Overcoming test anxiety.
Just Add One More Thing To Adolescence
Teenagers have a right to be angsty. They are having hormone surges they can’t control, breaking out and growing hair in strange places, their voices and bodies are changing and they have to follow the directions of parents, teachers, coaches, and every other adult on the planet.
Now…let’s test them on material they are not comfortable with.
It’s a recipe for disaster, and we need to own our responsibility in the fast-growing trend of intense test anxiety that is plaguing our children.
Then…in our CTSOs…we go one step further and make it a competition. Yikes.
Test Anxiety Is Completely Normal, Start Overcoming
The first, and most important thing, that we need to express to our students is that having test anxiety is completely normal. What I tell my students about their classes and especially about competing in FBLA and DECA is that anything that truly matters to you will make you nervous. You want to be successful, so there is definitely going to be some stress and anxiety about your performance.
Once students are reassured that having testing anxiety is normal and to be expected, they will be in a better position and stronger mind-space to confront their anxieties and overcome the potentially negative effects.
Common Symptoms
While each child is different and unique, there absolutely are common symptoms related to test anxiety that you can watch for in your students in order to start overcoming. For those students who experience different symptoms, your knowledge of your students and the strong relationships you have built will alert you to their changing anxiety levels.
Physical
While the extreme physical symptoms would be a full-blown panic attack, most teenagers will demonstrate symptoms that are far less frightening and intense. Some of the physical symptoms mirror illness, including nausea, headaches and excessive sweating. Their heart may race, or they may have digestive issues, as well, while experiencing test anxiety.
Emotional
The emotional symptoms might be harder to discern in teens, since they are relatively “silent” symptoms. Students might feel helpless or out of control, and feelings of stress or negativity might start to invade their minds. For some students, they may go completely blank, or be unable to stop racing thoughts.
Behavioral
In this arena, students may have difficulty concentrating or sitting still during the test. Procrastination is a very common behavioral symptom, with students employing many different reasons to put off the actual test. Coupled with negative thoughts and comparing themselves to others make these symptoms quite devastating.
Why is test anxiety so debilitating?
Seeing students who suffer from test anxiety, or any performance anxiety, is very troubling as a teacher. Whether it is a kid whose headaches develop as soon as you place the test in front of her, or the student who freezes completely during an oral presentation, dealing with these intense, public problems can increase their frequency if mishandled. Let’s look at some root causes to try to figure out a way to support our students.
Fear of failure
Self-esteem is already a powder keg for our teenagers, and the overwhelming concept of failing can push even the most self-confident students over the cliff. Not only are they concerned for themselves, but there is that feeling of letting people down. I’ve had students come out of competitions apologizing to me, because they believed I would think less of them. Nobody likes to fail, and nobody ever sets out to fail, but it is definitely an important part of growing and learning that students need to learn to embrace.
Pressure to perform
I’ve seen grown adults who can’t speak in front of the smallest of crowds, so it makes perfect sense for teenagers to feel intense pressure to perform. It is a sad and frightening thing to watch when a teenager gets up in front of the room, only to completely freeze and be unable to perform.
They didn’t prepare for the test
Probably the most common reason for test anxiety—and the easiest to solve—is to have students prepare to the best of their ability in advance of a test or performance. We have learned that the more practice sessions we employ before state competition, the better the student will ultimately perform. It doesn’t matter the subject matter or type of competition, simply the act of running through the eventuality will help your students.
How can you help start overcoming test anxiety?
We’ve all seen it, in our classrooms and in competitions. It makes us feel so helpless to be unable to help students at the time. That is why our help needs to come into play well before the test or competition date. At the time of the actual test, we can’t do much to help or support our students, which is why preparation is the ultimate key to minimizing test anxiety.
Talk through the material
As I mentioned about state conference preparation, we talk through the entire process with students. From checking in with the proctor to introducing yourself to the judge, we practice and visualize every step, to help make students more comfortable in advance. For objective tests, having the students talk through the material in advance will be extremely helpful. Preparing for that test requires us to engage different modes of learning, in an effort to allay fears and anxiety.
Study well in advance to avoid cramming
Teenagers don’t get enough sleep. We all know that. Part of what they are doing late at night is cramming for whatever is happening tomorrow. We need to help them plan on a much larger calendar. Cramming the night before a test will do very little to improve their overall score, whereas reviewing information for ten minutes per night in the week prior to the test has proven to be quite successful. Cramming itself is stressful, adding to the entire negative environment students are creating for themselves.
Find out about supports in advance
It is our responsibility to give our students as many different outlets and supports as we possibly can, and the same is true about minimizing test anxiety. Giving students practice tests in advance, or having them perform in front of one or two people at a time, are great ways to get them to be more comfortable with the material and the idea of performing.
Having a self-care routine
Excellent advice for every teenager—and teacher for that matter—we need to encourage our students to create and practice a self-care routine that will help them manage their stress and test anxiety. When students develop a reassuring, comfortable set of steps in advance of something that used to stress them out, they will begin to rely on these routines and allow themselves to be self-soothed.
What happens when they freeze?
Let me tell you about one of my favorite overcoming performance/test anxiety stories. While it does have a happy ending, it is traumatizing and devastating at the time. It’s a perfect example for test anxiety overcome with time and hard work.
During his junior year, one of my most confident, intelligent students decided to do a Public Speaking event for FBLA state competition. He wrote his five-minute speech well in advance, and practiced pieces of it with me, and in front of the entire chapter. The final product, however, was memorized on the nine-hour bus ride to northern Nevada for the competition. It wasn’t ideal, but he was a charismatic, confident dude, and I had no concerns about him being at least moderately successful.
An open event, we had students go into the room to watch him give his speech. So they saw it all happen in real time. He introduced himself to the judges as expected quite professionally, but when it was time to start his speech, he froze completely.
He just stood there. Mouth agape. Deer in the headlights.
He finally muttered “I’m sorry” and ran from the room. The kids came to find me, and I went to find him. I guided him to a quiet corner, where he sunk into the corner crying. He couldn’t explain what happened, and was devastated that he lost his opportunity to move on to national competition.
I consoled him, but he was right: He wasn’t going to nationals. When he calmed down, he admitted he hadn’t prepared as fully as he could have, and standing up front staring at the judges he just froze. It was the first time that had ever happened to him, and he was devastated.
His senior year, he entered the same event. We called it his “Revenge competition”. Yes, he prepared quite differently, taking his time and working up to the entire five-minute speech. He won, of course, and went on to nationals with pride.
He wasn’t even sad about junior year anymore. He recognized that it was the greatest lesson he could have learned about preparation, and he was glad he learned it at 16 instead of 30.
Death And Taxes…Everything Else Is Negotiable
The story of my student from a few years ago brings up the single most important thing we need to teach our young people: There is always an alternative. Very few things in this world are non-negotiable.
Once they embrace this thought, it will start to naturally relax them and hopefully minimize the test and performance anxiety they are suffering with. Through the strong relationship they have built with you as their teacher and mentor, and the natural process of growing and maturing, our students will be prepared to face anything life throws at them.
It isn’t the end of the world no matter what. No matter how it feels at the time.
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR!!!
Wow, thank you for reading about overcoming test anxiety!
Hey, since you’re here! You may as well check out what it’s like to attend conference, here, and learn about DEI in CTSOs, here! Check out our other topics here! Either way, I appreciate you!
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Resources
https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/test-anxiety.html
https://www.understood.org/en/articles/test-anxiety-tips-high-schoolers