Panic and Fear Cause Test Anxiety
Test anxiety is frustrating and frightening for the
millions of students who suffer from this anxiety disorder.
Everyone knows people who are extremely intelligent but who do poorly on formal exams because they suffer from test anxiety.
Consider this scenario: You've been up late at night for the past week studying for that all-important exam. You feel well-prepared and totally understand the material. But the day of the test you blank out and test anxiety sets in. You freeze and feel so nervous you can't come up with the correct answers for the questions you went over just last night.
According to studies conducted by the Nemours Foundation, test anxiety is actually a form of performance anxiety, a feeling that someone gets in a situation where they believe performance really counts.
Like other situations in which a person might feel performance anxiety, test anxiety brings on a stomachache or a tension headache. Some students might feel shaky, sweaty or feel their heart beating quickly as they wait for the test to be given out.
A student with really strong test anxiety might even fell like he or she might pass out or throw up.
The most common symptom is panic. The feeling of panic may come from not knowing the answer to just one question or may happen as time runs out at the end of the exam period.
Test anxiety may manifest itself in the following ways:
- Forgetting information that you previously learned and understood
- Extreme difficulty concentrating
- Physical symptoms such as nausea, rapid pulse, excessive sweating and muscle tension
Anxiety is created by expectations about what is likely to happen. If you say negative things to yourself about your abilities, it produces a corresponding negative emotional reaction.
The University of Missouri at Rolla Counseling Center coaches students that their beliefs about something create expectations about how a situation will play out.
For example, if you believe you are not smart, don't know the information well enough or aren't capable of performing well, then your expectations will be for your failure. Negative expectations then create anxiety and the anxiety can disable you from doing well.