How do I transition from active recall to simulating a 3-hour Organic Chemistry final when I have severe time anxiety?

To handle the time pressure, stop viewing the exam as a single three-hour block. Instead, break your practice sessions into three distinct phases based on difficulty rather than time. Start by scanning the entire paper for five minutes to identify every problem you can solve in under sixty seconds. Complete these "easy wins" first. This builds momentum and gives you a safety net of points, which significantly lowers your physical anxiety response. When you hit a complex synthesis problem that triggers that familiar freeze, force yourself to write down just the starting material and the target molecule. If you cannot see the path in thirty seconds, skip it immediately. Do not try to solve it in your head; move to the next question. You are training your brain to stop over-analyzing and start cycling through your toolkit. By leaving the hardest problems for the end, you ensure that your panic only affects the questions you were already struggling with, rather than costing you points on the ones you actually know. Finally, practice "triage" during your mocks. If you feel your heart rate spike, take ten seconds to close your eyes and reset. It feels like wasted time, but it is actually an investment that prevents the mental block from spiraling. You are assuming that you must solve everything perfectly to succeed, but the reality is that you just need to be efficient with the questions you understand. Focus on the process rather than the clock.