Introduction
Heart pounding, leg shaking, tick, tick, tick. The clock in the distance only seems to remind you how little you’ve answered. The weight to do more, do better, be better, seems to weigh heavy on their shoulders, as they scramble to write the answer.
‘If you don’t pass, you’re worthless.’ Those words echo through my brain as they need to perfect their answer again. And again. And again, palms sweaty as everyone around them seems to finish up, yet they’re still at the beginning…
What is test anxiety?
Sound familiar? These are common symptoms to test anxiety, which is known commonly around students. In fact, 10 – 40% of students experience this, depending on different factors (gender, race, social class, etc.) To expand further, test anxiety is extreme feelings of stress and anxiety that affect students before, during, and after an exam or test.
What are the symptoms?
The symptoms of test anxiety split into 3 categories: physical, emotional, and cognitive. Physical symptoms are found to have the most, with headaches, nausea, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, and feeling lightheaded or faint. These symptoms can also include causing panic attacks, that can feel like a heart attack, not causing one.
Emotional symptoms can have feelings of stress, fear, helplessness, and disappointment. People may also experience their mind going blank, racing thoughts, and may have negative thoughts about their performances in the past, their fear of failing, and feeling inadequate or helpless.
The last category of symptoms is cognitive, which is also known as behavioral. In this category, it can be hard to concentrate, becoming restless or fidgety, avoidance and procrastination, and difficulty sleeping. Now that the symptoms are known, what is test anxiety triggered by?
How can test anxiety be triggered?
Test anxiety is activated by high expectations, perfectionism, poor past test history, the fear of failing, and not being prepared enough. What are some ways to reduce test anxiety?
Strategies to reduce test anxiety before an exam.
There are a variety of ways, but the most effective strategies for having test anxiety before an exam include developing a routine, managing your time wisely, remaining focused, maintaining a healthy diet, and preparing with studying strategies that work best.
Some study strategies to help are the SQ3R technique (survey, question, read, recite, review), retrieving practice, color-coded notes, spaced practice, and the pomodoro technique (doing a task for 25 minutes and then taking a break for 5 minutes before resuming the task). These techniques can help someone study and decrease test anxiety before a test or exam, but it is up to the person and their learning style.
How to manage test anxiety during an exam.
During an exam, however, it is completely different, as symptoms arise. Some strategies to calm oneself during an exam include reciting positive affirmations internally, visualizing a positive outcome, viewing the test as a game, not a test, and practicing breathing.
Conclusion
To summarize, test anxiety is a type of anxiety that gives students extreme feelings of stress and anxiety before, after, or during a test. Test anxiety has 3 categories of symptoms, physical, emotional, and behavioral/cognitive. Test anxiety can be avoided or reduced using different strategies, especially during and before an exam or test.
