Imagine this: You have studied your butt off and the day is finally here—exam day. You spent all of the night before and the entire morning reviewing lecture notes and the study guide and skimming the textbook cover to cover. Finally, the time comes; you throw on whatever clothes you can find on the floor that don’t smell like a pigsty and head out the door.
On your way to class, you flip through the stack of note cards you hastily scribbled out at four in the morning, surviving close calls with people, cars, and light-poles around you. Eventually, you enter the testing location with handfuls of other students, most mirroring your briskness and determination. You sit down in a creaky chair and continue to review the notecards.
“Please put all notes and phones away,” the professor says, and rustling of papers fills the room. With shaky hands you take one last look at your most challenging notecard before stuffing them haphazardly in your bag. Your hands start to sweat. Your legs start to fidget. Your eyes flit nervously around the room as the professor begins to pass out the exam.
With a blank face, the professor hands you your exam. You put it down on your desk and pick up your pencil. You look down at the paper and read the first question.
Nothing.
Your mind goes blank. Butterflies start zooming around in your stomach and your ears start to buzz.
Nothing. You remember absolutely nothing.
Sound familiar? You may be suffering from test anxiety, a fully legitimate mental illness many fail to recognize.
After years of doing poorly on exams, my therapist and I made a list of how to stand above the anxiety and succeed academically. Here are some tips on how I try to minimize my test anxiety. (Remember, not all of these tips may work for you!)
Before the Exam
Prepare well in advance for the upcoming exam. Do not wait until last minute to study. Begin looking over notes at least two weeks before exam-day, if not consistently throughout the semester.
Keep a positive attitude. Instead of thinking “I’m a poor test-taker,” tell yourself that you’ve done well on tests before. Acknowledge the unreasonable meaning you’re putting onto the exam: “This test does not reflect me as a person or as a student.” Try to keep the pressure off yourself or you will make the exam a much bigger deal than it really is.
Don’t try to get in last minute studying. Studies show that studying right before an exam does almost nothing in terms of memory or success. If you are tempted to study right before your professor hands out the exam, leave your notes at home. Engage in relaxing or distracting activities, like deep breathing, listening to music, or talking to friends (who are not taking the same exam—otherwise they might instigate questions), in the hours before the exam.
During the Exam
Breathe. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Try to relax your shoulders and neck. Tell yourself to not overthink.
Answer the ones you are confident in first. If you aren’t sure about a question or answer, go on to the next one. Do not feel discouraged if you do not go in order.
Go with your gut instinct. Once you have answered the ones you are sure about, go on to the ones you skipped. Read through the entire question and all the answers and pick the one your mind first tells you is correct.
Write out your thoughts. Make notes in the margins of things you might forget. If you are writing a short response or essay, make a quick outline. This will keep you from forgetting what you were originally going to answer and keeps you organized.
After the Exam
Do not dwell on how you think you did. Leave it alone. What’s done is done. Don’t stress over what you cannot change.
Do not talk to classmates or friends after the exam. If they ask you how you did, say, “Fine, but I’d rather not talk about it.” Comparing answers never ends well.
Do not let the test score define you! Once you get your results back, either celebrate how well you did or reflect how you could have done better. Do not beat yourself up for not doing as well as you think you should have. Take it as a learning experience.
If you feel like your stress and anxiety is getting in the way of your academic successes, talk to a therapist or counselor. Use the Counseling Center to your advantage—they are there to listen and help you succeed.