What is Test Anxiety?

Unless you have nerves of steel, you're probably going to feel at least some level of anxiety during a test. It's only natural. Especially if it's a college entrance exam and will help determine where you spend the next few years of your life. Even professional exams can be stressful. You don't want to fail it and have your peers find out why you still can't get a job as an attorney after all those years of law school.

The pace of these exams is often grueling. It's much more obnoxious than any test you could ever take in a regular class. Regular classed don't have procedures like these. Only at standardized exams do they check ID's and have proctors stationed at every corner of the room (like lookouts at a prison facility). You'll be forced to breath in stale air (because they won't have windows open in these places). And the noise of other nervous students shuffling around, coughing, clearing their throats, or even sniffling will form a dull murmor.

It's like standardized exams are out to make you a nervous wreck. The creators want to see someone leave the room screaming like a banshee. But don't fall for it. These are only tests. I don't care what's riding on it, you can always re-take it. And if it's for college admissions, many admissions counselors realize the exam isn't an exact representative of what you can do. How could it be? They really will look at more than just your score. If it's for your profession, your future employer doesn't have to know that you failed the bar once. They certainly aren't going to ask you a question like that at your interview.

A little bit of test anxiety is only natural. In fact, it can be helpful by keeping you sharp. You need to be in tip-top shape to answer many of the questions in the standardized exams of today. You really should be a little anxious about the time limit. You should be a little worried about making it through all 100 questions before your time runs out. As you can see, a little bit of anxiety is only going to help you make it through your exam.

But test anxiety can also be a real problem. When anxieties affect your exam performance in a negative way, test anxiety has become a real problem for you. Some people experience anxiety so badly that they freeze up. They can't think straight. Rather than work their way through the test questions quickly and on pace, they flit around from one question to the next. They worry about failure and let that evil little word become the focus of the test duration.

Test Anxiety Signs and Symptoms

Low grade symptoms of test anxiety include; perspiration, tense muscles, and sweaty palms. More severe symptoms of test anxiety include; a rapid heart beat, headache, nasuea and even upset stomach.

Test anxiety and nervousness can keep you from organizing your thoughts and recalling concepts you may already know, but are now having trouble retrieving. It may also cause you to have difficulty even reading and understanding the test questions. You may blank out on things you would normally know.

A severe bout of test anxiety may result in a failing score on an exam that an individual might easily pass or even be capable of scoring in the top percentile. It's that debilitating.