Test anxiety involves a combination of physiological over-arousal, worry and dread about test performance, and often interferes with normal learning and lowers test performance. It is prevalent amongst the student populations of the world, and has been studied formally since the early 1950s.

Symptoms

Test anxiety has been shown to have a consistently negative relationship with test performance, and test anxious students are found to perform about 12 percentile points below their non-anxious peers.

Test Anxiety is seen to consist of:

• Physiological over-arousal — often termed "emotionality." Somatic signs include headaches, stomach aches, nausea, diarrhea, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, light-headedness or fainting, rapid heart beat, and dry mouth.
• Worry & Dread — maladaptive cognitions. Include here catastrophic expectations of gloom and doom, fear of failure, random thoughts, feelings of inadequacy, self-condemnation, negative self-talk, frustration, comparing oneself unfavorably to others.
• Impairment - poor concentration, 'going blank' or 'freezing,' confusion, poor organization. The inability to concentrate leads to impaired performance on tests.

Measurement Scales

Early scales, by authors such as Charles Spielberger, tended to focus on physiological and somatic features and on worry, commonly referred to as "emotionality", while more recent offerings, such as that by Cassady & Johnson, emphasize cognitive processes. "Test Anxiety" for these authors consists of physiological and mental processes, and impaired test performance is seen as the result.

Treatment

While various suggestions might be beneficial, "treatment" usually refers to a method or protocol meant to reduce the specific problem. Behavioral protocols such as systematic desensitization rely on deep muscle relaxation, and pair relaxation to a graduated sequence of anxiety-provoking images. Cognitive protocols identify and challenge catastrophic and otherwise maladaptive expectations and attempt to replace them with more realistic attitudes.

While improved test scores would seem to be a principal objective, it proves hard to attain. Only a few scattered studies show improved test scores, and interventions which fail to improve scores remain unpublished.

Contributing Factors

Various factors may contribute to test anxiety, including prior adverse experiences, poor preparation, perfectionism, and a social atmosphere that places excessive importance on test results.

Combating Test Anxiety

To gain an accurate assessment of student comprehension, instructors should be concerned with minimizing the effects of test anxiety. Instructors might offer "second chances" post test, familiarize students with test format and grading scheme, and lower the impact of any one test.

While excellent anxiety-reduction advice is easy to find, it may not be as effective as some might wish. Research suggests that students do not gain as much from reading self-help material as students would from the same material received in therapy or in a participatory group setting. Nonetheless, we include here anxiety-reduction suggestions from several popular sources.

External links

• Guide to overcoming test anxiety
• Tips for dealing with test anxiety
• American Test Anxieties Association