What Can You Do?
Test anxiety can be a real problem if you're so stressed out over a test that
you can't get past the nervousness to focus on the test questions and do your best
work. Feeling ready to meet the challenge, though, can keep test anxiety at a manageable
level.
Use a little stress to your advantage. Stress is your body's warning
mechanism — it's a signal that helps you prepare for something important that's
about to happen. So use it to your advantage. Instead of reacting to the stress by
dreading, complaining, or fretting about the test with friends, take an active approach.
Let stress remind you to study well in advance of a test. Chances are, you'll keep
your stress from spinning out of control. After all, nobody ever feels stressed out
by thoughts that they might do well on a test.
Ask for help. Although a little test anxiety can be a good thing,
an overdose of it is another story. If sitting for a test gets you so stressed out
that your mind goes blank and causes you to miss answers that you know, then your
level of test anxiety probably needs some attention. Your teacher, a school guidance
counselor, or a tutor can be good people to talk to test anxiety gets to be too much
to handle
Be prepared. Some students think that going to class is all it
should take to learn and do well on tests. But there's much more to learning than
just hoping to soak up everything in class. That's why good study
habits and skills are so important — and why no amount of cramming
or studying the night before a test can take the place of the deeper level of learning
that happens over time with good study skills.
Many students find that their test anxiety eases when they start to study better
or more regularly. It makes sense — the more you know the material, the more
confident you'll feel. Having confidence
going into a test means you expect to do well. When you expect to do well, you'll
be able to relax into a test after the normal first-moment jitters pass.
Watch what you're thinking. If expecting to do well on a test
can help you relax, what about if you expect you won't do well?
Watch out for any negative messages you might be sending yourself about the test.
They can contribute to your anxiety.
If you find yourself thinking negative thoughts ("I'm never any good at taking
tests" or "It's going to be terrible if I do badly on this test"), replace them with
positive messages. Not unrealistic positive messages, of course, but ones that are
practical and true, such as "I've studied hard and I know the material, so I'm ready
to do the best I can."
Accept mistakes. Another thing you can do is to learn to keep
mistakes in perspective — especially if you're a perfectionist or you tend to
be hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes, and you may have even heard teachers
or coaches refer to mistakes as "learning opportunities." Learning to tolerate small
failures and mistakes — like that one problem you got wrong in the math pop
quiz — is a valuable skill.
Take care of yourself. It can help to learn ways to calm yourself
down and relax when you're tense or anxious. For some people, this might mean learning
a simple breathing exercise. Practicing breathing exercises regularly (when you're
not stressed out) helps your body see these exercises as a signal to relax.
And, of course, taking care of your health — such as getting enough
sleep, exercise, and healthy eats before a test — can help keep your mind
working at its best.
Everything takes time and practice, and learning to beat test anxiety is no different.
Although it won't go away overnight, facing and dealing with test anxiety will help
you learn stress management, which can prove to be a valuable skill in many situations
besides taking tests.