Exam or Test Anxiety

Normal Anxiety
Adequate Preparation
A Realistic Attitude
Techniques

Most people experience some anxiety in an exam or test situation. For most it is a normal level of anxiety that increases their alertness and motivation, consequently improving their performance. It is important not to be intimidated by this anxiety. It becomes a problem if you start thinking, “I’m going to pieces; I’m going to start blocking; I’m going to fail the test.” Manage the anxiety; don’t be panicked by it.

Adequate preparation is an important factor in keeping anxiety from developing because knowledge and good preparation enhance confidence. Most people who claim anxiety caused a mental block on an exam couldn’t remember because the material was not learned well enough in the first place.

<< Back to the top

A Realistic Attitude

Students with anxiety problems tend to exaggerate the importance of tests and underestimate their capabilities. We can change our emotional reactions by changing our attitudes. Negative, self-defeating, and irrational attitudes and thoughts must be replaced with rational attitudes.

Examples:

Irrational: I just know I'll do poorly on this test.

Rational: I've kept up with my homework; I should do as well as my classmates.

Irrational: I'm going to panic and forget everything.

Rational: I can manage my level of anxiety.

Irrational: If I fail this test I'll be out of the program.

Rational: This is just one test; I'll have other chances to demonstrate my competency.

To err is human. Learning is often a trial and error experience.

Four overlapping steps to change anxiety-producing attitudes to rational, constructive attitudes:

1. When you feel yourself becoming anxious, become aware of what is going through your mind. Often you will hardly be aware of these thoughts. What are the attitudes underlying these thoughts?

2. Look at the situation from a detached perspective. What is the objective reality? Reflect on some of the comments above. Come up with a concise statement of the rational attitude toward the situation.

3. When you find yourself anxious and/or thinking negative thoughts, push them from your mind and say to yourself, "That doesn't make sense." Then say the rational statement from step number 2. Repeat it as often as you feel you need to, and listen to what you are telling yourself.

4. Combine your attitude reprogramming with the anxiety management techniques described below.

<< Back to the top

1. Scheduling and Pacing

• A couple of weeks or so prior to midterms or final exams, sit down and schedule your time
• Allocate study time to your various subjects. This will ensure that each test gets an appropriate amount of study time and will give you a sense of being in control of the situation
• Get sufficient sleep and recreational time to keep fresh and let off steam
• The schedule is a means of forcing you to pace yourself and not get into a study frenzy
• No late night cramming the day before an exam. Lack of sleep and cramming will leave you feeling confused and unable to recall material

2. Attention Diversion Techniques

• Focus on your breathing.

  Stop thinking and become absorbed in the natural, rhythmic process of breathing. Make some effort to slow down your breathing by slowly and completely exhaling. Breathe deeply - from the stomach.

• Listen to restful music.

  Focus your complete attention on the music.

• Take a fantasy break.

  Imagine yourself in a pleasant situation, for example lying on a beach with the warm sun beating down on you.

<< Back to the top

3. Muscle Relaxation

A commonly recommended technique for anxiety control is muscle relaxation. The muscles of the body tend to tighten as anxiety increases. By relaxing the muscles we can reduce the anxiety. The relaxed state can be achieved by first tensing the muscles more than they already are, and then letting go of the tension. Tense each muscle group for five (5) seconds, relax for twenty-five (25) seconds and repeat. The following may be used as a guide for muscle relaxation while sitting in a chair with arms resting on the arms of the chair and legs uncrossed:

• Make a fist with your right and left hands and squeeze the fists lightly. Experience the muscle tension in the hands and forearms.
• Bend your arms at the elbows and harden the biceps muscles.
• Tense your shoulder and neck muscles by shrugging the shoulders. That is, bring your shoulders up toward your ears and hold the position.
• Pull your shoulders back and feel the tension between your shoulder blades and in your lower back.
• Squeeze your eyelids together and feel the rings of tension around the eyes.
• Bite your teeth together to tense the jaw muscles.
• Pull in your stomach to tense the abdominal muscles.
• Press your heels to the floor and feel the thigh muscles tighten.
• Lift your toes off the floor keeping your heels on the floor and experience the tension in the feet, ankles and calf muscles.

Relaxation is not something that is forced. It is achieved by a letting
go of the tension in the muscles

4. Exercise

• Schedule your regular exercise at a point in the day when anxiety or stress is likely to build to a high level.

<< Back to the top