Learning Skills
Test Anxiety

What is test anxiety?

Test anxiety is a sense of unease and apprehension, frequently accompanied by physiological symptoms such as upset stomach, restlessness, sleep problems, irritability, and "nervous" eating that precede the taking of an exam. Besides creating physical illness, test anxiety can make it difficult to concentrate, which increases the likelihood of forgetting (blocking) and making "careless" errors.

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What's the difference between fear and anxiety?

Fear is the physiological and psychological response to a perceived danger. It's the racing heart, sweaty palms, sense of threat, and urge to flee that someone experiences when confronted by a bear while walking through the woods.

Anxiety is the physiological and psychological response to an imaginary danger. It's the racing heart, sweaty palms, sense of threat, and urge to flee that someone experiences when confronted by the possibility of being confronted by a bear while walking through the woods.

Test anxiety is not fear of an actual exam; It's the racing heart, sweaty palms, sense of threat, and urge to flee that someone experiences when imagining the outcome of not doing well on an exam. In other words, test anxiety is centered not in the test but in the test- taker's mind.

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What causes test anxiety?

It's natural to worry about whether you will do well on a test. Indeed, some degree of pre-test anxiety is good, for it focuses the mind on the task at hand and creates psychological and psychological arousal to meet the challenge. Problems arise, however, when the anxiety grows to the point of harming performance.

Test anxiety is caused by the content of the test-taker's internal mental messages, or self-talk. Usually the self-talk focuses on imaginary "terrible" outcomes of doing poorly on the exam. Some examples...

  • A negative attitude towards success:
    "Success isn't all that great. And besides, it makes your friends jealous."
  • Exaggerating the importance of the test:
    "If I do poorly on this test, I'll do poorly in the class. If I do poorly in the class, I won't get into law school. If I don't get into law, school, I'll be a failure and die of shame."
  • Fear of autonomy and exposure:
    "If I do well, everyone will know what I'm really like."
  • Fear of abandonment:
    "If I do poorly, my friends and family will dislike me."
  • Confusing one's performance on an exam with one's self-worth:
    "If I do poorly on the exam, I'll show that I'm incompetent."
  • Focusing on the grade and not the material to be learned:
    "If I skim the study questions in the textbook I can probably get 15 right. That's good enough for a B."
  • Not studying:
    "Yikes! I didn't study and I don't know this material."

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Solutions to Test Anxiety

  1. Acknowledge that you get nervous before tests and try to become aware of the roots of your test anxiety. Keep a journal of pre-test feelings and symptoms. Be attentive for the images and messages in your internal self-talk. If you don't prepare adequately for the exam by studying, and you care about your performance, then it's realistic to feel anxious about the possibility of failing.

  2. Dispute negative messages your give yourself:
    "You're not smart enough to do well."
    "What do you know about it!
    "

  3. Realistically appraise the exaggerated importance of an exam.

  4. Remind yourself that a test is only a test and not a measure of your self-worth.

  5. Remind yourself that focusing on the grade will distract you from learning the material, which will bring about the opposite of what you are focusing on.

  6. As part of test preparation, give yourself periods of quiet time in which you relax and imagine yourself taking the test. In your image, see yourself taking the exam confidently and masterfully. See yourself coming across a difficult question and taking that experience in stride and moving on to another question that you can respond to with confidence.

  7. Focus your awareness on the test by getting your test-taking materials together before test- time. Sharpen your pencils, get your Scantron or blue book and write your name on it. Arrive at the exam 5-10 minutes early and let yourself relax.

  8. Don't rush before the test. Don't cram. That only increases anxiety.

  9. Get a good night's sleep. Eat a balanced meal (protein and complex carbohydrate; not sugary/fatty snacks) one or two hours before the exam.

  10. Once in the test situation, stop worrying. Try to flow. If you block, collect yourself by taking a few deep breaths; ask the instructor if you can get a drink of water.

  11. Meditate. Close your eyes and watch your breath. Are you breathing shallowly or deeply? Is there tension in your body. Just notice where your energy is. Focus your awareness on your anchor-place for a few seconds, and when you're ready, go back to the exam.

  12. Realize that test-taking is a skill only partially related to how much a student knows and understands. Like any skill, one improves with practice.

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