1994 camry constantly surges and has trouble getting up steep inclines

I drive my mom's 1994 camry and towards march it has been surging.This
occurs mostly at  stops when idling, when going up anything with
steepness, and randomly during a smooth drive.It's irritating because my
school has very steep hills, the types that you see in scary movies to get to
the top of a house in the middle of nowhere. When I'm face with that much
steepness the engine surges to around 4000 and sometimes 5000 and
stays there until the steepness goes down and it goes to normal.But while
the rpm goes down the mpg has trouble getting pass 20 and the car moves
up really slowly.Or it has a crazy fit and surges up and down trying to make
it up the hill.Lastly, I notice on my commute sometimes after a 30 or 40
minute drive the oil lantern comes on and shake and flickers and shuts off.
But that's not the only thing which shakes sometimes at stops I  notice the
steering wheel vibrates.Inputs will be greatly appreciated.Mom has taken it
to two mechanic and they both spit out the word transmission, I know she is
old and has 182k, but can I do anything.?