Dreams about exams – what do they mean? (dream interpretation exam, test, trial)
Dream interpretation exam, test, trial. Dreaming that you are going to take an exam or actually taking an exam (and maybe even failing?) is a very common theme in dream interpretation. Actually, this theme is one of the ten most remembered in dreams. But what does it mean?
Exams in dreams as a symbol of a real trial in life. Yes, it really is quite simple. Often the dream is about an upcoming – or a finished – test or exam in life. This can be a real school exam or another type of trial or test (job, relationship etc.). It has been proven that people who work in performance-related jobs (for example giving talks and lectures, teaching or management roles) often dream about being at exams – or quite simply dream about the situation in which they feel they are at an exam (their job situation which they see as a trial or test, that is).
Dreams about exams (or tests) might symbolize an upcoming decision that needs to be made about you rather than by you. It can also symbolize a new phase in your life (maybe becoming a parent), and the question is then if you’ll pass or fail.
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When trying to understand your dreams it is important to know that your dreams are… your dreams. As such, you are the best person to figure out the true meaning of your dreams.
However, it is important to learn how to generally approach your dreams. Dream dictionaries like this one are only a supplement, and if you want to fully utilize the potential of your dreams, you should start at a different place.
My online course “Unlock your DREAMlife” gives you a great foundation for understanding (and recalling) your dreams.
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Dreaming about exams as a symbol of low self-esteem/self-confidence. Naturally, the dream might also mean that the dreamer (you?) is living with a sense of low self-esteem; that you don’t think you are living up to the trials in your life, but it might also mean that you perhaps have an unacknowledged performance anxiety or anxiety towards authority.
If the low self-esteem or the performance anxiety is dealt with, well, then you might dream that you are passing your exam, and you may realize that the exam you are taking in your dream – and that you are exposing yourself to in real life – may not even be necessary!
Dream dictionaries are a very helpful tool when interpreting dreams. However, generally learning how to approach your dreams, will give you a better foundation for understanding them. My online course “Unlock your DREAMlife” teaches you how to much better utilize – recall and understand – your dreams.
Also read: Why I no longer interpret dreams for free
Return to the index of dream themes and symbols:
Dream interpretation A-Z ↵
NOTE: Dream interpretation is not always an easy skill, and when you dream about taking exams, it is almost certainly about something different for you than it is for someone else dreaming about exams. It is crucial that you feel the interpretation fits you, and it might be the case that the above interpretations do not suit you and your situation.
Have you had a difficult dream about taking an exam that you can’t really understand or that you’d just like to share? Feel free to comment below.
First post. I am constantly dreaming about me having to undergo several academical examinations. During the dream itself I would feel very relaxed but will get tense all of a sudden. It is because there are plenty of exams at one go in a ‘fortnight’. In all of these dreams that I am getting, I am always confusing the days, and sometimes I go for an exam thinking it is of a certain subject and then when I flip the paper in the exam room I notice that it’s of a different subject. All in all I would have studied about many of the subjects on and off, though not thoroughly. Generally speaking I dream of getting good results but a complete failure or just scraping thru as to other exams where I am caught unprepared, especially the ones that require a lot of ‘internet research’.
In two of my dreams, I also ‘mistook’ the time of one particular exam and didn’t show up because I was convinced that it had to be later on that day. Actually this happened to me for real once, but only once.
I dreamt about these ‘exams’ no less than 4 times this month. Why do you think is that?
Dear Stefmiff,
thank you for your comment and very interesting dreams! I currently cannot keep up with the enormous amounts of comments I receive daily (currently more than 200 unanswered), so I have decided to no longer offer this kind of help. I would however love to help you understand your dream in a private online session – see more here. Best regards – Michael
I had a dream, I was in exam and is like a degree exam on the process of me writing someone came and gave me a material to copy from but because I was not use to that in real life I find it difficult to use the material with the fear of being cult by the invigilator until I was taking to a separate class that I now start compering the material with what I have written.. After writing I was about submitting then woke up.
I am 50 years ols ladyand sincemy childhood i am dreaming of 1 morning sunddenly realise that its my exam today and hurried to get ready while teying to remember which subje t i am taking the exam for. I am very scared but dont tell anyone athome that i haven’t done any study…
After this point scenarios changes in my dreams ie. Sometimes i am taking school exams and so.etimes college’s exams in India (i live in UK since 24 years now). Moat of the times i am very late to reach to the center or never find the room where i am suppose to take theexam so miss it. Or rarelywhen i am taking the exam i never write much as i dont k ow theanswers at all.
Ps. Today after a long time i ws trying to go to take English exam in .my college. But like always i am not prepared and this time all ready to leave but couldn’t leavrthe house even. Very disturbing dreams these are😫
I dreamt that I’m going to give viva exam along with my friend and then my friend entered the office room where viva was held . And I was keep waiting for my turn outside that room. What could be the meaning of this dream?
i had dream about subject science exam in my dream and passed by 58/100. i have finished my Uni like 5 years ago. currently working full time as sole trader. i dunno where this dream coming from. 🤷🏻♀️
If you dream of doing mathematics exams in front of a financial institution what does it mean
Hi i dreamt that i had a presentation where i got anxious and panicked and forgot about the content i was making the presentation on it felt so real that i was relief that it was a dream and that i’ve already completed this presentation 2 weeks back.
A recurring one for me: dreaming about doing my A levels all over again but knowing I’ve since forgotten the subject matter I revised for back then…. not sure what this means.
I dreamt that I wore a very decent and neat dress with good high heels, enter into a taxi all of a sudden, I saw myself sitting in a class with different types of people writing a test, immediately I finish my test and submit
I dreamt of falling in exam while i already passed(graduate) the exam.
I have this recurrent dream of taking exams for the past few weeks (2-3 months?)
More or less in different contexts (different colleagues, teacher or subject), but the recurrent theme is that I either FAIL the exam or I am sure I will fail it because I am very unprepared! I basically know nothing, haven’t studied at all, my mind is simply blank and I am very nervous and a bit embarrassed. Last night I even dreamt that I was taking TWO exams, one of which I already knew the results to (I had failed it), and the second one I was about to take and I was totally unprepared. In most of my dreams, the exams are related to my job (aviation – flight attendant).
In all dreams, all my other colleagues seem to be well prepared and not nervous at all, quite laid back.
In my life’s context, everything changed suddenly two months ago, when I was sent off home from India (I was a flight attendant there) because of the COVID. So I suddenly had no job, locked down in my home country against my will, with my biggest value (my FREEDOM) being taken away! Can’t travel, which kills me!!
In the short three weeks that I got to spend in India, I also got into a new relationship with an older man (first time I am going through this experience and it’s a bit scary and confusing) so we also got separated at the same time I got sent home.
So lost my freedom, my partner, my job, and all my plans for this year, which were big.
Maybe this period with all these changes is a lesson for me to learn, perhaps to learn how to find my happiness without the external factors that I believed will fuel it, or feel the felling of freedom without actually having it physically, maybe has something to do with the new relationship or perhaps I will be forced to change careers, since aviation is a bit stuck at the moment. I’m not sure.
But my question is, how do I learn these lessons? What do you do with the dreams even if you kind of understand their meaning? What to do with them? How can they help me move forward?
Do you have any other interpretation or any advice, Michael?
Thank you.
Abby
Hi, I dreamt of me writing an exam , then I submitted the exam sheet and d examiner collected it and stamped on it….plz can u interpret it for me.
I had a similar dream ,i was writing an exam with my secondary school friend(female).. i came in late to the exam hall,then its was my university lecturer’s exam. he left after he has settled us with our exam but i saw myself writing the exam with my phone (exam malpractice ) though i wasnt scared i was writing freely and my friend also tired to copy .
And another exam came again which i used phone but couldn’t get the right answers..
Hey
I dreamt answering an art exam and latter I destroyed my answer shit with the aim of re answering.
Immediately after destroying the answer shit the paper was collected
I was in my dream and I saw a book where results we’re been written for a particular subject but mine was blank without the lecturer consent and we later met and asked me how was my paper and I told him it was good that I wrote it well and he said okey of which I saw a blank result concerning that subject
Secondly in the lecture room a lecturer was holding my script and he called my name that I should come out saying I made a mistake or I had carry over. I can’t really remember that the man said pertaining to my script, I don’t understand all these dream please can you help me to interprets it?
hi micheal..am Davis en I dreamed when am in class as we are gona do an exam but one thing am suplised of is that we were doing an exam with my young father’s son probably my brother who was very interigent in class…and while we were doing I did it and I thought that I finished it bug then I realised that the teacher marked it buh still at the back of the paper I saw that my brother the one I talked about was him passing the paper with ticks at the beginning of the paper and some little fails at the and of that page and some little friends of mine I looked at it was the same…but me I saw mine and I was like my paper begins with a fail(x) and then a tick and then a fail(x) and the rest of the paper was OK buh not quite pleasing…and I said y me not as well not get ticks like my brother and friends who had sit next to me…then its like I wanted to copy so that I also pass it…thats were I changed into another dream…….buh sure its not about getting a baby coz I have one baby so I have to get the meaning…..can u kindly pliz interpleat that for me
Hello, I recently had a dream when I got my exam results as 62%. What does it mean?
I just had a dream today that I was in an exam room but I was failing to write anything what could be the meaning of that
Hi Mayungo, thank you for your comment / dream. How might you symbolically be experiencing an exam in your life right now (if not doing an actual school related exam)? It is hard for me know what the dream might mean since I know nothing of you. But the dream might illustrate how you actually have a hard time passing a “test” of somekind in your life right now – OR how you fear not being able to pass it. Best – Michael
Please. Micheal r olsen. I will sincerely wish to have a direct chat or tell you more about myself and life style just the way you asked Brown. I am happy to see his write up because,i have lived seeking for intepretation of such dream,bcs i always find my answer sheet blank and at the end ejaculate too. Thanks. Pls kindly reach me
My wife dreamed she is waiting she is about to give a exam.what could be an explanation of it?