Personal Experience With Anxiety During Test Taking

In every school and in every grade, there are students struggling with test anxiety. Majority of schools require their students to pass a certain number of standardized tests to pass that grade or a certain amount before they can graduate high school. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires states to administer state assessments (“Opt Out Info”). Test anxiety is a problem in all schools, and needs to be taken in consideration, by decreasing the pressure on students, especially those who suffer from test anxiety. But how can we do that, and what can parents and teachers do to help?

Imagine being able to sit down for a test without feeling anxious. When you suffer from test anxiety, a simple exam can cause you to experience physical discomfort and overwhelming nervousness. Although it is normal to feel slightly nervous before a test, a physical and anxious reaction to taking an exam is not normal.

Anxiety is a disorder that many people face daily. While some people might know how to deal with their anxiety, many people do not even know that they are being affected by this troublesome disorder. Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Anxiety has taken its toll on me throughout my lifetime, and I was completely unaware until I was able to put a word to the feelings I had. Impacting school life, work life, and personal life anxiety is no easy task to face. Anxiety has the ability to turn confidence into fear and has a great mental impact on the person affected. Anxiety, to me, is being in a constant state of fear or worry; no matter the situation.

Test anxiety is a fairly common phenomenon in educational culture today. Research has been completed on different facets of anxiety from developing learned behavior through primary education structure to an increase in somaticized symptoms in the college setting. Many research articles discussed quantitative results and few I found truly focused on the qualitative thoughts and emotions of the students effected the most. My proposal aims to investigate the thoughts, emotions, and future behaviors of those suffering from the anxiety that plagues college students daily, especially during finals and other high-stakes testing.

Test anxiety is defined as "A fear of failing that you feel before or while taking an important examination, that prevents you from performing as well as you otherwise could on the exam," according to yourdictionary.com. The website mentalhelathy.com, a survey conducted by ChildLine states that 96% of the students surveyed felt anxious or pressured, skipped meals, had problems sleeping , and 14% even drank alcohol because of standardized testing. This is in no way healthy for students. This stress can cause students to perfom poorly on a tes that they know the material for. If students experience test anxiety on a test that determines whether they graduate or move on to the next grade, then the chances of them passing are significantly

- Exercise can be another great way to beat test anxiety. Getting your heartbeat up and sweating can be good for helping you to focus.

Anxiety is a very common disorder when it comes to students in school. There are various types of anxiety, one common example is test taking anxiety. Test taking anxiety is a nervous feeling that students have while taking a test, and sometimes before or after taking the exam. This makes it impossible for students to do their best and to show their knowledge. When students are under stress it causes them to have physical symptoms, such as sweating or rapid breathing. Students who aren't prepared for tests, but care about doing well are also likely to have test anxiety before taking any type of test. Supporters argue standardized tests effectively measure student achievement, and opponents argue that tests are good for measuring students’ performances.

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

During an interview, I am always a little nervous because interviewers never ask the same questions as other interviewers. The one question I was asked time during an interview that I fear will be asked again is “On average, how many days do you call into work to say you are not coming in?” This question was and still is a little tricky to me. You have to consider that you might get sick once or twice a year. If you have children, they might get sick and need you to stay home and take care of them. So, what would be a reasonable answer to this question? When I was asked this question, I answered: “maybe between three and five days”. My interviewer looked at me with a surprised look. I didn’t get the job, and I wonder if this was the reason.

Liem, Gregory Arief, D. (2015). School based intervention for test anxiety. Child and youth care forum, 45(1), 1-17.

Addressing the issue of test anxiety with school students is crucial. Test anxiety is defined as feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with the ability to communicate what one knows in a test situation. It can lead to school failure, poor self-esteem, and stress related physical ailments. Although it is natural to experience some degree of distress while being evaluated, some students ' previous negative experiences greatly effect their reaction to a testing experience. With the increase of testing in our schools, school counselors need to recognize the role test anxiety plays in student performance and help to implement effective strategies to assist students. It seems possible to do this through cognitive and theory, which will be discussed later in this paper. There are many effective strategies that teachers can implement to assist test anxious students. Teachers can employ formative factors, habitual prudence, purposeful learning experiences, and test-wise guidelines. Ascertaining test anxiety involves becoming more aware of the types of students with test anxiety so that they can develop, modify, and implement new repertoires in their assessment procedures. Using more formative factors in their assessment procedures lessens anxiety levels and enhances the instructional process. Finally, when teachers provide purposeful learning experiences and test-wise guidelines students are able to obtain maximum performance. Relaxation techniques and systematic

In my opinion all this testing causes anxiety; I know for a fact it does. I have dealt with anxiety since the age of 8. It is never fun dealing with it. Said by the Florida State department “This testing is to get you college ready.” I personally don’t believe that it is making you college ready it is just putting stress and anxiety on you. It makes you think this test will define your whole college career that causes a lot of stress on many students. I think that shouldn’t be said during your high school career you suddenly think it’s all about the testing.Did you know that there are different requirements for each grade level? I don’t agree with that at all! I think that the requirements should be the same for each level. According to my

Test anxiety is undoubtedly a serious problem that many college students experience. Luckily, there are many tools and tips that students can utilize to overcome test anxiety. Being aware of what the test covers before preparing for it—knowing what chapters the exam will cover—is an excellent method to help ease test anxiety. A student can accomplish this by knowing what chapters will be covered on the test. Another way that students can overcome test anxiety is by having everything prepared for test day the night before. This can include laying out clothes and ensuring all testing materials are in one's

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).

Tet anxiety is a very common thing among American students, especially for those whore are in higher education. This type of anxiety causes psychological tension that students experience before taking test. In the moment of test anxiety students have a strong feelings of failure that is followed by panic and stress pressure. Apparently many studies have showed that test anxiety often causes students to perform worse on the exam. "Test anxiety: Why it is increasing and 3 ways to curb it" by Valerie Strauss and " Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and College Exam Grades" by Jennifer Barrows, Samantha Dunn, Carrie A. Lloyd are popular and scholarly articles that discuss test anxiety in US higher education and how it disadvantages students.