Coping With Test Anxiety

Hi, I am Rita Klein.  I’m a Psychologist at the Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech.  I’d like to talk to you about test anxiety. 

What is test anxiety? 
Most students experience some anxiety related to testing situations.  This is a normal response to a stressful situation and may even be beneficial in that it may help to keep you alert during a test.  Test anxiety involves cognitive concern over performance, also called worry, or attention to the physiological arousal reactions that we all experience in a stressful situation.  These include an increased heart rate, sweaty palms, an ache in the stomach or dryness of the mouth.  This may cause difficulty calling forth knowledge during the test.  If your attention is focused on the consequences of failing or on your bodily sensations, it may be difficult to recall information on the test. 

What can you do about test anxiety? 
The most important thing that you can do is to be prepared.  Procedures aimed at decreasing test anxiety won’t help you if you do not know the information on the test.  This may mean that you need to increase your study time or it may mean that you need to change the way you study for tests.  Virginia Tech students can attend the study skills workshops that we offer at the Cook Counseling Center during the semester.  Another thing that may be helpful if you are experiencing test anxiety during a test is to take some deep breaths.  This will help to change what you are focusing on and decrease your arousal during the test.  In addition, some people find the use of imagery, closing your eyes and thinking about a relaxing scene, to be helpful as well.   This will also help you to change what you are focusing on and decrease your autonomic arousal.   Don’t forget, it is perfectly normal to experience some anxiety in a testing situation.   It probably won’t interfere with your performance.  It would be unrealistic to expect to get rid of all the anxiety.   If your mind wanders during a test, you may want to remind yourself to attend to the information on the test.   Research shows that people who have test anxiety tend to say more negative things to themselves during a test.   People who don’t have test anxiety tend to say more positive and more helpful things to themselves during a test.   You may need to change what you say to yourself during the test.   You may need to change those negative self-statements to more positive and more helpful self-statements.   You can use your breathing or your imagery to shut off the negative self-statements and then change over to more positive and helpful ones.   Don’t treat the test as a catastrophe.   It is only one test.  It won’t have a dramatic effect on your life.  You will always have another chance if you don’t do well on any one test.  You will take well over 100 tests while you are in college and any one test is not that important. 

If you feel like you have test anxiety and you are a Virginia Tech student you can attend our Coping with Test Anxiety Workshop that is offered at the Cook Counseling Center throughout the semester.  You can also make an appointment with a counselor to meet individually.     

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