Hello, my name is Dr. Karen Grella and I'm here to
present some information today
on overcoming test anxiety.
I will be speaking with you about strategies for
reducing anxiety around exams.
What is test anxiety?
Test anxiety is a psychological condition in which
a person experiences distress either before, during,
or after an exam or
any other assessment to such a degree that
the anxiety causes poor performance or
significantly interferes with normal learning.
Many people experience some degree of stress and
anxiety before, during exams.
A little bit of nervousness can
actually be helpful because
that nervousness or anxiety can help you to be more
mentally alert and ready to tackle the exam.
Test anxiety when it is significant can actually
impair a student's learning and hurt test performance.
That excessive fear can make it difficult to
concentrate and you might
struggle to recall the things that you've studied.
This idea of blanking
out that we'll talk about in a minute.
What are some of the causes of test anxiety?
Well, there can be a varying reasons
why individuals experience test anxiety.
It could be a lack of confidence.
Just not feeling confident
in their knowledge of the material.
It could be that they're just not
confident in themselves as a student.
They're afraid to fail. That's a big one.
I mean, we all have a little bit of that
when we go to sit down at an exam.
But when it is excessive,
it can really cause that test anxiety
, negative thought processes.
I'm going to fail. I'm not going to pass this.
This test is going to be too hard.
Things like that that can also play
into that students having test anxiety.
Past experiences failing an exam is another one
that is often a good cause of test anxiety.
Not good in a good way but it can often
be an actual realistic trigger for students to
experience test anxiety because they've already failed
some exams prior and
they're really worried about this next one.
It could be very high stakes.
Maybe they didn't pass the first two and they need
to pass third one in order to pass the class.
That pressure from those past experiences
can cause test anxiety.
Pressure to do well from an outside source.
Maybe someone has a parent or sibling, or guardian,
or someone that's really pressuring them to be
successful on their exams.
They want them to get As.
Anything less than an A or a B is not acceptable and
that pressure can cause test anxiety.
Not being prepared is another one that's a big one.
That would go along with some of
those poor test-taking strategies.
If you're not prepared
and you haven't studied and you know it,
you may go in anxious.
What you have learned may also be difficult to retrieve.
If you don't have good test-taking strategies,
part of that is preparation.
Making sure you're getting a good night's sleep
and having something to eat before tests,
not going into a test at
noon on an empty stomach, things like that.
Then also knowing how to
strategize when you're taking an exam,
for example, do you
cross out the ones that you know
are definitely not the answer?
Do you go back through and read through?
Do you carefully read the questions to make
sure that you're reading them
correctly? Things like that.
What are some of the symptoms that individuals
might experience if they have test anxiety?
Well, there's physical and emotional symptoms
which really mimic generalized anxiety.
But we're focusing today on something very
specific and that's anxiety around assessments,
tests, exams, quizzes, things like that.
Some of the physical symptoms
that someone might experience,
they might start sweating,
they might be shaking,
their heart might raise,
they might have dry mouth or feel sick in their stomach,
they might have trouble sleeping the night before a test.
All of these symptoms can
either happen prior to the start of
an exam or while
a person is sitting down to take the exam.
Emotionally that can impact
individuals because they might feel depressed.
They might experience panic attack.
They have that cause anxiety
and other areas of their life.
It can affect self-esteem.
They might be angry or frustrated or feel hopeless.
I really like this graphic that's on this slide.
It shows a stick figure,
how I see a test while taking it and
it's just a jumbled mess.
Just I'm overwhelmed.
This is math, for example,
oh my gosh, I don't remember how to do
these problems. I don't know any of this.
That's probably what's going through this person's mind.
The anxiety has gotten in the way.
Then the person gets the test back and they're like,
wait a minute, I knew that.
I totally knew that and that can happen a lot.
That's that blanking out that I mentioned earlier on.
Many people with test anxiety will report that they blank
out when they're starting to answer questions,
even though they studied the information
thoroughly and they were
sure they knew the answers to the questions.
They still might blink out.
Some of those cognitive-behavioral symptoms
that individuals might experience would be fidgeting,
wanting to avoid a test.
I mean, there are some people that might
not show up for a test,
that negative self-talk I talked about earlier.
Not able to concentrate on
the test and just having racing thoughts,
worrying about the test,
worrying about the clock.
Realizing that you did put in the effort to study.
That's really fun illustrating
to you because now you're at
the test and you're seeing it like this.
The figure at the top of that graphic is
seeing it just a big jumbled mess.
We want to be able to handle the test anxiety.
Because really, if you've prepared and you've
studied and you knew the information ahead of time,
you likely are experiencing test anxiety,
which is then impacting your ability
when you get to the test and you
have no idea what you're looking at.
We really want to help control
that test anxiety so you're not blinking out.
Some auditory and visual triggers just be
thinking about these as we go over this slide.
What are some of those triggers that might happen in
the classroom during an exam that could cause anxiety?
Here we have another graphic
where it says anxiety triggers,
I was doing fine.
Then boom, again, anxious again.
Maybe you feel like you're going into
the test and you feel really good.
Then you start developing
that anxiety as soon as you get in the room.
Then there's auditory, so things that
you hear and visual things that you see,
these triggers that end up
causing you to have anxiety during your exam.
Think about some of those
and we're going to go over them.
What are some of those triggers?
Well, there's a variety of triggers, and usually,
when I ask groups of students they
will pretty much always give me what's on this slide.
The big one is
students getting up and handing in their tests.
That's a big trigger for
individuals that have test anxiety
when they're in a classroom full of students.
There's this false sense of
if a student is done very quickly,
that they may know more than you do because it's
taking you longer and that is not
necessarily true, that's a myth.
Not everybody that finishes the test first knows more.
But there is something that's
unnerving to students when they see other students
getting up and handing in their tests and
they start worrying and it's distracting.
Sound of a ticking clock.
If you know that you need that time to think
and process through the clock can be a distraction.
People turning the pages of their tests.
Individuals with test anxiety are
really maybe keying in on some of those things.
It's not that they're getting up in handing in the test,
but maybe that they're turning the pages
quickly and you feel
like they're going through it faster than you.
A door opening and closing.
As people exit or if someone's coming in,
people zipping up their backpacks. They're done.
Chair scraping against the floor when individuals get up,
people talking outside the classroom.
That's another one where you can hear people.
It's a big distraction.
Or if they're tapping their pencils
and a near-empty classroom,
if you're one of the last few,
you may end up rushing through
the end even if you have the time because you
feel like you can't
concentrate on the questions and your blanking out and
it's causing you to have a lot of anxiety and you're near
the end of the students
that are in the class still taking the test.
That can be another one that can cause some anxiety.
How do we manage this?
We know what it looks like,
we know what can cause it,
but how do we manage it?
I think that's the most important piece.
Once you've recognized that this
is something that you're experiencing,
you're going to want to use
some strategies to help to manage that ahead of time.
First thing is when you study,
you're going to want to seek out well-lit,
quiet locations for studying.
Here at Cuba, you can go to
the Learning Commons on either the Auburn or campuses
or other designated study areas on
campus to help reduce distractions.
So you want to be in a quiet place.
That's going to help you retain
the information that you're studying. That's the key.
You want to make sure that what you're
studying is able to stick so to speak.
If you're able to review it in
an area where there's not a lot of distractions,
you're more likely to be able
to recall the information later.
Try not to cram.
Everybody talks about pulling a quote all nighter.
That usually means that somebody has been up all night
studying prior to an exam first thing the next morning.
While that might help some individuals,
a lot of times what that does
is provides information overload.
When the student goes to take the test,
it's just a lot of information they've tried to
cram and they're trying to just dump it so to speak.
Maybe the way the questions are
written is not lending itself to
that and there's a lot of content and it's too much.
They get to the test and they
don't know anything that they've studied
because it was all too much too soon or maybe they were
okay with the test they took
at at that point the next morning.
But if there's a comprehensive test that covers
the same material at the end of the semester,
that cramming is not going to help,
especially if you didn't do well first time.
Really trying to prepare for the exam ahead of time,
try not to cram and take your time with studying.
Avoid that last minute studying.
If you do have good study strategies and you've studied,
and you've reviewed information multiple times,
know that you're already prepared.
Sometimes people will have studied all night
and all day and maybe even
that week several times and they're really prepared,
and then all of a sudden right before tests,
they feel they need to go through their notes.
That can actually cause anxiety.
If you feel you're prepared,
you may not need to do that 20 minutes before the test.
Making sure you're sleeping and getting rest.
When we don't sleep,
when we're not rested,
we can feel anxious and stressed.
We want to make sure that we're
controlling that before we go into an exam,
if at all possible.
Don't go into the exam on an empty stomach.
If it's first thing in the morning,
maybe have a glass of juice or something like that.
But if it's noon and you've had nothing to eat,
your brain is saying,
I need some nutrients so that I can
help recall this information.
If possible, certainly,
there's a lot of people that like coffee,
or tea, or something like that.
You don't want to overload yourself
with coffee or caffeine,
I should say, or sugar because
that may also cause some anxiety.
You're trying to control all these variables
so that you can go in
calm and show what you know to the best of your ability.
You certainly don't want to be rushing to get to an exam.
If you can arrive a few minutes early, that's perfect.
You don't want to be there 45 minutes early waiting
outside because if you're someone that gets anxious,
that might cause more anxiety
because now you're just sitting and thinking about it.
You certainly don't want to be late however.
If you can get there a few minutes early just
to collect yourself, you know you're not late.
You have a couple of minutes,
take a couple of breaths,
have some water and just relax.
Meditation things like that can
help you before you go into the test.
One of the things that used to get
me stressed out most of
the time was when I would be waiting outside a test,
and before we went in the classroom and I would
hear people talking about some of the material.
I might think, "Did I study that?"
I don't remember that information.
Now all of a sudden my anxiety is peaked.
Really if you can try to avoid listening to
others or discussing that material.
While you're waiting maybe put your headphones or
something like that or stand off to the side.
You want to just go in as calm as possible.
Just because they might have
studied something and you don't remember,
that doesn't mean that they're
completely and totally prepared.
We often try to compare ourselves to others.
Sometimes it's not helpful we just want to focus
on ourselves and what we've studied and what we know.
Again, I talked a little bit about meditation.
You can also try some relaxation techniques.
Even if you're in a classroom,
you can always just take
a quick second to close your eyes, take deep breaths.
You want to go into that exam
with self-confidence and say,
you know what, I studied.
I did the best that I could.
I know that I spent a lot of time on this material,
a lot of time studying.
I'm going into this with self-confidence.
I'm going to do the best that I can.
I see myself getting a good grade on this test.
I'm visualizing that.
This squirrel, I want to
experience what's on the screen right now.
The squirrel that's saying, yes,
I passed the test.
Visualize yourself reaching your goals.
If my goal is to get through
this program so that I can graduate,
visualize yourself walking across
the stage with a cap and gown.
All of those things will help boost your confidence,
reduce anxiety, and help you to
feel like a more successful student.
Some test-taking strategies that I talked about,
just a little bit different from study strategies.
Make sure that you're looking over
your test to be sure you've answered every question.
You don't want to hand in
a test with a few questions blank.
You can leave questions blank as long as
you're good about going back and looking them over.
I would say go through,
do the ones you know, and then go back and rethink.
Make sure you're reading all of
the directions very, very carefully.
Because you can get caught up in questions that may not,
or questions and directions
that you may not have read correctly.
Then at that point,
you're seeing the word not is in the question.
So which one of these is not?
You didn't read it carefully and you thought it said
which one of these is you didn't see the not.
Now you're answering it the wrong way.
If you do blank on a question,
skip it and go back as I mentioned.
Sometimes, well,
there's stuff in a test that will actually be triggered.
You might get to another question.
It might trigger you, wait a minute.
They're asking about this and I remember studying this.
Now I know the question I had left blank is this.
You might get some triggers or clues within
a test in the questions that
help you with some other questions.
Make sure you're not spending too much time
on one question.
Try not to panic when
people start getting up to hand in their tests.
As I said, just because someone's done first,
or second, or early does
not mean that they always know all the answers.
They might not know any
of it and that's why they're done.
Be thinking about that.
I want to wrap up with a couple of points about
whether or not you should change
your answers on multiple choice exams.
It's really up to a student if they want to do that.
I have done a little bit of research.
It does look most people go with this trust your gut.
No, never change your answers, trust your gut.
But what I found was that there
are actually some reasons why it might be
beneficial to change your answers,
for example, you may have
found information in the exam
that you didn't realize you had,
you didn't remember from before.
As I mentioned earlier, you're looking at a question.
You're thinking I think it's A and then you get
into Question 15 later
on and you read it and you say, wait a minute,
it's not A because I remember
studying this and now that I'm reading this question,
this content is triggering my memory.
I know I should go back and change it.
If you think that you
should change it because you have more evidence,
or you really thought it through,
go ahead and change it if
that's what you're basing it on.
If you're really not sure and you don't know,
you could go with your gut.
But most of the time the reason why
people don't change their answers
is because they're really afraid of having it right,
and changing it to the wrong as
opposed to having it wrong and changing it to the right.
It's easier to say,
I had A,
I thought about changing it to B,
but I didn't, and it is B. I got it wrong.
But at least I didn't change
my answer or I changed it from A to B and it was A,
then there's that I'm kicking myself
feeling and that's what people are really worried about.
They had it and they lost it.
But sometimes there are
reasons to go ahead and make that change.
Weigh that out. As you're
thinking about multiple choice tests.
Here's some other little chart and
other 10 tips to overcome anxiety.
A lot of this is what we talked about,
watching the clock, reading things carefully,
being early for your tasks,
getting a good night sleep positive attitude,
and just jumping in and starting.
Hopefully you've learned some information
today that's helped you to beat that test anxiety.
Certainly I'm a work in progress and with
good study strategies and
good techniques to help keep yourself calm,
and test-taking techniques,
I think all of those things in
combination can help students to
go into a test not feeling like they're
blinking out and everything they knew is gone.
But saying, you know what?
I can do this, I can get through this.
I remember this information, I studied.
I feel good about it.
If you do have any other questions,
please don't hesitate to contact me.
I am the accessibility specialist
on the Auburn and Fulton campuses.
My information is here,
you can e-mail me or give me a call.
I'm happy to talk more about
test anxiety with anyone if they're interested.
I look forward to those conversations.
Thank you so much.