Test anxiety: How to manage it and benefit from it

Using tests and examinations to assess people’s abilities in a multitude of endeavours is as pervasive today as it was when I was growing up. In my own experience, I have had to perform on tests in elementary school, junior high school, high school as well as in undergraduate and graduate school at university. I had to succeed on both written and oral examinations to become registered as a psychologist. I have also had to take examinations in non-academic endeavours such as karate and piano.

Being able to succeed on these various tests and examinations has necessarily meant also being able to manage the anxiety which occurs before and during them. In the following sections, I will discuss various strategies which I have found effective in managing test anxiety for myself and with clients and which you can use in your life.

Normalize test anxiety

Test anxiety is less likely to be an issue if you normalize it. That is, recognize that anxiety is a response we all have built into us through evolution which is intended to help us deal with challenges, threats and dangers. You may have heard it referred to as our ‘fight or flight’ response. So whenever we have a challenge to face such as a test or an examination, we will necessarily have our anxiety response activated to help us deal with it.

If you accept anxiety as the body’s way of preparing you to face challenges, you are less likely to try to fight it. Fighting anxiety only makes it increase because you become anxious about having anxiety! On the other hand, if you accept anxiety as a response which is intended to help you face challenges such as tests, you will shift toward the much more achievable goal of managing it.

In turn, you can focus on managing test anxiety by reminding yourself that research indicates the best performances on tests and examinations as well as in other domains occur when the person has a moderate level of anxiety leading up to and during the performance. That is, you will perform at your best when you have a certain level of anxiety called the ‘optimal level’—not too low or too high, but just the right amount. Your task in managing test anxiety will be much easier if you focus on getting your anxiety level toward the optimal level by decreasing or increasing it as necessary.

Prepare by studying

A common reason for people’s level of test anxiety overshooting the optimal level is lack of preparation. If you fail to put in the work ahead of time toward preparation through studying, your anxiety levels leading up to and during the test will almost certainly be beyond the optimal level. Your body is telling you in these cases that you have genuine cause for concern because you are not equipped to face the challenge at hand.

The good news is that if you prepare effectively by studying ahead of the test, your anxiety levels leading up to and during the test will be much closer to your optimal level, thereby allowing you to channel your anxiety into a good test performance.

A final note on preparation: Proper preparation requires consistent time and effort in studying by using effective studying strategies. In studying for tests, this means studying daily in advance of the test day rather than ‘cramming’ the day before the test.

It also means using study methods which are conducive to remembering the material when you write the test. For example, you are more likely to remember material from a textbook or lecture notes if you read small passages of the material and practice recalling it in your own words to make it meaningful rather than reading an entire chapter or set of lecture notes without stopping.

Make a game plan

Having a plan for how you will proceed when the test begins will keep your anxiety at the optimal level. In contrast, not having a plan and ‘winging it’ is likely to lead your anxiety to increase to beyond the optimal level.

For example, when I wrote tests and examinations in high school, university and beyond, my plan entailed first scanning the questions and determining how many marks were assigned to each of them. I would then assign time blocks for each of the questions—with more time allotted to questions worth more marks—to ensure that I would have enough time to spend on each part of the test.

Executing my test plan next also entailed applying strategies designed to answer particular kinds of test questions effectively. For multiple choice questions, I would first read the question while covering the answer options and think of the answer before checking to see if it appeared among the options. For essay questions, I would first make an outline with notes to organize my answer before starting to write it.

Having a game plan for how to proceed with the test lowered my anxiety to a manageable level by allowing me to proceed systematically in a stepwise manner. Not having a plan makes it more likely you will ‘freeze’, rather than getting on with the task at hand, which will only serve to increase your anxiety beyond the optimal level.

Anticipate obstacles

Your test plan should also include a way to deal with obstacles you may encounter during the test. An excellent tool you can use for this purpose is the PR plan created by psychologist Dr. Kathleen Mooney. It is called the PR plan because the three steps in the tool all start with the letters ‘PR’—predict, prepare and practice.

First, make a list of obstacles which you predict may occur during the test. Next, prepare how you will cope effectively with each obstacle if you encounter it on the test. Finally, practice your coping strategies for each predicted obstacle so that you are ready to use these strategies if you need them.

For example, you might list as one of your predicted obstacles, ‘I won’t be able to think of the answer to a multiple-choice question’. Your prepared coping strategy to deal with this obstacle could be, ‘Put a tick beside the question and return to it after I’ve answered the questions for which I know the answers’. You could employ the third step in the PR plan for this example by using your coping strategies in practice tests which you take in advance of the actual test.

Practice performing under the conditions you will face on test day

Your level of anxiety is more likely to be near the optimal level if you’ve practiced writing tests under the conditions you will face on test day. So, if you will be writing a time-limited test in a room with many other students writing the same test, you should do time-limited practice tests with other students around you.

To simulate writing a test with other students writing around you, you could do a timed practice test in the school library while other students are working. If you have opportunities to do a time-limited practice test while other students are writing the same test, go for it!

Getting used to performing under these conditions in practice will give you confidence that you can perform under them on test day. In turn, this will help to lower your anxiety toward the optimal level.

This principle of performing in practice under the conditions you will face on test day is not limited to academic examinations. It also applies to sports and music. For example, I attend a music performance group regularly so that I get practice playing piano pieces in front of others. I joined this group so that I can better manage the anxiety which comes with performing a piece publicly such as at a recital or doing a piano examination with someone evaluating me.

Calm your body

When your anxiety increases beyond the optimal level before or during a test, there is a physical manifestation in the form of increased tension in your body. Reducing this tension with a relaxation response will help to reduce your anxiety toward the optimal level which will then allow you to execute your test plan effectively.

A quick and effective way to calm the tension in your body through relaxation is with the 6-2-7 breathing technique described by sports psychologist Jason Selk in his book Ten Minute Toughness. Using 6-2-7 breathing entails inhaling for six seconds, holing your breath for two more seconds and then slowly exhaling for seven additional seconds. Doing this 15-second relaxed breathing exercise once or twice will help you to calm your body to regain your composure and focus before and during a test.

Settle your mind

Negative thinking and self-talk during a test can cause your anxiety to go beyond the optimal level. This can disrupt your concentration and interfere with the execution of your test plan. These cognitive obstacles can be handled by anticipating the negative thoughts which are likely to enter your mind during a test and preparing assertive responses to them in the form of positive thinking and self-talk.

For example, realizing that you are not confident in being able to answer a particular essay question well may lead you to have a negative thought like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going go blow the whole test’. You  could respond to this negative thought with an alternative positive thought such as, ‘Although I’m less confident in answering this question, I should still do very well if I answer the other questions which I am confident in. If I answer those ones first and come back to this one later, I may be able to think through my answer to this one so I can get some points for it’.

Negative self-talk might also be triggered by noticing the apparently daunting task of answering a lot of questions once the test starts. You might think as a result, ‘There are so many questions. I’ll never get through them all in the time limit’ which you could respond to with, ‘If I execute my plan of allotting specific time limits for each question followed by making outlines and then writing, I should have ample time to write proper answers for each question.’

Practicing the strategies discussed in this article will help you not only to manage your test anxiety but even benefit from it. It may be helpful to get some direction on how to use these strategies from a psychologist.

May you use strategies which help you to manage and benefit from test anxiety,

Dr. Pat