My son's anxiety is extremely high (he's 20). Over the past few days he's in a bad way with it. He's in college and is just starting xmas exams now. He doesn't seem too stressed over the exams, just the normal you'd expect. But he's also being doing interviews over the past 2 months as they are going on work placement in the new year for 8 months. It's the interviews he can't cope with. I know that nobody likes interviews, they cause some sort of anxiety for everyone. But I've never seen anything like this. He said a few days ago he can't do it any more. He's constantly anxious and over the past week or so he said he can feel his heart pounding all the time. I'm worried about that symptom alone because as bad as my own anxiety has been over the years, I never had a pounding heart.
He's supposed to have another interview next Monday and he can't do it. This has completely destroyed him. And the thing is he'd still like to be able to do an interview and get a job placement. He's agreed to go to the doctor but doesn't want to start on any medication until after the exams, which is quite understandable.
He emailed the college last night explaining his situation but we don't have much hope that they will do anything.

I'm not expecting anyone to give me any answers here. I think I just need to vent and get it off my chest a little bit because I'm not sure what I can do for him at the moment.
Could someone even tell me if a pounding heart, and he has it nearly all the time now, is an anxiety sign?