Test Anxiety and how to cope with it

During exams, do you feel like you ‘go blank? Become frustrated? feel like giving up? Feel claustrophobic? Suddenly remember all the answers when you turn your test in? have distracting thoughts about failure or poor performance? If any of these answers are yes, then this post is the one for you! And even if the answers are no, i hope this is an informative post and would help you help anyone around you with Academic or Test anxiety. (I know theres a self help guide on this, but I just thought itll be a nice idea to have one detailed post on this)

After having spent time in the group support rooms and over the 1-on-1 chats, I think a lot of us go through Academic or Test anxiety.

What is test anxiety?

Test anxiety is a psychological condition in which people experience extreme distress and anxiety in testing situations.While many people experience some degree of stress and anxiety before and during exams, test anxiety can actually impair learning and hurt test performance. It is basically a type of performance anxiety, which usually happens when there is a high amount of pressure and the result really matters. However, is it uncommon? No, in fact, Id actually say its quite uncommon to find someone who isnt scared or feels a tad bit of anxiety when they give an important test/exam.

What are the common symptoms of test anxiety?

Just like any other form of anxiety, test anxiety can display a variety of symptoms in the student, with differing degree of intensity:

⭐ Physical symptoms of test anxiety include sweating, shaking, rapid heart beat, dry mouth, fainting and nausea. Milder cases of test anxiety can cause a sense of "butterflies" in the stomach, while more severe cases can actually cause students to become physically ill.

⭐ Cognitive and behavioral symptoms can include fidgeting or outright avoidance of testing situations. In some cases, test anxiety can become so severe that students will drop out of school in order to avoid the source of their fear. Substance abuse can also occur, since many students attempt to self-treat their anxiety by taking "downers" such as prescription medications and alcohol. Many people with test anxiety report "blanking out" answers to the test, even though they thoroughly studied the information and were sure that they know the answers to the questions. Negative self-talk, trouble concentrating on the test and racing thoughts are also common cognitive symptoms of test anxiety.

⭐ Emotional symptoms of test anxiety can include depression, low self-esteem, anger and a feeling of hopelessness. Students often feel helpless to change their situation, or belittle and berate themselves about their symptoms and poor test performance.

What causes test anxiety?

Like general anxiety, test anxiety can be caused by multiple reasons, which can be broadly classified into two:

⭐ Biological causes:
In stressful situations, such as before and during an exam, the body releases a hormone called adrenaline. This helps prepare the body to deal with what is about to happen and is commonly referred to as the "fight-or-flight" response. Essentially, this response prepares you to either stay and deal with the stress or escape the situation entirely. In a lot of cases, this adrenaline rush is actually a good thing. It helps prepare you to deal effectively with stressful situations, ensuring that you are alert and ready.

⭐ Mental causes:
Student expectations are one major mental factor. For example, if a student believes that she will perform poorly on an exam, she is far more likely to become anxious before and during a test.

Test anxiety can also become a vicious cycle. After experiencing anxiety during one exam, students may become so fearful about it happening again that they actually become even more anxious during the next exam. After repeatedly enduring test anxiety, students may begin to feel helpless to change their situation.

What can you do?

⭐ Realistic thinking:

Realistic thinking means looking at all aspects of a situation (the positive, the negative and the neutral) before making conclusions. In other words, realistic thinking means looking at yourself, others, and the world in a balanced and fair way.

Heres a short list I found on the internet of the anxiety traps:

So how can you escape these traps? Challenge them.
⭐ Am I basing my judgment on what I feel instead of the facts?

I might feel like Im going to fail, but there is no evidence to support it. Im prepared for the test, and I have passed other tests at school before.

⭐Whats the worst that could happen? Would I cope?

Well I could fail. Itll be sad and disheartening but its not the end of the world. Ill seek extra help and perhaps do much better.

⭐Am I sure Ill fail?

Not really.. but I could!

Realistic thinking and realising that youre falling into a trap is a really good way to climb out of it. We all know that realising that you have a problem is the first stage to getting your problem fixed and hence, perhaps knowing that youre falling into a trap is the way to combat it. Some good tips for realistic thinking could include positive self-statements like yes, i can do this! or coping statements like If i feel anxious, Ill try some breathing exercises or even balanced statements theres a chance I might fail the test tomorrow but that doesnt mean ill fail the class, Ive done this before!

Some really good ways to combat physical tension could also be:

⭐Breathing exercises

Focal breathing can be really calming and help you get rid of all the thoughts for a few minutes, giving you a clear thought process. This basically includes counting as far as you can while you breathe in slowly, and trying to breathe out even slower, perhaps counting a bit longer than you did when you breathed in. This helps alleviate stress which can result as a lack of oxygen.

There are several other breathing exercises that you could perhaps try, even those that are included in Yoga!

⭐ Body check

Sometimes we have a lot of pent up tension in our body muscles that makes us stiff and even more anxious. A good idea in such situations is to close your eyes while sitting in a comfortable place. In that moment, try to focus on your muscles where you feel the tension and calmly tell your muscles to relax. You can do this with your feet muscles, arms, lower back etc. Again, a super slow process.

⭐ Visualising

Its also called the blow-up technique. For instance, when you feel as if youre embarrassed to the point of blushing, take that self-image a step further and picture your face turning redder and redder to where its becoming so bright a red the feeling is as if the blood in your face is escaping on your cheeks. Or similarly with perspiring ... to the point of sweating measurable amount of fluids. The whole point here is that as one gets to where they can see the utterly ridiculous extremes, the effect it to lower the anxiety level to a realistic perception.

These are only some ways you could try combat test anxiety, and perhaps in turn improve your performance. Not only for tests, but this technique could be used even for interviews and other sort of meetings where you feel nervous before doing them or meeting someone. (thank you @SipOfMindfulness for suggesting this! :) ) Having experienced it a lot, please feel free to send me a message if you'd like to talk more about this. :)

I hope the above post was informative and helpful in some way for all of you who experience test anxiety. :)