Managing Test Anxiety
tests are a lot sometimes
About 20% of all students report experiencing a high level of anxiety while taking tests [1]. Some stress during a test can actually be helpful! Stress makes us more alert and prepared for challenges. But too much can be an issue on the SAT. While anxiety levels are a spectrum, and each student is unique, I generally sort anxious test takers into “Moderate anxiety” (lowercase a), for those who find it common to have their mind go blank when facing information they know they know but manage to get by with only a moderate performance decrease, and “High Anxiety” (capital-A), for those who experience more severe symptoms that make them incapable of performing even simple tasks for long stretches of time on tests, often including physical symptoms such as hyperventilation or panic attacks. While my tips for lowercase-a anxiety test takers should also be helpful for capital-A Anxiety test takers, I will give a section for each in this blog post:
Moderate anxiety
The most helpful key to dealing with moderate anxiety on the SAT is over-preparation. Stress manifests in the brain partially in our frontal lobe [2][3]. This is also the part of our brain responsible for concentration and problem solving. So naturally, when we get anxious, our problem solving skills are limited. If you know that tests make you nervous, then once you get a general feel for the test you should practice working while nervous. While it won’t be fun, practicing this way will help you learn to use your more-limited prefrontal cortex resources more effectively, which in turn will lower stress, which in turn will give you more resources to work with, and so on.
In my “effective practice” post, I detailed how our SAT study should be split into a “practice phase” and a “learning phase”. The “practice phase” is much more important when preparing with anxiety. Remember that while it is important to have long-term goals to motivate your time investment, the only goal of doing practice problems is to use the tools you currently have to circle as many right answers as possible. Matching your practice conditions to test conditions is even more important than it is for most students. This means you should make yourself anxious! If working under time pressure stresses you out, always work with a timer. If judgement stresses you out, report your practice scores to your parents. If FOMO on rewards/college stresses you out, set up a shorter-term reward system tied to your practice performance. Feel free to ramp up the stressors slowly if starting at 100% is too much to handle. Also, review your answers right away when you’re done. What you see with your feelings being fresh will have more impact than reviewing the next day. (Note: do NOT stress yourself out during any “learning phase” or review, but do make sure you always include working through example problems as part of your learning.)
Long term, the goal is to get used to having stressors present while also being able to lock in and be in the moment, using the tools you have to answer the question in front of you.
General Tips:
Make sure you’re eating and sleeping well
If time is a major stressor, set a schedule for how often you check your watch during a section (ie. every 5 questions, or at the end of each passage). Don’t look at the time more or less often than your schedule!
Put an extra emphasis on finding ways to calm down and get through those “mental block” moments on the test. The most commonly useful methods are deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness practice, and positive self-talk.
Talk with someone about how tests make you feel! Sometimes just “letting it out” and expressing your discomfort can go a long way to giving perspective that your anxiety is totally normal, but your fears may not be as worthwhile as they feel like when they’re trapped in your head.
High/severe anxiety
If you totally shut down during tests, more effort and consideration needs to be put into figuring out the deeper cause of your anxiety. You can do all the test prep you want, but if you have a panic attack in the testing room, it will be for naught. As a first step, talking through feelings with a trusted parent or guardian is a must. From there, consulting a therapist is often a good option. The tips above for moderate anxiety, particularly mindfulness practice, are still helpful when it comes to severe anxiety. But if tests make you anxious because a spider crawled across your desk during a test when you were 6, and that experience still affects you, the above coping skills won’t be nearly as effective without directly addressing the root cause of your problem. Nick is not a certified mental health professional. However, he has copious experience working with and guiding students with severe anxiety with a proper plan and to the proper people. You can reach out here to set up a free consultation, with no commitment, to discuss your student’s needs and set up an action plan to address your anxiety and get to work raising that SAT score.