Test Anxiety

Most students experience some degree of anxiety around the testing process. This is quite natural and appropriate. You'd be hard pressed to find a student out of medical school prepping for the medical boards, or a lawyer out of law school prepping for the bar exam who is totally stress and anxiety free. These tests are really big ones, and everyone feels some anxiety, knowing that they have an impact on their lives.

Some anxiety is useful to get you motivated to work and prepare, but some people experience excessive, negative amounts of anxiety around taking tests. For some people thinking about the SAT can create a sense of anxiety: the fear of not doing well, the fear of running out of time. The fear of not getting into college and having to live with your parents forever. (Yikes!)

So some anxiety can be a positive. When it becomes dominant, however, anxiety ceases to be useful and can inhibit performance. If this happens to you, there are ways you can learn to regulate your emotions, find a way to harness the mental energy, and use it to your advantage on the test.

Symptoms of Test Anxiety

  • Muscles tense
  • Heartbeat changes
  • Breathing becomes erratic
  • Become distracted
  • Lose focus

Mentally Combating Anxiety

  • Address the anxiety. Don't ignore it. First off you have to ask yourself. "Self, does it really make sense for us to be so anxious? Have we prepared for this test? Have we put time in and worked consistently? Are we grasping the key concepts and the vocabulary?" If the answer to the last three questions is even a hesitant yes, then it doesn't make sense for you to be anxious. Your level of anxiety is not justified. It is possible to reason with yourself. Use logic to temper some of the emotion - to decrease the fear you are feeling.
  • Respond to the voices in (and outside) your head. Most of us at some time will hear the voices of anxiety from within and from without. When they are coming from within you, I find it useful to imagine them as the little cartoon figures that sit on either side of your shoulders. Some of you have other creatures that can cause anxiety - they are normally referred to as parents/friends. You need to be able to cultivate a response to these voices. You don't need to vocalize anything, but you need to have some internal messages and reasoning to help neutralize the voices. Something along the lines of, "Hey, I am ready for this; I'm prepared to do very well."
  • Keep perspective. Many people blow up the SAT to mythological proportions and cannot approach it from the ground level. In all honesty, the test is just a few hours out of your life, just one Saturday morning. People who keep things at this level do better on the test. Keep the SAT in perspective. Don't invest this test with some magical power. Don't make it bigger than it actually is. A useful metaphor is the experience of walking on a beam of wood that's 6 inches above the ground, versus walking on a beam that's 10 stories off the ground between 2 buildings. The task is the same - the same exact motor skills and steps, but the mind makes one experience much more challenging. The key is to bring the beam back down. Bring the tests back to the earth. Don't make it a life or death situation.

Physically Combating Anxiety

For some folks, the mental route is not as effective in dealing with anxiety as is focusing on the body. When anxiety comes on, you can make physical changes in yourself to help to shut off its circuits. Consciously change the way you breathe.

  • Practice taking deep breaths. Deep breaths are rooted in your diaphragm rather than up in your chest. When you breathe deeply - your shoulders shouldn't rise (like Cheerleaders going, "Ready! OK!"). Rather your stomach should go out- more like Buddha. When you breathe deeply, the pacing matters as well. Count to 3 during the inhale, pause at the peak of the breath, and count to 3 during the exhale - this automatically relaxes your entire system.
  • Practice breathing and counting backwards. Here is a useful exercise that I do before taking tests. Count backwards in your head from 10 to 1 breathing slowly and deeply. 10....9...8....7..... breathing deeply from your diaphragm at each count. I imagine myself become more and more relaxed with every breath and every count. This is hugely relaxing. If you do it right before the test, you'll start centered and ready to do well.
  • Sigh deeply. This is a good way to let go of stress and tension.
  • Tense your muscles and then relax them. This serves as another good release.
  • Use a trigger to create relaxation. This approach creates a mental link between a simple physical movement, and a state of mental relaxation. You are in effect, conditioning yourself to relax when you do a certain action or movement.
    1. First off you must choose a physical trigger, a few options:
      • Squeezing three fingers together three times
      • Tapping your knee slowly three times with your right hand
      • Putting one hand on top of the other
    2. Second you must get into a state of relaxation
      • Take 3 deep breaths
      • Feel your body becoming a little looser
      • Close your eyes
      • Take 3 more deep breaths using the 3 count - Breathe In, Hold, Breathe Out
    3. Perform your chosen trigger in this relaxed state, and create a mental association with this motion and relaxation. You will need to do this a few times to create a stronger association.
    4. During the test, whenever you feel anxiety coming on, you will perform your physical trigger, remembering back to the relaxed state. You will take a few deep breaths, and you will consciously begin to relax.
  • Use key phrases to relax. Some people begin to tense when they hear certain phrases:

    "Open your test booklets to page __"

    "Ready, Begin"

    "You have 5 minutes left"

    The 5 minute mark can be really stressful for some people. What you can do is begin to create a positive, relaxing association with the words. You can practice. You have to imagine a test-proctor saying, "You have 5 minutes, left." Then take a deep breath and see yourself relaxing. Make this phrase a relaxing phrase. During the test, I often advise people to put their pencils down when they hear the phrases, "ready, begin" or "you have 5-minutes." I ask them to take 2-3 deep breaths, recenter, and then go back to the test.

  • Use your imagination. Your imagination can be your greatest ally or your greatest obstacle on the SAT. So much of your performance depends on your imagination. If you cannot imagine yourself doing well, if you really believe you are going to do poorly...guess what.... You are going to do poorly. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I've seen this many times.