in difﬁculty overwhelming. By progressing through high school one grade at a time, you 
ﬁnd each grade to be just slightly more difﬁcult than the previous grade. By the time 
you get to twelfth grade, the increase in difﬁculty is only a small step compared with 
your work in eleventh grade.
Gradual exposure to public speaking might begin by presenting small speeches in 
front of a close friend or family member or by asking questions at meetings. After those 
practice situations become easier, you might try speaking for longer periods of time 
during meetings or practicing a speech in front of a small group of friends or family 
members. This could then progress to practicing your speech in front of several cowork -
ers. With gradual exposure, you might not actually speak in front of large groups of 
unfamiliar people until many earlier steps have been mastered.
Gradual and rapid exposure are both effective ways of reducing fear, and the end 
result of each is usually the same. However, each approach has advantages and disadvan -
tages over the other. With rapid exposure it is likely you will see changes more quickly, 
which will save you time. Also, these quick results may motivate you to work even harder 
at overcoming your fear, just as seeing quick changes in your weight or ﬁtness level can 
motivate you to stick to an exercise and healthy-eating plan. However, compared with 
gradual exposure, rapid exposure is associated with higher levels of discomfort and fear.