Tests and Anxiety

This article discusses Tests and Anxiety and is filed under Anxiety Help


As a tutor for middle and high school students, one of the biggest issues that I tend to deal with is overcoming test anxiety. I have been in the field for over a decade now, and I have noticed a disturbing trend. More and more it seems, students are afraid of tests. Testing anxiety has become almost an epidemic. Don’t get me wrong – for as long as I can remember people got nervous before the day of the big test. But I am not talking about nervousness, even the kind that makes you miss a few answers. I am talking about paralyzing anxiety panic attacks. Some people get test taking anxiety so bad that they completely fail on tests of a subject that they should know perfectly well. This can completely cripple their ability to succeed.
Unfortunately, there is no easy cure for test anxiety. In order to treat it, you have to completely tailor the program to the individual. One of my students, for example, has had math test anxiety for several years now. In her case, it has to do with the fact that when she was very little, she had a lot of trouble understanding math. Although now she is very good at it, that anxiety has never gone away.

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Tags: math test, time management skills, test taking anxiety


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