It Will Pass: On Testing Anxiety
“Anxiety anxiety / somebody’s watching me / it’s my anxiety…”
— Doechii
If you have been living long enough, you would know that in order to be qualified for something or show that you know something, you must take a test. Passing a test shows that you know a topic and have mastered it. But the real question is: does a test always have to be the way for you to show that you have a mastery and or an understanding?
This thing called “life” happens to us everyday; sadly, there’s no such thing in life as a break when school and your busy work consume it. We have so much going on in our day to day lives that a test should be the last thing that we should have added to our list of heartaches. On top of that when we hear the word “test” our hearts immediately sink to our stomach.
If we are honest here, we are all talented and should be able to show our skills without having to put a pen to paper, or answer multiple choice questions on a Google form.
So many things in the world require some form of test which is so sad. Students have to sit and take an ACT and or SAT to test our skills of reading and writing for college. Not only that, students must take cumulative finals to show that they learned things throughout the school year, on top of their unit exams and Regents at the end of the year.
In the real world after school you have to take tests to have certain jobs. Some of those jobs include NYC transit jobs, government jobs, legal jobs, finance jobs, and even some trade jobs. Not only do you have to take a test for some jobs, you also have to take a test to get your permit and drive, a test that Mr. Kelly — my editor — failed. He still hasn’t taken it again.
Seems to me as if this world is full of just taking tests on top of the daily lives that we live. Due to the world working in this way, people have test taking anxiety. Test taking anxiety is when you are excessively worried, feeling stressed, and dreading what the outcome of the test is.
Test taking anxiety leads to the brain overthinking. When taking the test, one could blank out due to their mind racing trying to remember information. Not only that, their mind might focus more on the outcome of the test than the test itself.
Personally, I am a person who struggles with bad test taking anxiety. You may not think it’s bad if you know who I am most of the time, but it gets very bad. There’s times where my mother has to tell me to slow down due to me over-stressing. Senior year especially has been really bad because I have been pushing myself way more than I have over the past 4 years of high school. I have been trying to maintain my GPA and remain an all A’s student.
When it comes to taking a test, I start panicking trying to remember all of what the teachers have taught. This happened to me during my chem final. I was looking through the test and started shaking as I started to forget the information. Now you're probably wondering if I actually passed and finished the test. The answer is yes to both questions. I did this by taking a deep breath and taking my time. I stopped flipping through the test to see what was on it and took every section of the test step by step. I skipped things that I may not have known or didn’t remember and moved on to the next section.
When it comes down to test taking I wanted to know if other students felt the same way that I do and do the same things I do to try to help myself from overthinking. I interviewed some students and asked them the following questions: Do you find yourself having test-taking anxiety, and how do you deal with it?
I asked my first interviewee the first question and her answer was that she struggles with test taking anxiety, and feels it beats her up every time it gets the chance. She explained that when she takes her test she feels that the information goes right out of her head. She can’t remember what she just studied 5 minutes before the test. She continued by also saying that this could stem from the amount of quizzes and tests that teachers give on a weekly basis. She just imagines the thought of her grade going down and not knowing what to do to get it back up. For the second question, she answered that she doesn't really know how to deal with it. She said she normally just wings the test and tries to not let the anxiety get in the way of her success, but she said she hopes to find a way to get over the anxiety soon so she wont beat herself up as much.
I completely agree with her statements. Teachers assign a lot of quizzes weekly, and don’t always realize that students are just students. We are people too with lives just as them. I find it quite unfair for every teacher in almost every class to assign an entrance ticket, a quiz, and a test the same day or week. These things should be more spaced out to give students time to breathe and give them time to study for the classes that they have quizzes and entrance tickets in.
I asked another student similar questions. She said that yes she struggles with test taking anxiety. She feels as soon as the test is placed on her desk she starts to panic, she feels that as soon as the test is placed down she knows that she failed. She explained that there is never a moment in time where she really felt completely confident. Her mind goes blank when the test is placed down. She said that she hopes to find methods that helps her work with her test taking anxiety to hopefully get rid of it and start feeling confident
Another student explained that he struggles with test taking anxiety. It makes him feel like he doesn’t know anything on the test. During the test he’s constantly questioning himself if he will pass, or if he will fail. He stated that he does have a coping method during the test which is eating mints to help him focus through the test and push through. He said that it makes him a little more energized and gets his brain going to work on the test and hopefully has more of a positive mindset.
I went on to ask AP teachers how they feel when students have test taking anxiety and what their best advice is for students who have test taking anxiety.
Mr. C’s answer to these questions was that he states that he feels that this anxiety is a normal feeling. But he also stated his advice for the students that do have test taking anxiety: you have to know what type of test taking anxiety. But you must remember how ready you are, and take a deep breath and relax because you are really nervous. But if you really don’t feel confident, come after school and work with your teacher to make sure that you have the best understanding. But in all, lots of people have test taking anxiety and you just have to find ways that work for you and know what you need to be successful.
I next asked Mr. Kelly. Mr. Kelly feels conflicted, and he stated that he understands how difficult tests are. But he wanted students to know that the pressure of life never stops, and he doesn't want to take the test away to make things in life just an easy fix because that's not how life always works. Mr. Kelly’s advice to students would be to breathe, and remind yourself that your work isn’t defined by the test. The test is defined to make you feel bad and trip you up, so you need to focus on the moment when you are beating the test.
Everyone has different perspectives of test taking anxiety, and different ways of coping for students. My best advice is to learn and find what best works for you to get through your test. Just know that everything shall pass, and don't stress yourself because that only takes a toll on your mental health.
When you are feeling like your test taking anxiety is kicking in, take a breath, and take a 5 minute walk depending on how much time you may have left on your test. If you are someone who runs off food on your test, maybe take a snack break if you have time to give your brain a little rest. Lastly have confidence, and say to yourself you will pass this class. Having positive energy will make a more positive outcome.
You’ve got this.