4 Ways to Calm Your Test Anxiety

Anxiety serves a purpose in education; it can motivate you to study harder and learn more. Sometimes though, anxiety reaches a threshold where it is no longer beneficial. Test anxiety is a common type of anxiety that can have substantial consequences for students.

Symptoms of Test Anxiety

Symptoms of test anxiety are felt before or during tests.

Physiological symptoms of test anxiety can include:

• trembling or shaking

• feeling faint or dizzy

• nausea or stomach pain

• sweating

• rapid heart rate

• tense muscles

Psychological symptoms of test anxiety can include:

• racing thoughts

• mind going blank

• difficulty focusing

These symptoms are not only unpleasant to experience, but they can also affect your test performance. Here are four tips to help ease your symptoms on test day.

1. Be prepared. It's easier to relax when you know the information you're being tested on.

Resist the temptation to procrastinate; to get the most gains from your studying, start early and study frequently. This should increase your confidence and make you more comfortable with the material.

If you have test anxiety, studying is the first step toward relieving your anxiety, but it likely won't eliminate it completely, so read on.

2. Think about something that makes you happy. This is my favorite tip for preparing for a test. It's quick and painless, and there's research to support it!

This strategy comes from a theory researched by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson called the broaden-and-build theory, which states that positive emotions allow us to broaden our cognitive capacity and build on our ability to solve problems (Fredrickson 2001). Fredrickson observed significant improvement in test performance when participants devoted just 60 seconds before the test to an activity that evoked positive emotions! So, before your next test, put away your notes and take a minute to listen to a favorite song, talk to a good friend, or reflect on a pleasant memory.

3. Try to relax as much as you can. This is easier said than done, but there are lots of techniques that can help.

When you get anxious, your body responds by tensing up your muscles and increasing your heart rate and breathing rate -- responses that are helpful when you are in danger, but not so helpful when you're trying to focus on a test. Taking action to ease the physical symptoms can provide some relief from the mental symptoms as well. Give these techniques a try to see what works for you:

• Guided imagery. Call to mind a place -- real or imaginary -- where you feel comfortable and content. Use all your senses to imagine yourself in that place -- feel the physical sensations, notice the smells, tastes, and sounds of that place. Spend a few moments in your place. You can find online videos to guide you, and as you get better at it, you can do it without guidance.

• Mindfulness exercises. Mindfulness is all about being present in the moment and letting go of concerns about the past and future. It's totally normal for your mind to wander; when it does, gently bring your attention back to the present moment.

• Focused breathing. A good exercise is square breathing or box breathing. To do this, visualize a square. Inhale for four counts as you mentally draw the left side of the square, hold the breath for four counts as you draw the top side of the square, exhale for four counts as you draw the right side of the square, and hold again as you draw the bottom of the square. Make sure you are breathing deep into your belly.

A quick google search for any of these techniques will return plenty of videos and how-to guides that can help you get started.

If you practice these relaxation techniques before you're stressed out, they'll be easier to use when you really need them.

4. Reach out for help. If your anxiety is severe or is causing you significant distress, talk to someone about it.

Find someone you are comfortable talking to, whether it's a parent, tutor, doctor, or counselor. Test anxiety is extremely common, and it's nothing to be embarrassed about. There are people who can and want to help!