Have you ever went blank after the start of a test? Have you been so stressed to the extent of forgetting all you’ve read during the test? Did you feel your palm becoming unusually sweaty? This simply means you are a victim of test anxiety.
Anxiety is the mental state of mind that makes you feel scared, nervous or panicky at the moment you need to be extra bold. This happens mainly during tests and interviews as I’ve heard of it and experienced it.
Students of all ages and level can be a victim of test anxiety, normally it’s unavoidable to feel tense when their is an upcoming test or during the test but when the level of the nervousness and stress became really high it would affect the academic performance negatively.
ADAA research on stress make us believe that the main causes of test anxiety are fear of failure, in adequate preparation, or past bad tests grades. Tests anxiety can be as a result of physiological, physical or emotional stress.
Auspiciously, their are some proven strategies that would help mitigate and overcome examination anxiety and also help you improve your grade and mental health.
- Make positives out of anxiety
If you watch the recent world cup or any other popular sports activities, you will notice that journalists always ask all the team’s or the players the same questions during interviews that ‘ are you nervous being on the big stage’ almost all of them gave the same response ‘ no, I’m really happy to here’.
All these team’s and players are playing on a global stage with their future and livelihood at stake. But did you notice they(the teams and players) change their anxiety into a positive source of determination. They changed the nervousness into excitement. This is what you should always embrace, change the negativity surrounding the tests anxiety into positive determination.
Therefore, any moment you are in the test hall and you start feeling anxious or nervous, change the perspective to an exciting one.
- Give your utmost best and the result will come
Their is a popular saying that ‘proper preparation prevents poor performance’, this denotes that when you are fully prepared for the upcoming hurdle you will scale through it without much stress. This means you should have been preparing for the test for a long time before the D-day and not until it is a week away. This gives you the full confidence that you can do it and have a good grade.
- Take some breaks in between studying and meditate
You should grant yourself some short term breaks after reading for a long period and those moments can be used for meditation as this minimize stress and helps the brain to assimilate faster.
- Good night rest
Reading or cramming would do your world no good. You need to rest your mind and body so as to recuperate the lost energy used while reading and doing a lot of activities. A good night rest ( 8 – 9 hours) is very essential especially the day prior to the tests day
- Why the tests?
This is a question you should keep asking yourself when tests anxiety wants to set in and you are feeling blank. Remind yourself the main reason why you are having the test and the influence of the tests on your career, these thinking would help minimize test anxiety and can bring a lot of positives on your grade as it did to mine.
- Engage more in recreational activities
Scientists and researcher have dictated that engaging more in sporting activities eg. Jogging, swimming, skipping etc. are a good source of stress relieving strategies that really minimizes tests anxiety.
- Fill your stomach, fill your body
This might sound funny but it is more important than what it seems. What you ingest would surely tell on your body and then your mind. You should know that sugary food and fast(junk) food are injurious to your mental mind at the tests period as the energy produced by this kind of food crashes easily and makes you tired easily.
It is advisable you take high nutritious food during preparation for the tests and on the day of the teats so as to enrich your mind. Foods that are very rich in protein and minerals are the best eg. Egg, fruits, milk, etc.
- Arrive at the test venue early
Rushing to the tests venue when late could make you forget all you have read and feel stressed and this leads to anxiety. This can be avoided by arriving early at the tests and this would give you the opportunity to be more composed and calm before the tests finally starts.
- Concentrate fully on your work
There are usually a lot of activities in the test hall, the student on the next seat murmuring, another student gazing up and down, a student walking up and down the hall. Don’t let all this bother you or distract you, do not entertain the thought of them doing more than you. You should just focus solely on your tests and forget about every other person in the hall.
- Pace your tests
For any test you are doing, there should always be a watch with you. This allows you to know the amount of time you should use on a particular question or section so as not to waste time.
Getting to know that time is almost up and there are lots of test questions left can spring up anxiety which would deprive you from finishing the test eventually.
- Deep breaths
When anxiety sets in, the heart beating tends to increase and taking deep breathes can slow down a beating heart or a racing mind. Deep breath will break the sequence of the racing and it will surely minimize anxiety.
- Imagine Success
Elite winners imagine themselves celebrating after a successful campaign in the competition. Imagine yourself getting a good grade and celebrating and this would help you to make it happen in real life and would reduce anxiety.
- You are ready to go
By putting all these strategies to use, you are on the right track to have a anxiety-free tests. All the best.
References
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
