How To Manage Test Anxiety
A few minutes before taking your test or exam, you find yourself a nervous wreck. Your heart starts pounding, beads of sweat race down your forehead and neck, and your mind suddenly goes blank.
I studied for this test, but why do I feel so unprepared?
What if I mess up?
What if I forget everything?
These are common thoughts and questions for students who experience test anxiety.
What is test anxiety?
Teresa had always been a straight-A student… until she faced Grade 11 Math.
In all her previous years and even in her current subjects, she was the picture of academic success. Her peers would often turn to her for help, she was adored by teachers for her keen interest in her studies, and her marks often put her at the top of her class.
But Grade 11 Math had her stumped. She was doing the homework, as she always had. She was attending class and asking questions, as she always had. But come test time, things were different. She found herself nervous, leaving many questions blank, and unsure of how to solve the problem.
It left her discouraged and dejected. She dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Naturally, she was concerned that low marks would prevent her from getting accepted to her top-choice universities. Her family was concerned that she would lose her confidence and interest in learning.
After speaking with her and her family, our assessment found that she struggled with test anxiety – something that affects students of all ages and levels.
But what is test anxiety?
Test anxiety impacts many students, and involves a level of stress that negatively impacts your performance on a test or exam.
Students who struggle with this condition may feel high levels of stress, panic, and overwhelm before, during, and even after an important quiz, test, or exam.
Test anxiety can manifest in various ways that may affect you physically, emotionally, or cognitively. Students may experience:
- Profuse sweating
- Rapid heart rate
- Upset stomach
- Foggy or cloudy thinking
- Trouble concentrating
- Disruptions in memory or information recall
- Procrastination
- Feelings of hopelessness
- Negative thinking
There may be circumstances that make this condition worse, or make it more likely that you will experience test anxiety.
Have you ever had a notoriously tough teacher who is known for throwing impossible questions into the mix? Or struggled to stay focused in class, leaving you confused about where to start when it comes to homework or assignments? Or taken a subject that you feel goes above and beyond what your teacher taught? Or do you put a lot of pressure on yourself to do well on tests?
These are just a few examples of situations that can cause you to feel stressed and unprepared, thus preventing you from being at your best come test time.
Managing test anxiety
After assessing Teresa’s baseline level, educational goals, vision for her future, and needs, we set to work. We matched her with the best-fit tutor on our team, with the expertise and mentorship skills to help her in a personalized way. Teresa struggled with inquiry and application questions on quizzes and tests. So, we created a custom plan of action involving practice questions that targeted the specific question types that gave her the most trouble, while helping her develop strategic study skills to ace her exams. Since our focus also integrates mindset and lifelong learning skills, we also took the time to set Teresa up with the tools she needed for university preparation and long-term success.
When it comes to test anxiety, it can be distracting and difficult to perform at your best. There’s no single “right answer” that’ll solve the problem.
There are, however, steps students can take to reduce the stress they experience, and keep calm and ready when they have a quiz, test, or exam.
Tests can be daunting, but there are ways to manage your test anxiety and get better marks. Let’s dive into some helpful tips!
Test-Taking Tips To Manage Test Anxiety
To effectively overcome test anxiety, we work with our clients to address the underlying factors, or root causes, as well as the “symptoms”.
We generally categorize these into Mindset, Skillset, Preparation, and Routine.
1. Manage Your Mindset
Some students have been struggling with school for years, feel defeated when it comes to school, and feel like they just can’t do well no matter what they try.
Some students are high achievers who are used to getting top marks. They expect a lot from themselves, and with such high expectations from themselves, from parents, and from others, there’s a lot of pressure.
There are other reasons why a student’s mindset may result in stress and overwhelm on test day:
- Nervousness about a brutal test or strict teacher
- Lack of preparation
- Fear of failure
- Fear of getting a low mark
- Uncertainty about what to expect
- Negative thinking patterns due to experiences from past classes or tests
Before your next test, take a few minutes and reflect on what is causing you the most stress. It may help to think back to your last test to get a better idea of the root causes.
If you’re struggling with the material and having trouble completing the homework, it might be a lack of preparation that’s causing test anxiety. If you’re worried that you aren’t prepared enough, there are a few things to try. Watching YouTube videos, attending a homework club, or taking a group prep course can give you access to general resources, instruction, and materials to do more practice. I emphasize the word “general” because that’s typically what you can expect to get with these methods.
But what if you’re looking for a more personalized approach, accountability, and an action plan that considers your mindset and individual goals?
In this case, having more personalized instruction from an expert, such as a qualified private tutor, might give you what you need to improve your marks on your next test.
In Teresa’s case, she was engaged in class, completing her homework, and doing what she thought were all the right things. Despite that, she still found herself struggling. Part of the learning success plan we designed for her involved cultivating a growth mindset where her tutor worked with her directly to address her fear of underperforming due to high expectations, in addition to improving her skillset. She realized that she was more than a test score, and that she was, indeed, prepared to tackle this test, no matter how tough it might be. Armed with the mindset that she could take this test and succeed, so long as she gave it her best effort, she regained her confidence and found herself climbing up from ~60% to ~85% to a ~95% by the end of the term.
2. Focus On Your Skillset
Study skills, test-taking skills, and subject-specific skills are what we include under the Skillset category.
Study skills help you optimize your study time. Effective note-taking, active study strategies, and review methods are just a few things you might consider brushing up on.
Subject-specific skills allow you to better understand what was taught in class and apply it to homework and assessments. This might involve analyzing poetry for English, graphing for Math, or nomenclature of chemical compounds for Chemistry.
Test-taking skills break down how to best prepare for tests, so you have a clearer picture of what to expect and how to tackle multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, application questions, and more under test conditions.
3. Preparation Is Key
Being prepared for your next test can help you avoid feeling stressed about failing or getting a low mark.
Easier said than done. What does this look like in practice?
Before the test, have all of your supplies ready. This can include your pens, pencils, calculator, formula sheet, or any other reference materials you need. If you haven’t gotten into the habit of asking yourself what you need and preparing that beforehand, now’s the time to start. By being prepared with the supplies you need, you can stay focused on the test questions and how to answer them best.
By the time you sit down for the test, you should also be prepared to anticipate the types of questions that are likely to appear. The numbers, passages, and scenarios might vary, but the rationale and steps you need to take should be similar to what you’ve already seen in class and practiced independently.
In Teresa’s case, we put together problem sets to help her get prepared. We worked with her to get familiar with the types of questions she would likely encounter on her next quiz.
Once you’re familiar with the types of questions, taking multiple practice quizzes and tests helps to predict how you’ll do on the actual test.
Preparation is also tied to mindset, as knowing the concepts and steps can help you feel more confident in your abilities. This can keep you from panicking, as you’ll be less likely to be surprised by something that you’ve never seen before. You can rest easy knowing you can handle whatever problems the test throws at you.
4. Develop A Winning Routine
Some students visualize taking the test. Some students put on their headphones and blast their playlist to get into “the zone”.
Everyone has a routine that works best for them. Feeling more comfortable on test or exam day gives you an advantage that can help you score higher.
Here are a few tips that might help to develop a winning routine:
- Get enough sleep. You don’t want to oversleep and miss the test or be too groggy to answer questions.
- Arrange your clothes, bag, binders, devices, books, and supplies the night before. Avoid rushing the morning of the test or scrambling to get things ready at the last minute. These are headaches you can avoid with some planning.
- Engage in a calming practice before your test. For some students, this can mean scanning through your class notes or doing a few more practice problems, to feel reassured that you’re ready. For others, this may mean positive self-talk or listening to classical music.
A pre-exam routine can set you up for success and help you manage your test anxiety.
If you want to learn how my team and I can help you/your student get more prepared for tests, just fill out the application form on our home page.
-Francesca