Best Practices for Exam/Test Anxiety
Feeling nervous about an exam or test is a shared experience. Even though being worried about a test is normal, it can also manifest as something more distressing. For instance, being anxious about an exam can negatively impact our mental health, disrupt our sleep cycle, or cause a change in appetite, and all this, in turn, can impact the scores we receive on that test. If your test anxiety is getting in the way of functioning or being able to take exams, that is understandable and not something to be ashamed of. Many individuals struggle with taking exams, and you are not alone. There are many techniques that can assist in minimizing test anxiety and help individuals feel confident during their exams. This blog post will help you learn some of these strategies for dealing with and overcoming test anxiety.
Symptoms of Test Anxiety
Test anxiety can range from mild to severe symptoms. Symptoms also can look different for everyone, and people experience a wide variety of symptoms, ranging from the physical to the mental variety.
Physical Symptoms
Some physical symptoms of exam anxiety include feeling shaky, having a hard time breathing, nausea, stomach aches, headaches, and more. Some people can experience panic attacks, which are intense emotional and/or physical responses to fear and anxiety.
Emotional Symptoms
Having test anxiety can trigger additional emotions. For example, anger, depression, or hopelessness. Exam anxiety can also bring up feelings of self-doubt and disappointment, affecting one's confidence and ability to take tests. If a person already struggles with mental health disorders (for example, depression or anxiety) exam anxiety can worsen the symptoms of those disorders.
Behavioral Symptoms
Very Well Mind brings up an important point: that test anxiety can cause behavioral problems due to the fear of test taking. This can include skipping the tests and classes altogether, avoiding fearful test-taking situations, or using negative coping strategies.
Causes of Exam Anxiety
Exam anxiety can be triggered by a variety of reasons:
One includes being a perfectionist and needing to do exceptionally well on every exam. If a person has a fear of failure, that type of pressure can manifest into anxiety. Putting that much pressure on oneself not only creates unrealistic expectations but can make a person crack under that much stress.
Unfortunately, society ties a lot of our self-worth to our scores and school-like situations, giving people high anxiety trying to fulfill expectations. Parents can put pressure on their children to do well in school and teach them to fear being unsuccessful if they do not do well in school.
Test anxiety can also be triggered if someone doesn't know how to prepare for an exam or does poorly on tests. Some people, especially those who are already struggling with mental health issues, have a hard time with tests. If you were not taught the proper studying skills as a child or haven’t found what works for you, it can feel impossible to study correctly.
A lot of people base their self-worth and intelligence level on exams. It’s important to understand that doing poorly on tests doesn’t reflect someone’s intelligence. However, it doesn’t feel great to not do your best on an exam. Struggling with tests can trigger exam anxiety because a person is anticipating a negative result.
How to Deal with Test Anxiety
While exam anxiety can be daunting, there are many test-taking anxiety tips one can use to help overcome this fear and learn how to overcome this anxiety. With the right techniques, a person can feel more confident about taking exams.
Prepare Properly Beforehand
If you struggle with studying before an exam, try different studying strategies and see which ones work best to overcome test anxiety. Some common study techniques include using flashcards, rewriting notes, reviewing material, speaking out the material, finding practice tests, and using memorization strategies. If you need someone to hold you accountable while studying, finding a friend with whom you can get work done around can be beneficial.
There is also the Pomodoro study method, a technique to help with time management and productivity. In this method, you study for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and then repeat for as long as you need. If none of these strategies seem to work for you, there are many more strategies you can find online. You can also ask friends for advice, seek out resources at your school, or ask a professional therapist for strategies. Also, consider reaching out to your teachers, school counselors, or parents for advice.
Refrain from using Negative Self-Talk
Anxiety can result in negative self-talk and make people doubt their abilities. This type of internal dialogue will only make the exam anxiety worse and won’t help the situation. If you notice yourself using negative self-talk, try to catch yourself and say positive affirmations to yourself instead. This can help with overcoming test anxiety and make us feel more confident while taking exams.
Instead of saying things such as:
I am stupid.
I’m going to fail this exam.
I’m not good enough.
I can’t do this.
Try to switch your narrative around by saying things such as:
I am doing the best that I can, and that is enough.
I can do this.
I am smart and capable, no matter what score I receive on this exam.
It’s not the end of the world if I do poorly.
If you are interested in challenging your anxious thoughts, you can use this worksheet provided by Trust Mental Health.
Use Self-Soothing Techniques
If you are feeling anxious, using calming techniques can help you ground and recenter yourself. For example, deep breathing can help reduce anxiety. A popular technique is box breathing, where you breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, and then repeat for as long as you need. Another technique that the University of Colorado highlighted to help with test anxiety is a 45-second body scan. This is where you close your eyes and feel the sensations of your body, starting from your feet and slowly moving up to your head. There are many self-soothing and meditation techniques that can be used for test anxiety, it just matters if you can find one that works best for you.
During the Test Techniques
When learning how to overcome test anxiety, there are also test-taking techniques you can use to improve your test-taking abilities and reduce anxiety. Arriving early can help you prepare and feel more grounded. Some techniques during the exam include slowly reading the instructions and underlining the important parts. Another one is: if you are stuck on a difficult question, move on to the next and then come back to the difficult question later. Remember to breathe throughout the test to calm your nervous system. If you notice people turning in the test before you finish, don’t panic. Everyone moves at different speeds, and even if you are the last to finish, that’s completely okay.
Take Care of Yourself
To help overcome test anxiety, make sure you are eating consistently, getting the right nutrition, doing self-care activities, and getting enough sleep. In a 2018 Turkish study, it was found that students who slept poorly before the night of the exam were more likely to have test anxiety, including physical symptoms of test anxiety. Maintaining nutrition and drinking enough water can generally decrease anxiety. Taking care of yourself also looks like engaging in self-care activities and taking breaks when needed.
Get Professional Help
If you notice your anxiety getting intense and difficult to manage, there is no shame in getting help from a therapist. A therapist can help you understand where the anxiety is coming from and give you coping mechanisms to handle the anxiety. A professional therapist can also help with strategies for studying and help you figure out what works best for you.
Get Accommodations to Help
If you are a student and notice yourself struggling with time restraints or taking a test in a room with many people, there is nothing wrong with getting accommodations. Accommodations are there to help people who struggle with disabilities or mental health disorders. Accommodations look different for everyone, but some common test-specific accommodations include getting more time on tests or being able to take the test in a room alone.
After Test Care
If you still feel anxious even after you turn in the exam, try to release expectations and realize that it is out of your control now. Try to turn your focus to something else instead of worrying about the exam. Once you get your exam back, you can assess how you did. For example, if you used a new study technique and found that you did better than on previous tests, you now know how to use that new study technique in the future. You should also treat yourself for doing a good job! If you didn’t get the score you wanted, that’s still okay. No one is perfect, and test scores do not reflect your self-worth. There is always room for improvement and learning not only how to study beforehand but also how to handle test anxiety using coping mechanisms and asking for help.
Key Points
Test anxiety results from being nervous about taking exams. This can manifest in physical symptoms, such as sweating, emotional symptoms, such as feeling depressed, or behavioral symptoms, such as missing classes.
Test anxiety can come from the fear of failure, not knowing how to study beforehand, and placing one’s self-worth on exams.
There are multiple strategies to help with test anxiety, which include properly preparing beforehand, refraining from negative self-talk, using self-soothing techniques, using test techniques during the exam, taking care of yourself, getting professional help, or getting accommodations for anxiety.
FAQs
How to reduce stress and anxiety during exams?
Some coping strategies to reduce stress during exams include learning the right study techniques, not using negative self-talk, taking care of yourself, getting enough sleep, seeking help from a therapist, and learning self-soothing and relaxation techniques.
Can test anxiety be diagnosed?
Test anxiety is not an official diagnosis and, therefore, cannot be diagnosed. However, anxiety can be diagnosed with tests being the main trigger for anxiety. Even if you do not have a diagnosis, test anxiety can still be difficult to manage alone. Consider working with a therapist to help soothe exam anxiety symptoms.
How does test anxiety affect students?
Test anxiety can worsen students' overall mood, make school less enjoyable, make it hard to function, and impact their ability to perform well on exams. Test anxiety looks different in every student and manifests in different ways.