Test Anxiety

Test Anxiety Symptoms

Test Anxiety Symptoms

How to Beat Test Anxiety

Learning to work through anxiety takes practice. It’s a process. To start, develop good study habits. Practice good study techniques to increase your retention of test material. Regular study habits may sound dull or boring, but they instill confidence on test day. They reduce concerns about taking the test. Not only because the student is familiar with the information, but also because study techniques can help break the test-taking process into steps.

But where do students, suffering from test anxiety, start building new study skills?

Six Tips to Better Study Techniques

1. This first tip is key to the others. Maintain a good attitude while studying. Think about being prepared for the test and doing well. Don't dwell on things you'd rather do. It leads to distraction.
2. Get enough sleep.
3. Set aside a quiet place to study.
4. Limit, or eliminate, interruptions and distractions. Tell people not to bother you. Don’t take phone calls, and turn off the television, computer, and music if it tends to make your attention wander. If you study better with music playing, keep the volume low.
5. Be prepared—supply the study area with everything you’ll need, to eliminate interruptions and wasted time. Include basics such as pens, paper, calculators, and any reference materials needed, including encyclopedias and a dictionary.
6. Make your study area practical and comfortable. Ensure there is adequate light and space. A large enough table or desk prevents small irritations, like lack of working room. Also, find a comfortable chair so sitting isn’t a distraction. Avoid lying down or getting too comfortable.

Change Your Mindset

Once you’ve established study habits, you’ll find a new sense of confidence, but test anxiety may still filter into your thoughts. To help manage anxiety:

• Break studying into parts.
• Don’t wait until the night before to prepare for a test.
• Go over what you need to study days before the test, and sort out what you know and what you don’t.
• Place a mark beside things that need further study, but keep moving through the text.
• Get through all the material, and then go back to the areas that need more attention.
• Make notes on index cards or use a small recorder to create audio notes.
• Go over these notes in the days before the test.

Sorting information that needs further study from what you already know will help you realize that you do know some of the test material. By relieving stress, this boosts your ability to remember on test day. Now you can look forward to test day as an opportunity to show what you’ve learned.

Test Day

• Be sure to get enough sleep.
• Eat a light breakfast on test day.
• Double check you have everything you need in your backpack.
• If you start feeling stressed, take slow, deep breaths. Breathe through your nose and out your mouth.
• Don’t panic if the test is harder than you thought.
• Use the same format you employed to study. Read the instructions carefully, and then go through the test and answer the questions you know. Place a mark beside the questions you need to reevaluate.
  • Take this process a step further by using two marks. A dot to indicate the questions you think you know, but aren’t sure, and a question mark to show the ones you feel are hopeless. Forget about them until the end of the test. Focus on the positive.
• Sorting through questions helps you get past test anxiety by allowing you to see progress, even when you feel nervous.
• Stay with your test strategy. Once you finish the first round of questions, you’re on your way. Take your time. Don’t feel rushed. Do the best you can with the questions you think you know.

Other students may finish before you. It doesn’t matter. It’s not a race to see who can finish first. Don’t let it distract you. Your goal is to finish the test to the best of your ability, within the allotted time. Once you finish, make sure you’ve answered all the questions. Don’t second guess yourself and change answers because when you do, it’s often wrong.

Turn in your test knowing that you’ve done your best. Don’t fret about it. Once it’s turned in, you’re done. It’s out of your hands. Worry doesn’t change your grade, so forget about it and move on to your next project.

Learning from Tests

When you receive your graded test, take the time to learn from it. How can you improve? Don’t throw your hands in the air and say it’s hopeless. Look at the questions you missed. How can you improve your study habits? Attend class, do the homework, study, and do your best to learn the required material. Developing study techniques that work for you is a great way to help overcome test anxiety.