Tips for Helping Your Teen With Test Anxiety
I was sitting in front of the computer screen with sweaty palms, a racing heart, and butterflies flitting around in my stomach. It was all I could do to keep from jumping out of my seat and leaving the room.
All of the preparation had led to this point. It was do or die. So much on the line. My future. The money that I paid to take the test.“If I can just start with an English question and not a math question, I’ll be ok,” I tried to reassure myself. I held my breath and pushed the “start” button…English question it was! I breathed a sigh of relief and answered that question, then the next English question, giving myself permission to go out of order so that I could build my confidence as I started the test. I was at my son’s high school for an award ceremony recently, and it struck me how fast the end of the school year is coming.
For most teens, this means a plethora of tests on their plate, from finals to AP exams, SAT and ACT to college entrance exams.Boy, I don't think I know of anyone who actually likes to take tests! I know that we go through a lot of testing throughout our lives and even though it’s a part of all of our lives, it's just something that we all dread. So, I wanted to share some study tips and some help for test anxiety in teens to support you and your teen through the last weeks of school. (Read more below video)
Study to combat test anxiety. It’s a must to study and be prepared to combat test anxiety! If we do no studying and if there's no preparation, then it's understandable that we're going to be super anxious about taking an exam that we're not ready for! So, here's the thing about that! There are certain things that we don’t typically enjoy doing. Cleaning the toilet is one of those things for me.Studying for an exam is another! We don't really enjoy doing things, and so we tend to procrastinate in doing them. We put it off. We're think, "Oh, I've got time!" But the downfall of that is that then we're trying to cram a lot of studying and a lot of information into a short period of time. And guess what? Our brains don't function like that! We want to hit some peak performance, and that means studying and preparing ahead of time.
Know the test format. Is it an essay test? Is it multiple choice? Are you taking an AP exam, the SAT, or the ACT. There’s actually quite a bit to understanding the way the test is written and how it should be answered that can help alleviate test anxiety. Some tests deduct points for missing answers and others deduct even more if you answer wrong, so having a test-taking strategy can help you feel more confident on the day of the exam.
Don't pull an all-nighter! Test taking involves being at a peak performance level – too low energy and you won’t leave your bed. Too high energy, and you’re super anxious. Add a lack of sleep to that, and that puts us outside of our window of distress tolerance and right over the edge! We all know that you don't think very clearly when you haven't had sleep, so don't put yourself in that situation. You're not going to be able to cram overnight and learn information that's going to be beneficial to you and that you're going to be able to recall during the test if you've stayed up all night and have had no sleep. Try your best to get a solid eight hours to combat test anxiety!
Don’t cram just before, either. If you have done your preparation work ahead of time, you've studied the content of what is going to be on the test, and you've studied the test format, don't spend that time right before the test cramming. That just puts you in an anxious state, as well. Instead, take some breaths, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water!
Fuel your body. Before you go to the exam, before you take your test, eat! Being hangry doesn’t lead to clear thinking, either. So, get something relatively healthy to eat.
Move your body. Anxiety is energy. And testing anxiety can be exacerbated because you’re stuck in a chair for an extended period of time with no way to release that energy. So as an opportunity to release that energy before the test, move your body. Go for a walk! That's one of the reasons why we pace when we're feeling nervous or anxious. So even if it's pacing around, get some of that anxious energy out.
So, that's leading up to the exam. What do you do when you enter that exam room? What do you do when you're taking that test? If you put these other things in place, then when you're getting started with the test, you can remind yourself that either you're prepared.
When all of those doubts and questions come to mind, remind yourself, "I've done what I need to do to take care of preparing for this test. I'm ready to take it. Let's go!"
It’s important to know that some level of anxiety is normal and should even be expected, but instead of being debilitating, we can use that energy to fuel the taking of the exam, reminding ourselves "That’s energy that's going to help me complete the test and complete the task at hand."So, that energy, or that anxious feeling, that little nervousness, that little buzz that's going through our body, the churning in your stomach, let's turn that from a negative thing. Let's remind ourselves that this anxiety is energy that's going to help us complete the task.
If you're having a hard time getting started with your exam, flip through and find a question that is easier for you to answer. Start with something that you know to build confidence when starting the test can help ease testing anxiety.
When you are taking a test with multiple-choice questions, go ahead and mark off the answers that you know are wrong to start with, then after you've marked off the ones that you know for sure are wrong, then go back and make your decision about what the best answer is and stick with that initial decision. Studies show that that our first gut reaction is usually the accurate one.
As you are going through your test and you're reminding yourself that this anxiety is good energy to complete the task, and you're reminding yourself how well you've prepared for the exam, and you're reminding yourself that there are some steps that you can take if you feel stuck, what happens when the people around you start getting up and turning in their exam?
Our test-taking anxiety screams, “Oh my gosh that must mean that I’m doing something wrong if everybody else is finished before me!” No, no it's not that at all! Stay in your lane! Keep your head down, keep plugging through the questions, go at your own pace, don't get freaked out when you see other people turning their exams in. You have no idea what is happening for them and their exam taking process. So, these are some thoughts about taking exams, preparing for exams, and some tips on how to navigate through exam taking to help ease your teen’s test anxiety. If you need some more support with testing and exams, we are here to help. One of the ways that we help with exam and test anxiety here at Harper Therapy is that we are experts in Accelerated Resolution Therapy, or ART, which is a non-traditional eye movement therapy.
Although it sounds different and “weird”, it’s very effective in calming test anxiety, and allows your teen to envision seeing himself successfully navigating through test-taking (similarly to how Olympic athletes envision themselves winning gold medals!) Find out more about ART and our Master Art Clinicians. We would be happy to talk through what's been happening for you and your teen so that we can support you in successful test-taking. We have more tips to help your teen with anxiety! Find out more about our Teen Therapy Services and our Expert Teen Therapists, Chris and Alina. Give our office a call to schedule today on 813-434-3639.
