Overcoming Test Anxiety

future challenges as much as I seek to overcome. Previously, I would stress about my school work, which would affect my motivation negatively. Exams have also given me a sense of anxiety every time I did them and sometimes my mind would almost blank out and put me in a difficult position. In addition, I was an adolescent who was awkward and in my previous educational settings. I also

Throughout my high school career, a huge education barrier I had to overcome was test anxiety. Every time I was about to take any kind of test, I always felt agitated. However, as I progressed in to higher grade levels, tests became tougher and weighed more. Test anxiety was a very frustrating obstacle because I always aimed for high grades and high test scores. I was always a perfectionist on the assigned work but when it came to the tests, I struggled, and my nervousness grew. After a few tests, I realized I had to come up with an answer to my problem.

One time I had to overcome adversity is when I had an AP bio test. This was the third or fourth big test we had taken in the class and the last test before the second quarter began. The week before the test I procrastinated studying until the very last night. The night before the test I knew I had to buckle down and study for at least a couple of hours.

I was recently diagnosed with anxiety that effects me during test taking. I have had anxiety attacks during tests and the high school and I took action to the issue. Since being diagnosed, my counselor has given me the access to take my tests in a separate room with silence so I can feel comfortable and score higher on my tests.

My palms are sweating, my mind is racing and my heart is skipping beats. Today is the big day! My whole life has been centered on this, it's do or die. As I stare at the clock, eight is approaching terribly slow. I hear each tick that sounds after a minute has passed. “Okay students, clear your desks and from this point on, no talking.” The instructor then hands out SAT direction packets and slowly reads them, dragging out each syllable. I zone out and begin to think to myself “what is my life going to be like after this test?” For this reason, I asked my counselor how to deal with test anxiety. Her advice was to write all of my fears on a piece of paper right before the test is administered then scribble it out. She also said to buy a bottle

Like many freshmen, when I started college I was not sure what I wanted to major in. Due to this uncertainty, I decided to take different types of classes to see what would interest me. The different classes taught me that, the more important the tests the more pressure I put on myself. This made test taking difficult. I realized that my test taking anxiety stems from a deep fear of failure. Through my years in college I have been trying to work on my test taking fears. In my first year of experimenting with classes, I received my first C because I did not work as hard as I should have. That is a mistake that I have never repeated since.  After this poor grade I decided it was time to select a field which I would enjoy. After researching different fields, I realized that Public health is an emerging field. I decided to take a few classes to see if I would enjoy it, and the rest is history. The field caught my attention because it is broad and it would give me the freedom to select any career I desire. Public health caught my attention is because it deals with prevention. I believe that public health professionals are about empowering individuals. If they lay out all the facts in front of individuals, they will be able to make the right decisions.

The failures and struggles that people go through during their lives are quite extensive. I have dealt with failure my whole life, but what people may not know about me is that I have test anxiety. In the spring of my third grade, I developed more quickly than my classmates along with the fact that the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests (ISATs) were going to start in the same month. It was during this time I realized there was an issue with how I behaved in situations that involved testing. I received help from my parents and therapists once it was discovered that I had test anxiety. Everyone worked with me to plan out different ways to study to help ease my anxiety, but I dealt with it in my own ways because I did not want to be put on any

Motivation can come from a variety of factors in an individual’s life, stress is one of those factors that can have either a positive or a negative effect (Deckers, 2014; Heiman, 2004). Stress can appear in an individual through physiological, psychological and behavioural symptoms (Deckers, 2014). Deckers (2014) conveys that when an individual has a physiological response to stress, it is the product of hormones creating the symptom in the body, for example, nausea or sweating. In addition the psychological symptoms representing stress are identified through the level of stability of an individual’s mind and feelings, and can be rated through measures of anxiousness, nervousness, self-confidence, irritability or negativity of emotions (Deckers, 2014). Behavioural symptoms of stress can be enacted out by an individual through excessive or dysfunctional conduct, for example, through an increase in consumption of alcohol or caffeine, an intake of drugs, or poor sleeping habits (Deckers, 2014). Although the symptoms mentioned have an attached negative stigma, it does not necessarily follow that all encounters with it will result in negativity. Deckers (2014) explains that stress can be a motivator to a goal: if a problem arises in the pursuit of the goal, stress can occur, then an individual could be encouraged to overcome the situation to achieve their goal through coping.

Imagine sitting in a small coffeehouse with a delicious coffee sitting close by, on a peaceful rainy day. This is the perfect time to stay inside and prepare for an upcoming exam. A large stack of color coded, handwritten note cards are filled with all the information discussed within the class, textbooks and notes are scattered. Hours go by, a great amount of studying and reviewing is done. The student continues to study for several days leading to the exam, but there is just one problem, this student suffers from test anxiety. Test anxiety can be defined as, “ an unpleasant feeling or emotional state that has a psychological and

Have you ever suffered from test anxiety? Once in my high school math class, I had a grumpy teacher that made me feel very anxious about my grade. When I had to take my final exam, I was so nervous that I fainted. The result was terrible. Test anxiety can be severe that students can fail not just a test, but the whole class. Maybe they have to retake a class and spend more time and money. Maybe they become discouraged and don’t want to continue. According to Sara Reardon in the article “Got Worries About a Test? Write them Off”, researchers have found that Writing about your feeling before a teat can significantly reduce test anxiety. This is a good thing it tries; however, everyone is different and there are several other strategies college students can use to reduce test anxiety.

As a transfer student, at the University of Florida, I began to see and understand a lot of things that were different from my previous institution. First, thing I realized I needed to do almost immediately was to speak to my professors, along with engaging and understanding a lot of things that were needed for the course to help me succeed in the course. My first semester was difficult but manageable, towards my second semester I began dealing with anxiety at a less manageable rate, and realized I needed help. Along with the help I’ve uncovered it only appeared, during testing weeks or whenever I was given an exams for the week. One thing I didn’t want to talk to my professors about is my anxiety when it came to taking test, and when I finally

In January of 2016, I received a formal diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder from my physician. When I returned to school for my second semester, I worked with my university’s counseling center to learn methods of coping with my anxiety. This venture was successful as can be seen in the continuing upward trend in my grades.

Numerous studies have been conducted in regards to test anxiety and performance that indicate a relationship between anxiety, preparation and test performance. One of the first indications to be successful when considering performance is to be equipped with knowledge. What is Test Anxiety? According to a DSM-5 review by Bo¨gels, Alden, Beidel, Clark Pine, Stein, and Voncken test anxiety is defined as an excessive degree of fear, worry, and apprehension before, during, and/or after test situations, with symptoms of physiological reactivity and concern regarding (the consequences of) poor performance. Is it a mental disorder? During the rewrite of the DSM-IV, test anxiety was taken for inclusion as a form of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Nevertheless, the decision was made not to include test anxiety alone inasmuch as it was hard to define and appeared to get too large a range of the population (up to 40%). Bogel et al. Granting to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th Ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2014) test anxiety is not identified as a disorder. However, it is identified as a sub category of social phobia in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

My test anxiety is strong. In certain situations, I feel like I cannot think, like my mind goes blank. The concept of taking a test is more challenging than actually taking the test. My test anxiety causes me to feel like I'm going to fail and that there is no chance that I will get a good grade no matter how hard I try. I tend to feel it the most when I meet big tests such as the SAT and AP exams. At times, some of the material that I’ve learned sticks and I could focus on that, however, most of time I forget what I learned and studied and it all goes blank. I also feel the butterflies in my stomach, my body beginning to shake, and worst of all, I feel like throwing up. Test anxiety caused me to doubt myself in general. To make matters worse, my school at times categorize tests as a big part of your grade and sometimes with that, my grades tend to drop. This has affected me as a student since it causes me to always doubt myself and have poor thoughts to what will happen and I envision bad

Test anxiety is a real and measureable problem student’s face regardless of their grade or level of academic achievement. Test anxiety can also adversely affect how students participate in and view the learning process long term. This study was designed to examine the effects of test anxiety on high school students specifically, and how the stress associated with the processes or outcomes of standardized testing can negatively impact their performance. There is also a theory that contributing factors of test anxiety can also impact social anxiety. The purpose of this study is to determine if students with determined higher levels of test anxiety perform lower overall on standardized