Test Anxiety

Students approach tests in a variety of ways.  Some people are prepared and confident; others are unprepared and overconfident.  Some students work very hard to prepare and are anxious about taking exams.  There are quite a few reasons for test anxiety.  But the root of most forms of anxiety is fear, in this case fear of failure.  It is this kind of student, she/he who works hard to prepare and has trouble overcoming anxiety, for which this post is intended. 

Test anxiety rarely occurs for students who do not care about the subject matter.  It usually comes after substantial effort toward studying with the apprehension that one does not really understand the material.  I have a couple of tips for the student who is experiencing this kind of trouble.

Prepare differently, not more.  If a student is anxious because she/he feels uncomfortable with the material even after a lot of studying it could be that changes need to be made in terms how study time is spent.  The student might find out that he/she has not spent enough time preparing, but more important could be the discovery that aspects of his/her preparation may be inefficient.  The clearest-cut means of increasing efficiency is to develop a study plan and to stick with it.  To maximize efficiency the student must devote scheduled, regular time to studying.  Last week, I challenged the students in my statistics class to devote one hour per day for the next month to studying the course materials, by themselves.  What this means is they must schedule time that is entirely dedicated to pouring over course material.  If a student studied for her/his final exam just one hour per day for a month, thirty hours of efficient studying would accrue prior to the test.  I asked them to compare that plan to cramming during the last two days prior to the exam.  The two allocations of thirty hours differ greatly. 

Studying along the way has numerous advantages.  1) A person automatically spends more time with the material.  2) One becomes aware of weaknesses early enough to ask questions and to fill in gaps.  3) Like it or not, spending time on something leads to liking it, and respect for the material makes learning easier.  4) Review is actually review instead of panicked learning.  Most important though is that the student has time to make sure he/she is prepared, and if she/he feels unprepared on a particular topic, there is enough time to make corrections.  Being familiar with the material and feeling prepared reduces test anxiety.  Lowering test anxiety helps test performance. 

The second tip is to spend a lot of time working on your class notebook.  Note-taking is often looked at as a chore today.  But consider that more brain power is used when thinking and writing occurs together, which amounts to practice with the material.  I recommend recopying one’s notes so that a neat, clean, well-stated copy is available for review.  Recopying notes allows one to create his/her personal record of the class and its material.  It also amounts to intense scrutiny, and if a student does it on a regular basis they will remember what comments the professor made.  Also, exams require thinking, formulating an answer, and expressing it in written form (usually); so does the creation of good notes.  That is, recopying notes can be good practice for tests, and practice with the material reduces anxiety.

Overcoming anxiety to become a better test taker requires self awareness, which is an ongoing process.  To strengthen one’s study skills, requires that one know their weaknesses.  Improvement will, thus, require hard work; the student might be derailed if she/he raises her/his expectations too high, too fast.  Seek improvement, not perfection.  However, do not lower expectations; simply work hard to develop study skills to the point that one is prepared to meet expectations.  This will reduce test anxiety.

To summarize, the best cure for test anxiety is to be prepared and to know it.  Without preparation students should not feel confident; without knowing the material, students will feel overconfident.  From time to time, no matter how well-prepared a student is there will be questions that challenge and/or stump them.  A well-prepared student will be better off in this situation.  In addition, life happens, and it may be that other stressful events occur around the time of an exam.  I have witnessed some well-prepared students use their course material as an escape from life's other challenges.  “Luck favors the prepared…”