Parents and teachers would be familiar with test anxiety. After all, they see it plainly in the performance of many students. Although not particularly alarming, test anxiety could lead to many other negative feelings that could hamper a student’s progress in his studies and life in general. If we have to explain test anxiety in one word, it would be ‘pressure’.
A person taking the test has a lot of things going on inside his head. On top of all the things he has to retain, he might be thinking of what could happen to when he fails. The thought of failure makes him panicky and desperate. Cramming is one of the things that a person does to run away from the dread of failure. But not studying beforehand and relying on cramming skills may lead to disastrous results because of the pressure that comes with rushing to re-learn everything in a few hours.
The worst kind of panic may overwhelm a person who is about to take the test. Some students that experience this kind of anxiety have trouble breathing and faint during the exam.
Here are some of the things that could be causing test anxiety.
– Too Much Excitement and Pressure
This kind of anxiety is often shown by students taking examinations that could spell the difference between passing and failing of a subject. Before the exam, the student may have been too wrapped up with thoughts of failing that he wasn’t able to study well. He may have studied too much and now his mind is in shambles.
– Lack of Sleep
Many students that actually do better in examinations slept well the night before. Those suffering from test anxiety did not sleep well the night before the exam because they were either cramming or worrying that they didn’t study enough. Normal learning is hampered and it follows that the test results are lowered when the student refused to rest the night before the exam. In fact, the student in question may know himself that he isn’t going to perform well because he feels dizzy and disoriented.
– The ‘Do or Die’ Mentality
Some students think they have to study harder than everyone else and give it their best without knowing when to work the brakes. To a student, it’s either he makes it or he doesn’t. And, failing could mean the end. Thinking like this could only be detrimental to any student. He should be able to understand that the pressure coming from this mindset is what’s going to make him fail, not the lack of effort.
Students with test anxiety should be counselled by instructors before the examination. It helps if instructors gave hints that there are second chances for failing students.
A person with this kind of anxiety needs to understand that his imagination of the worst case scenario could be what’s stopping him from doing well. Because all the pressure is getting to him, he isn’t able to think about the positive. Memory is a strange thing. If you’re under pressure, it’s more difficult to remember things, even if these things are the same ones you spent the whole night memorizing.
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