The Emotional Process of a Master's Exam

Step 1:  Two weeks before your exam, you suddenly realize that you don't know everything about your project (or math in general) and you have your first jolt of adrenaline sending you into a panic that will not subside until much later.
Step 2:  Now that your adrenaline has kicked your butt into gear, you will begin a grueling process of reading everything that you can to gain a little more background in your weak areas.  Simultaneously, you start to go through all of your notes from all your classes, and you realize how much you've learned in two years.  You also realize how much you have forgotten.
Step 3: After the initial panic has set in, you spend about five days in "ultra-fast" mode.  Your heart pounds constantly.  You have a headache.  You can't stand things that are wasting your time.  Your anxiety makes you want to throw up constantly.
Step 4: Your body can't handle "ultra-fast" mode for more than five days, so you suddenly feel a little release as your body stops producing some of the "ultra-fast" hormones/chemicals.  However, you are now into the oscillation stage.  Every hour of every day, you start to ride a roller coaster.  "I'm going to do fine... I'm going to fail!!!!... I'm going to do fine... I'm going to fail!!!"
Step 5: If you haven't already, you will check out of most things important to you.  Blog posting is gone.  Conversations with your dear husband are kept to a minimum.  You will stare into space with words like 'Cauchy', 'Galois theory', 'R-module', and 'dead unicorns named Clopen' running through your head.  Your throbbing head, of course.
Step 6: As if constant torture throughout the day isn't enough, you will begin to have nightmares.  Then worse will happen, and you will start to wake up regularly throughout the night thinking about math.
Step 7:  Wash, rinse, repeat.
Step 8:  People start saying, "Good luck!"  As much as you appreciate well wishes, each time they say that you'll think you're going to die because doesn't that mean that your exam is really soon????
Step 9: With only a few days left, you finish all your homework due before the exam, and all that you're going to spend your time on now is reading your paper, reading your notes, and trying to cram everything in your head before your exam.  To stay remotely sane during this step, you play your Glee Pandora station nonstop while singing along to all of the Broadway songs and rocking out to anything upbeat.
Step 10: The day before you panic all day long.  Headache headache headache.  Enough said.
Step 11: Try to sleep the night before the exam.  Good luck!  You'll need more luck sleeping than for your exam since you've spent ten steps preparing for your exam!
Step 12: Get up, get ready, get to your room early and make sure things work properly.  Look down and make sure you remembered to put on clothes.
Step 13: Spend two horrible hours listening to yourself talk.  You say mostly intelligent things, but you'll cringe as the occasional stupid thing comes out.  Assume that your committee has a buzzing in their ear each time anything not perfect comes out.
Step 14: Pass your exam.  I mean, you took thirteen steps to get here.  You deserve it.
Step 15: Say silly things.  Realize how tired you are.  Feel relieved.  However, wonder why the headache and panicked feelings aren't immediately gone.
Step 16:  At some point, the stress will break.  Perhaps you will spontaneously burst into uncontrollable sobs for over half an hour.  While sobbing, you might also sometimes be uncontrollably laughing.  Your husband might look at you funny.  Just saying.
Step 17: Go to bed... and worry about the fact that it could have gone worse.  Seriously.  You have all these worry hormones in you, and it's hard to break the habit.
Step 18:  Try to go back to normal life.  Notice that the colors of the world are brighter.  Laugh more.  Make an omelette for breakfast.  The headache will gradually subside, too.