Anxiety can cause people to feel scared or panicky when they’re in certain situations. Anxiety includes feeling a little nervous if you have to speak in front of a group, feeling shaky if you need to take an elevator to the top floor of a building, or even feeling dread when you’re driving in heavy traffic. While it's a common thing to experience, it's not fun at all when it happens.

Something that some people may not realize is that you can even have anxiety caused from taking a test. Test anxiety is a type of anxiety that can affect people as early as elementary school.

Sufferers say that when they have to take a test, they feel like their heart is racing, or that they feel sweaty or lightheaded when they know they have to take a test. Test anxiety can happen because someone had a bad grade on a previous test, or maybe they feel like they're being pressured into having high grades due to high expectations from family.

Some people may even have test anxiety because they have a fear of failure and they strive to perform well due to perfectionism.   

If you feel like taking tests causes you to have anxiety, it’s important to figure out why the anxiety is happening. That way, you can work through the issue that you're experiencing and tackle the anxiety that causes you to feel lousy when you need to take an exam.

Recognizing the Symptoms of Test Anxiety

It's important for you to understand the symptoms that go along with test anxiety, especially if you feel that test taking is causing you to have a little anxiety. Signs can include a racing heart, sweaty palms, and feeling scared to walk into the test room.

These symptoms can grow, and they can make something as simple as taking a test in school turn into a dreadful experience. When students know the signs to watch for, they can more effectively control their emotions and succeed with test taking.

Students experience a wide array of physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety, so it's not a one size fits all situation. Symptoms can include the basic ones mentioned above, but anxiety can also cause symptoms that include things like shaking, nausea, vomiting, and even fainting.

It's important to combat anxiety before it grows into an anxiety disorder, which can interfere with your ability to concentrate, and can be difficult to manage without help. 

The Impact of Test Anxiety on Academic Performance

No one likes to have anxiety, no matter when or where it happens. Test anxiety is a terrible thing to have because it can cause issues that include forgetting everything you know about the subject matter on the test.

The term, “My mind went blank” is a perfect example of what can happen during a test when you have test anxiety. Anxiety may negatively impact test performance by causing you to fail to finish the whole test during the allotted time.

This can be embarrassing to you, but also for a teacher who wants students to be prepared for a test. While students work hard to learn and study for tests, teachers work hard to make sure their students have the tools they need to better understand the information they need to learn.

It can be frustrating to study hard, know the material, and then find yourself battling test anxiety and failing the test because of it. Failing a test can unfortunately exacerbate the anxiety the next time a test is scheduled.

There are ways to overcome this, however, so you'll need to find the ways that work best for you. Before test time, you should sit down and think about how you feel during a test and walk through any signs of anxiety that you feel you have when you take an exam.

That way, you can focus on the issue and begin to work through some solutions for overcoming test anxiety before it’s test time. 

Strategies to Reduce Test Anxiety Through Preparation

Your study habits, or lack thereof, may be one of the key elements of whether you have test anxiety or not. When you have a consistent study time set aside daily, or weekly, it can help you feel prepared for a test. Not being prepared can be a stressor for feeling anxious before test time.  

When it comes to test anxiety, make a study schedule and stick to it. When you stick to a schedule, it becomes easier to let the information get absorbed so you know it well. It’s also a great way to help you feel confident about passing your test.

Another important thing to do is get a good night's sleep. Sleep helps rest the mind, and along with good study habits, can help alleviate stress than can cause test anxiety.

Leveraging Practice Tests to Overcome Anxiety

Many teachers will give students practice tests to help students gain a better understanding of the material before a big test. Take advantage of these tests because they are a great way to build your study habits.

Taking a practice test will show you which areas you need to study a little harder in, and which areas you are already acing. It’s a great way to help boost your overall confidence before taking the final test of the grading period.

Sometimes, a good idea for study time includes finding a great tutor to help you study. Tutors can help with prep tests and may have other creative ways to help you learn the material for your test.

You can even create your own practice tests, or flash cards, to help study. This will help you practice showing your knowledge, which will in turn, cut down on test anxiety on test day.

Preparing the Night Before to Ensure a Smooth Test Day

What you do the night before you take a test is very important. This is a night that you need to be focused on getting plenty of rest, and a good night of sleep before test day. While some people may be tempted to do a late-night study session, this can backfire if you don’t get plenty of rest.

Waking up after a restless night can cause you to feel stressed, and this can lead to nervousness and anxiety. Before bedtime on the night before the test, spend a few minutes getting everything together for the test.

This includes pencils or pens, paper for notes, a calculator, and other things you may need when you take the test. This will help you feel prepared when it’s time to take the test.

Implementing Relaxation Techniques During the Test

It’s important for you to feel relaxed during a test. This doesn’t mean for you go to sleep during the test, but it does mean that you get plenty of rest the night before the test, so you are refreshed.

Your mind should be able to focus on the test and how you respond to taking it. Some things that can help you feel better prepared include doing some deep breathing exercises to make sure your breathing is steady, focusing on the questions and not trying to rush through the test, and talking to yourself in a positive way so you feel confident throughout the test.

Talking to yourself in a positive way will help fight off the urge to think about anything negative during the test. Taking time to study, as well as making sure you feel relaxed and confident are the best ways to help keep anxiety away on test day.

Knowing When to Seek Professional Help

Test anxiety can happen to anyone. It’s no different than having a little anxiety when you have to speak in front of a crowd, go on a first date, or even face a big change in your life.

These things happen, and they can cause the calmest, or the most outgoing person to feel anxious. Anxiety is a normal response to a stressful situation. There are times, however, when anxiety can become intense, and you have a tough time managing it no matter how hard you may try.

If this happens, it may be time to seek a little professional help. There are many people you can talk to, on a professional level, about anxiety and how you feel about things. These people include school counselors, psychologists, or other health professionals.

They can help offer guidance on how to use coping strategies to lower your anxiety, and if necessary, can suggest other proven ways to manage your anxiety and help you stay on track to not only improve test taking, but with handling the anxiety outside of the classroom.

Adopting Long-Term Solutions for Managing Test Anxiety

Some students find that they need to find ways to manage their test anxiety long-term. This means that they need to focus on things like eating a balanced diet, getting regular exercise and sleep, and attending regular therapy with a counselor.

These are all things that help address not only the symptoms of anxiety, but they can also help determine what causes it to happen. Over time, and with the help of a trusted counselor, anxiety can begin to reside.

It helps to take part in activities that promote overall well-being and will help keep you busy, so you won’t have time to let negative self-talk and other negative thoughts worry you.

Learning how to be calm and confident is a great way to reduce the intensity of test anxiety and help make sure your academic challenges are easy to manage. 

When you understand test anxiety, symptoms that it may have, and how to effectively handle it, you’ll start to find that taking a test isn’t such a terrible situation at all. Over time, and with some practice on calming yourself, you’ll be able to turn what was once a time of stress into a great opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and skills.

Keep in mind that overcoming test anxiety can be a long journey, but with the right tools, you can achieve success and beat anxiety, once and for all. When you combat this stress, you'll be able to tackle your test questions with ease, and avoid all the stress that goes along with having anxiety.

Once you learn how to manage the performance anxiety that causes racing thoughts and other feelings of anxiety during an exam, you'll be able to feel more confident about your education.

If you're ready to learn what works best for you, you can contact us today for help getting on the right path. We'll work with you and can suggest ideas for the best study plan to help you work through your test anxiety and get you back on the right path of learning so you can improve your test scores, and feel confident about your education.