Test Anxiety/Performance Anxiety
Test anxiety is characterized as performance anxiety affecting everyone from kindergarten to graduate students. Moments before and during the test bring intense arousal, including nervousness and tension. The anxiety can be a debilitating experience interfering with performance.
Some symptoms of test anxiety include:
Heart racing
Difficulty breathing
Frustration
Headaches
Pacing
Stomach pain
Often, performance anxiety manifests into distraction, feeling overwhelmed, missing essential cues, and “going blank”, and forgetting what you are supposed to do. The stressful emotions induced by anxiety can inhibit information retention and recall (Ping et al., 2008). Tests can be perceived as threatening to do an evaluation that can influence the future, bringing about uncertainty (Ping et al., 2008).
Some tips for dealing with test anxiety:
1. Prepare. Study as much as possible for the upcoming test.
2. Sleep. Ensure a whole night's rest of 8 hours with a healthy breakfast to encourage a healthy mind.
3. Time management. Leave at an appropriate time to arrive early for the test and ensure sufficient time to study.
4. Practice. Do mock tests with a time limit to practice taking a test under pressure.
Study tips (Yusefzadeh et al., 2019):
1. Minimize direction. Includes turning off the phone and minimizing distracting noise.
2. Clean your space. Organize your studying environment to ensure plenty of room to work.
3. Attention. Focus on areas that you find most challenging.
4. Good notes. Use class notes and practice tests.
During the test:
1. Relax. Take some deep breaths before answering each question.
2. Patience. Read each question slowly to understand the material truly.
3. Focus. Take the test one question at a time.
Cognitive Appraisals of Test Anxiety
Difficulty concentrating relates to negative self-talk, discouraging our ability to succeed. We find ourselves thinking, “I cannot do this”; or “I am not smart”. Negative self-talk fosters maladaptive thoughts of failing associated with anxiety and fear. Paying attention to our thoughts can reframe the outlook with more realistic thinking patterns toward the test (Krispenz et al., 2019).
Test anxiety can fester from hours before the exam. An important consideration for improving test anxiety is arriving 10 minutes earlier to write down what is making you anxious. Addressing anxiety at the moment increases the ability to perform well on the test (Krispenz et al., 2019).
To help identify those thoughts, ask yourself:
“What am I thinking right now?”
“What am I anxious about?”
“What am I worried will happen?”
A beneficial element is to challenge these negative thoughts with positive counterstatements.
Try asking yourself:
“What evidence is my thought true?”
“What would I tell a friend feeling this way?”
Test anxiety can be a debilitating experience. Reaching out to a therapist for additional support to openly discuss anxiety may be beneficial. This can help control and reduce worries and develop an understanding of your triggers.
Vaughan Counselling and Psychotherapy provide counselling services to help work through
these anxious feelings. Reach out to Bushra and Melissa, who are skilled in supporting clients who experience anxiety that may be a good fit.
Krispenz, A., Gort, C., Schultke, L., Dickhauser, O. (2019) How to reduce test anxiety and academic procrastination through inquiry of cognitive appraisals: A pilot study investigating the role of academic self-efficacy. Frontiers Psychology. 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01917
Ping, L. T., Subramaniam, K., and Krishnaswamy, S. (2008). Test anxiety: state, trait and relationship with exam satisfaction. The Malaysian Journal of Medical Science. 15(2), 18- 23.
Yusefzadeh, H., Amirzadeh Iranagh, J., and Nabilou, B. (2019). The effect of study preparation on test anxiety and performance: a quasi-experimental study. Advances in Medical Education and Practice. 10, 245-251. https://doi.org/10.2147%2FAMEP.S192053