Abstract
College students report stress and anxiety when taking science courses, such as anatomy & physiology. Mindful breathing is
a technique that can be used in the classroom before taking exams. To determine the impact of mindful breathing exercises
on the student experience, students were randomly assigned to either course sections that included mindfulness breathing
or those that did not. Both groups completed the modified twenty-question Anxiety State Self-Evaluation Questionnaire
before each exam. Students in the intervention group were asked to participate in a 5-minute guided breathing exercise after
completing the questionnaire, but before taking each exam. One hundred and six students (86.2%) took all four exams in the
intervention group and 101 students (91.8%) in the control group. Students in the intervention group reported higher mean
scores for almost all positive emotions before all four exams. The mean scores for statements describing negative emotions
were generally higher for the control group than the intervention group. The guided mindful breathing intervention had no
positive impact on exam performance in this study. However, the results of our study using guided mindful breathing exercises
prior to taking an exam demonstrated that there was a beneficial effect on students’ emotional state. Future research should
explore other strategies designed to decrease test-related stress and anxiety to evaluate any potential influence on academic
performance.