1. Test Anxiety isn’t real. Students just want to get out of exams
FALSE: Of all the myths about Test Anxiety, this is by far the most damaging. While there are students out there who may fake a stomach bug to get out of the Presidential Fitness test in Gym or to post-pone that Biology quiz, students with Test Anxiety are far from faking.
Test Anxiety is a psychological condition which causes people to experience extreme distress and anxiety in testing situations. While most people will admit to some normal feelings of stress or anxiety, Test Anxiety is actually debilitating and can impair a student’s ability to learn or perform on an exam. While slight nervousness is normal and manageable, Test Anxiety takes the form of excessive fear, complete inability to concentrate and issues with memory and recall. Test anxiety can also manifest in several somatic ways, from racing heartbeat and shakes to being nauseated, feeling shortness of breath and in some cases lend itself to a full blown panic attack.
Common Symptoms of Test Anxiety:
- Racing Thoughts, Inability to Recall, Lack of Comprehension both Oral and Written, and Avoidance of all things subject or exam related.
- Sweating, Shaking, Fidgeting, Rapid Heart Beat, Dry Mouth, Fainting (feeling light headed, dizzy) and nausea. Most often it can manifest as a horrible stomachache where the student becomes extremely ill.
- Negative Self-Talk, Depression, Low Self-Esteem, Anger and a feeling of being “lost” or “hopeless”. Students are usually very discouraged and feel that there is nothing they can do to help improve their situation.
2. Only students who are struggling with school in general have Test Anxiety
FALSE: Unfortunately, Test Anxiety does not discriminate and can have an effect on even the top performers in a classroom. Most students have strong subjects and weak subjects and often the disparity in their performances from class to class can create an anxiety and pressure filled situation.
Students who are consistent top performers may place even more pressure on themselves to attain perfect scores, and when they don’t often become the harshest self-critics. This cycle of negative self-talk and perceived lack of room for error can lead many students to become depressed, as they start to view themselves as “failures”.
Students regardless of intellect will often begin to catastrophize, construing their inability to get an “A” in math class to mean that they will never graduate high school, never get into the college of their choice and never have a fulfilling career. The same student, who barely breaks a sweat over their English Regents, may start experiencing Test Anxiety symptoms when sitting for a trigonometry chapter test.
3. Test Anxiety only applies to Standardized Tests or Finals
FALSE: A student can experience Test Anxiety in any variety of academic situations. Whenever a student feels that they are expected to perform in a pressured situation. As Test Anxiety is the little brother to Social Anxiety; pitching a no hitter in a gym class baseball game can bring on the same effects as pop quiz in a science class or a trumpet solo in band. It is more about the components of the even itself that trigger the cascade of reaction.
4. Test Anxiety stops once you graduate High School
FALSE: Test Anxiety is not something that a person ages out of! It is definitely a serious cognitive and physical condition that requires specialized techniques and interventions in order to overcome. The same student who experiences Test Anxiety in grade school will experience it in college and in their future careers. The earlier a person can be taught how to properly manage their test anxiety the better the chances are of improvement of functioning.
5. Test Anxiety can only be addressed in Therapy
FALSE: While in more severe cases it may be advisable to seek out professional therapeutic help. In most cases of Test Anxiety; Teachers, Tutors, Parents, and Students can work together to help alleviate the symptoms. By creating awareness of basic intervention techniques, educators and parents can take a very active role in helping the student overcome their Test Anxiety. Through consistent application of behavior and thought modifications at home and in school, positive results can be achieved!
Tiffany Joy Vaglica, MA MHC is a Mental Health Counselor. In addition to being an Associate Tutor at Curvebreakers Test Prep, she is a practicing therapist and clinical researcher, who has experience working with stress management and test/performance anxiety issues.