You know the feeling like the back of your hand: sweaty palms, nervous stomach, and the center focus on the exam sitting right in front of you. Your brain is scrambled on every section of the test. You glance at the clock every minute to remind yourself that you’re still falling behind.
When what felt like an eternity has finished, you feel awful. You know that you knew more than what you remembered and you begin to wonder what studying was even for in the first place.
Why do we get test anxiety and how can we approach exams in a healthier way?
Lots and lots of students experience test anxiety when exam day comes around. Research says that this anxiety takes up working memory capacity and fills it with distracting thoughts.
This would explain why we tend to forget what we had studied previous to the exam and hence, why we perform so poorly with test anxiety.
So let’s figure out how to beat back the hazy side effects of test anxiety and how to approach exams in a more confident manner.
How to Combat Test Anxiety
Unfortunately, there’s no way to simply wish away our anxieties. Although you may have performed poorly on the exam, you can’t just will your way into confidence on the next one.
On the flip side, there is one remarkably effective and reliable method to reducing excessive test anxieties: exposure.
Neuroscientist and anxiety researcher, Joseph E. LeDoux, developed a simple practice called exposure therapy, which has been noted to help with anxieties in around 70% of cases. Other researchers have remarked on its effectiveness and some even claim that this method may even work better than pharmaceutical treatment and medication.
The Idea of Exposure Therapy
Our fears are rooted deep within the primitive evolutionary circuits in our brains. Our brains default to these circuits when it feels like fears (or anxieties) are necessary.
Although we can’t accurately identify the specific formation of pathological fears, recent research (including the research of LeDoux) has given us a sufficient understanding of how to combat them.
The basic idea of exposure therapy is this: if we directly expose ourselves to the root of our fears, in an environment that is safe, we can reduce their severity and overall effect. This is great news for those with test anxiety.
There are a few steps we can take to reduce the specific effects of test anxiety:
- Practice under real-time pressure. It’s as simple as setting a realistic timer and working on the same amount of questions that would be on the test.
- Create a similar environment to practice in. If possible, do practice tests in the actual testing room. If not, work on the same paper, sit in a similar chair, etc. Expose yourself to the real context of the test.
- Visualize the test experience. When realistic exposure isn’t possible, visualization can also help. Preparing mentally is what we’re aiming for anyway.
The Process of Preparation
The mental preparation for a test is more than just studying and cognitive tricks for enhanced memory or attention. A major part of test performance is also controlling your emotions: fear, anxiety, worrying, etc.
By applying reliable, research-based techniques to the emotional side of our test preparation, we can start effectively managing our emotions when we sit down for an exam. In this way, we make exponential progress toward our goal of approaching exams in a healthier way.
When we learn how to self-regulate and really take the steps to face our fears and anxieties realistically, we can then begin to become a better, more confident test-taker.