“For example, take the students who go into a test acting confident, even though they did the bare minimum of studying to prepare for it. Sure, they can fake it, pump themselves up, convince themselves they can rely on their ability to BS on the writing prompt, or use the multiple-choice test to their advantage. But the moment they encounter a few questions that leave them feeling hopeless, reality seeps in, their body is flooded with stress hormones, and panic takes over their minds. The greater the mismatch between expectations and reality, the worse off we are.”