If you find that the thought of an upcoming exam causes your hands to tremble, dries out your mouth, or makes you feel out of breath, you may be one of the millions of students who have test-taking anxiety. An upcoming exam can feel like a ghost hovering behind your shoulder, but managing the fear of standardized testing is far more feasible than taming the supernatural.
The best way to overcome your fear is to face it! If anticipation of the upcoming testing season gives you dread, keep reading to learn about testing anxiety and ways to reduce stress and anxiety during exams.
Exam Anxiety in Students
Have you ever found yourself wondering, “Why do tests scare me?” If so, you may have anxiety about taking tests. Chronic anxiety is a medical condition that must be diagnosed by a professional, but most people experience anxiety at some point in their lives. The Oxford dictionary definition is:
Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, particularly about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
This definition means that, for most students, the feeling of test-taking anxiety is not atypical. It’s normal for anyone to fear the unknown, and it’s especially normal for students to be wary facing a “high stakes” test.
The American school system starts testing students at a young age, and students are aware of the connection between test scores and private school admissions (ISEE/SSAT), college admissions (ACT/SAT), and overall academic success (ERBs, STAAR, etc). With all of these assessments and the high stakes U.S. society places on the outcomes of these tests, it’s understandable why students are nervous about big exams.
However, some students are even more anxious than others and can experience debilitating levels of anxiety. Their fear surrounding test-taking can be so profound that they lose their ability to focus, think clearly, and complete their work. This can result in incomplete tests and, consequently, lower test scores.
The Psychology of Test-Taking Anxiety
Test anxiety is a student’s reaction to these primary factors:
- the test-taking environment, both physically and emotionally.
- self-awareness of their ability to handle those environmental factors.
- their views on the importance of certain scores and how those results will affect their future.
While fear is an emotional reaction to external factors that the individual knows they cannot handle, anxiety is the emotional reaction to uncertainty towards possible outcomes of a situation. As a fight-or-flight response, test-taking anxiety releases excessive adrenaline to the nervous system. This adrenaline causes an increase in heart rate, shaky hands, loss of focus, or even—in extreme cases—panic attacks.
One common experience students with test anxiety will undergo is “blanking out” on a question. In this phenomenon, their thoughts completely freeze and they are unable to answer the question. The student can become even more flustered and will skip the question or waste time blankly staring at it without doing anything.
In an environment that requires concentration and calm nerves, these symptoms limit a student’s ability to put forth their best effort. Research shows that somewhere between 16% and 20% of students experience test-taking anxiety, which seems to stem from focusing on the wrong aspect of schoolwork. All students experience negative emotions during courses, but not all students react to those emotions the same way:
- Non-anxious students generally see test performance as directly resulting from concept mastery.
- Anxious students tend to focus on the test itself at the expense of concept mastery.
This response is the opposite effect of what educators intend. Most tutors and teachers would agree that it’s more important for a student to learn as a part of their lifestyle than to only learn for a good performance on a standardized test.
How to Prevent Test-Taking Anxiety
Now you understand how and why many students get anxious when it comes to test-taking. Let’s apply this understanding to see how you can help mitigate your or someone else’s testing anxiety.
Methods for Managing Your Test Anxiety
Having some test-taking anxiety is okay—feeling anxious before a test can help motivate you to do your best. However, when anxiety is severe enough to get in the way of your exam performance, it becomes a problem. If you’re a student who regularly experiences testing anxiety, you’ll want to go into your next exam prepared to quell your worries.
Preventing Anxiety Before the Exam
These methods are excellent strategies to stave off test-taking anxiety in the 24 hours before your exam.
- Get a Full Night of Sleep. Sleep deprivation is linked with increased levels of anxiety. At least 7 hours of quality sleep will make sure your brain is well-rested enough to think clearly, especially if you’ve been getting quality sleep in the days before your test. If your anxiety makes it difficult to fall asleep, try to calm your brain down in the hours before bed. (Put your phone away, savor a warm beverage before you brush your teeth, and/or read a physical book!)
- Use Positive Self-Talk. Self-deprecating thoughts can fester, quickly leading you down a spiral of negative thoughts. If you find yourself thinking things like, “I must be dumb” or “Everything is at risk if I do badly”, try to stop that train of thought. Instead, positively affirm your own abilities—ideas like ”I’m smart and capable” and “Even if I don’t do well, it’s okay” can build your confidence and repel anxious negativity.
- Prepare a Reward. Facing an exam is hard, and it’s even more difficult when you regularly struggle with test-taking anxiety. So, plan to reward yourself for facing a fear! Treat yourself to something sweet on the way home, or allot an extra hour for gaming or phone time before doing homework. A post-test reward gives you something to look forward to when you aren’t feeling great.
- Eat a Satisfying Breakfast. Taking an exam on an empty stomach is a bad idea. You need to energize your brain to let it perform at its best! Hunger can also encourage negative thinking, so make sure you eat a full breakfast—extra points if it’s balanced with plenty of fruit and sources of protein.
How to Deal with Anxiety During a Test
While they can’t replace all the above methods for preventing exam anxiety (like studying ahead of time and entering the exam with a positive mindset), these coping mechanisms are excellent strategies for refocusing your attention onto the test when you feel your worries creeping up on you. Take a 2-5-minute break for a relaxation exercise, and you’ll come back to your exam refreshed and ready to continue.
If you find that testing anxiety is manifesting in shaky hands or other physical symptoms, breathing exercises are a tried-and-true method of slowing down your heart rate and relaxing. There are many different types of breathing techniques, so try them ahead of time to see which you prefer and can easily remember. Some of the most popular relaxation breathing techniques you can easily do at a desk are:
- Deep Breathing. Place one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. Breathe in deeply through your nose, letting your belly fill with air; then breathe out, feeling your hand fall with your stomach. Repeat this three more times.
- Alternate Nostril Breathing. Take a deep breath. After you exhale, gently close your right nostril with your thumb and inhale deeply through your left nostril. Then, open your right nostril and close the left with your pointer finger before exhaling. Inhale with the right nostril, then continue to alternate until you feel more calm.
- Equal Breathing. Breathe in and out through your nose, making sure each inhale and exhale has the same length. You can use a short phrase to mentally repeat, timing each inhale and exhale.
An alternate physical exercise that can calm physical tension is Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). Starting at the feet, curl your toes and tense the muscles in your feet—hold the tension for five seconds, then slowly release. Do the same for your lower legs, then your upper legs and hips, stomach and chest, then shoulders. Finally, you’ll tense and release the muscles in your face, ending with your hands. Each time you release tension, focus on the experience of relaxing your muscles—this technique will help calm your nerves and refresh your mind.
If your anxiety is compounded by the testing environment itself, try visualization. Close your eyes and imagine a relaxing environment (a calm beach, a bright meadow, or even your bedroom—whatever brings you peace). Use your senses imaginatively—what do you see, hear, smell, taste? Can you feel warmth on your skin? Take slow, deep breaths as you temporarily transport yourself to a tranquil place.
Helping a Student with Testing Anxiety
It can be difficult for friends, educators, and even parents to understand the issues facing an anxious test-taker. However it is important for the people surrounding the student to understand the gravity of their situation. Test-taking anxiety itself can cause severe stress and even panic attacks, and the ensuing consequences of low test scores (retaking the test, missing academic opportunities, etc) can cause compounding anxiety—the student could be living a nightmare.
Fortunately, there are concrete steps parents and educators can take to help students mitigate exam anxiety by redirecting their focus to preparation instead of worrying. A meta-analysis of test anxiety interventions reported that such behavioral changes in students resulted in significantly decreased test anxiety, with as many as 75% of previously anxious students later reporting that their anxiety had dissipated.
Empathize Without Trivializing
Empathize with students by attempting to understand their dread. Statements like “just get over it” and “come on, this isn’t that big a deal” are not helpful.
In fact, if outsiders say or do things to demonstrate that they are unconcerned, then the student may feel even more anxious. This unintended consequence occurs because now students feel like they are the only person who is so concerned about the test. They may be worried about why they cannot seem to control their anxiety when everyone else around them seems so calm.
Explain How Academics are Holistic
Explain to students that test scores are usually just one part of a holistic review process. Anxious students have a misplaced focus because their views of tests are skewed narrowly towards the outcomes. It is important that they reposition that focus to be on understanding and embracing the many factors that weigh into school admissions instead of a single test.
School and college admissions counselors repeatedly reveal that a standardized test score is never the sole determinant used in an admissions decision, but only one part of a picture also heavily depicted by grades, activities, and essays.
Beyond simply the college admissions process, students need to realize that growing up and getting an education is a marathon, not a sprint. Learning how to learn is far more important than being able to quickly regurgitate facts and figures at a precisely determined time.
Focus Test Prep on Concept Mastery
Successful behavioral changes are mostly dependent on the student studying in a way that promotes retention and mastery of the subject material, rather than simply memorizing facts to recite on paper to then quickly forget. Students should remember that the better they internalize the test material, the more comfortable they will be during the test. They can join study groups, skim through class notes every day, and—most importantly—start preparing early!
Test anxiety is also a product of feeling underprepared, so students should make sure to study effectively over the long term versus cramming in the short term. Not only is cramming much less effective than building knowledge over time, but it can make students feel more hurried and anxious.
If the student focuses on the upcoming exam and is mindful of the anxiety they will likely experience, then they may be more motivated to study ahead of time and actually focus on learning concepts instead of cramming tips and tricks.
How to Prevent Exam Anxiety by Studying
While it may be difficult for outsiders to comprehend, many students find themselves overcome with panicky test anxiety when preparing for and taking a high stakes exam. We hope our research and advice help you ward off test-taking anxiety when you or your student has an important exam ahead.
Combine these tips and techniques with typical test-taking strategies to foster a smooth exam-taking experience. While it’s valuable to have coping mechanisms ready in your pocket in case you’re overcome by anxiety, the best way to be confident in your ability to tackle the test is studying and taking practice tests in the months ahead! If you’re looking for affordable resources to help you get ready for your upcoming exam, Piqosity is here to help.
Along with our full-length, online ELA and Math courses for grades 5-11, we offer full test prep courses for the Digital SAT, ACT, and ISEE. Each course includes 12 practice exams, dozens of concept lessons, personalized practice software, and more tools to help you reach testing success.
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