways to cope with test anxiety disorder. Heitzmann said learning good test-taking skills as well as relaxation and self-reassurance techniques will help. Medication to induce relaxation would be a last resort.

"We would exhaust all other possibilities first," he said.

Behrens said students should not feel embarrassed or silly if they are experiencing any of the symptoms of test anxiety disorder.

"If they know the material but can't take exams, it's time to get help," he said.