Herman & Associates: Serving southern California since 1988

Stress

Stress is part of everyday life.  College students may experience stress due to a number of life changes: moving away from parents house, dorm life, roommate conflicts, eating or sleeping irregularities, etc.  Students may also experience a degree of academic stress.  In fact, most students experience some level of stress before or during an exam.  Research indicates that the optimal amount of stress to maximize performance is a moderate degree.  However, when the degree of stress is too low, or too high, performance is negatively impacted. 

 Some students may experience symptoms of test anxiety.  They believe that the knowledge they bring to a test (resources) will be inadequate to perform to their desired level.  This generates added stress and anxiety, which may become overwhelming for some students.  When anxiety begins to affect exam performance it has become a problem.

Signs of Test Anxiety

Prior to, or during an exam, as in any stressful situation, a student may experience any of the following changes:

Physiological	Emotional	Cognitive
Perspiration, sweaty palms	Fear of failure	Decreased ability to make decisions
Diarrhea, indigestion, vomiting	Helplessness	Memory loss/forgetfulness
Headache/Stomachache	Frustration/anger	Limited attention span
Trembling/Dizziness	Shame/guilt	Inability to concentrate
Rapid heart beat	Doubt/hopelessness	Mental distraction
Tense muscles, tics	Anxiety/panic	Procrastination
Poor eating habits	Irritability	Negative self-statements
Poor sleeping habits or feeling tired	Tearfulness	Catastrophising
Susceptibility to illness	Moodiness	Preoccupation with thoughts or tasks

 

Effects of Test Anxiety on a test

• Nervousness:
• Having difficulty reading and understanding the questions on the exam paper.
• Having difficulty organizing thoughts.
• Making careless mistakes.
• Slower speed in answering questions.
• Having difficulty retrieving key words and concepts when answering essay questions.
• Doing poorly on an exam even though you know the material.
• Mental Blocking:
• Going blank on questions.
• Remembering the correct answers as soon as the exam is over.

What Causes Test Anxiety?

 

• Lack of preparation as indicated by:
• Cramming the night before the exam.
• Too much material + too little study time = ANXIETY.
• Procrastination (poor time management).
• Failure to effectively organize information.
• Poor study habits - not doing all the steps to learn the material covered on the test.
• Worrying about:
• Past performance on exams.
• How friends and other students are doing.
• Fear of failure and its consequences.
• Unrealistic expectations from self/others.
• Perfectionism.
• Excessive self-criticism.
• Catastrophising.
• All-or-nothing thinking.
• Negative self-talk.
• Understand the Professor's grading policy.  Ask if you need clarification.
• Obtain accurate information about the test.  Know the test format - how many questions, how much time, what type of questions (e.g., T/F, 4 alternative multiple choice, short answer, essay).  If there is an essay part to the exam then practice writing outlines for potential questions.
• Study and know the material well enough so that you can recall it even if you are under stress.
• Preview the textbook chapters.
• Read and highlight all of the material.
• Take notes from the textbook. 
• Generate questions from your textbooks and lecture notes.  Try to predict test questions.
• Answer and learn the questions in the back of the chapter in the textbook.
• Focus on keywords, concepts, and examples in your textbooks and lecture notes.
• Make charts and outlines that organize the information in your notes and textbook.
• Practice answering similar exam questions
• Build confidence by studying throughout the semester and avoid cramming the night before the exam.
• Seek tutoring in advance of the test.
• Take thorough notes.
• Write everything in your notes that the Professor writes on the board.
• Obtain peer's notes and fill in anything you missed.
• Consider tape-recording complex or dense lectures.
• Improve time management.
• Predict how much study time is needed to do well on this particular test.
• Make a study schedule.
• Plan for transition times.  Allow for "warm-up" time prior to studying and "cool-down" time after studying.
• Work in short spurts followed by a break.  Allow for breaks with reasonable eating and sleeping time.
• Delegate nonessential tasks when necessary.
• Improve study skills - condense material prior to the test.
• Plan your studying - have regularly scheduled 50-minute sessions followed by a 5-10 minute break.
• Create an atmosphere conducive to studying.  Learn where the best places are for you to study (e.g., your room, library, restaurant). 
• Remember SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) for reading your textbooks and read all the material.
• Highlight the important terms and concepts.
• Pull the highlighted material out of the test and write your own "study guide" for the test.
• Make flash cards of important terms and concepts.
• Understand how you learn best (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic).
• Use memory strategies
• Chunking (combining pieces of information from small individual units into larger chunks of information).
• Rehearsing.
• Visual imaging of auditory information.
• Pairing non-meaningful information with something of meaning.
• Associating new material with already learned information.
• Study each Professor's presentation style.
• Each Professor will give clues highlighting test material (e.g., nearly every item written on the board is on the test; repeated terms during lectures are on the tests).
• Become an expert on picking up these clues.
• Spend extra time studying this material.
• Review and revise your clues system immediately after a test.
• Study the tests themselves.
• Review previous tests.
• Learn how each Professor writes tests.
• Learn from your successes - understand why you got problems right!
• Learn from your mistakes - understand why you got items wrong!
• Try to make accurate predictions of test items.
• Review and revise your understanding of their exams immediately after taking another test.
• Get help if you need it.  Most college campuses have reading and writing centers where tutoring might be available.
• Use relaxation techniques, for example, taking long deep breaths to relax the body and reduce stress.
• Maintain a healthy lifestyle
• Mental balance and perspective - what's the worst that could happen?
• Maintain a balanced diet with regular eating.
• Maintain a regular sleep pattern
• Exercise regularly.

Stress Reduction Techniques

• Practice stress reduction techniques.  It is a learned skill.  The more you practice the better you will be with it.  Reduce the importance of the test or event - your performance on that day isn't going to determine your self-worth!
• Environmental Methods
• Reduce uncertainties - maintain normal daily routines.
• Listen to music, relaxation tapes, or soothing sounds (e.g., ocean waves, rainforest, babbling brook).
• Write about your stress - allow the paper to hold your worries.
• Maintain normal social activities - stay connected with others and get out of the house or library.
• Share your thoughts and feelings with your social support network.
• Whenever possible, take practice tests in a similar environment under similar testing conditions.
• Physical Techniques: these are most effective where stress is driven by excessive levels of adrenaline.
• Anticipate some mild anxiety and don't let it get in your way.  Mild anxiety is normal before any performance.  It's there because you care about your performance.
• Avoid caffeine because it increases anxiety.
• Exercise regularly.
• Learn what part of your body keeps your tension. Work to reduce the tension in that area regularly.
• Breathing Control
• Take a couple of deep breaths
• Allow the air to flow freely from your lungs and let the tension release from your body upon exhale.
• Focus on the part of your body that keeps your tension.
• Breath your tension away.
• Smile.
• Daily Progressive Muscular Relaxation (15-30 minutes a day)
• Practice tightening and relaxing every part of your body from your toes to your forehead muscles (each toe, foot, ankle, calf, knee, thigh, hips, lower back, middle back, upper back, each finger, wrists, forearm, upper arm, shoulders, neck, jaw, nose, ears, eyes, forehead). Do one leg and arm at a time.
• Tighten and hold each body group for 3 seconds.
• Release the body group and release the tension from that group.
• Breath easily for a few moments and enjoy the relaxation.
• Notice the tension leaving your body.
• Cognitive Techniques: most effective where psychological factors are driving stress.
• Maintain perspective - your self-worth is not on the line. 
• Allow for some mistakes and avoid perfectionism - you don't need to get every answer right.  Do the best you can.
• Visualization - close your eyes and imagine the classroom during the exam.  Image yourself doing well.  Envision applying stress reduction techniques as you are taking the exam.  Build confidence by believing in yourself and your abilities.  See yourself doing well on the test.
• Thought replacement strategies - you are the one in charge of your thought and you can control your thoughts. 
• Quickly identify negative self thoughts
• Interrupt them and challenge them.
• Actively change negative (self-defeating) thoughts to positive (self-enhancing) ones.  Practice thought replacement prior to the exam, during the exam and after the exam.
• Develop the ability to refocus your attention should it drift during an exam.
• Reassure yourself.  View the exam as an opportunity to show what you know instead of as a threat of failure.  Repeat to yourself:
• I can do this.
• I have prepared well.
• I will do my best.
• I will pass the test.
• I will focus on one question at a time.
• Imagery Relaxation
• Imagine a bubble around your negative thought.
• Shrink the bubble in your mind as small as you can.
• Imagine blowing the bubble to the farthest end of the universe.
• See and feel it disappearing.
• Refocus on the exam in front of you and the next question.
• Imagery Sanctuary
• Sit comfortably in a chair with both feet on the floor, back straight.
• Close your eyes.
• Focus on the inner screen in your mind's eye
• Imagine your ideal, safe relaxing place (e.g., favorite beach house or mountain cabin).
• Take yourself there for 15-30 seconds.
• Look around your sanctuary and smell the smells.
• It is a completely safe place where you can relax.
• Breath easily and enjoy the relaxation.
• Go there anytime you need a break.
• Remembering past good performances and achievements
• Maintain a good sense of humor - remember to smile and laugh!

Things to do prior to the test:

• Plan to get plenty of rest the night before.
• Review the material prior to going to sleep and again prior to the test.
• Arrive early.
• Plan to monitor the time during the exam (bring a watch and budget your time).

Things to do during the test:

• Maintain a relaxed state, self-confidence, and an internal focus on the exam rather then being distracted by other students and their test anxiety.
• Look over the entire test, plan your approach and budget your time.
• Read all directions even if you think you know them.
• Start with the easiest question format or topic to build confidence.

• Focus your attention on one question at a time.  Practice positive self-statements and thought replacement strategies.

• Persevere and pace yourself during the test.

• Relax if you don't initially know the answer to a question.
• Mark the question and come back to it after answering all other questions. Make quick notes indicating your thoughts at the time you skipped the question.
• Remember that additional details from your long-term memory may be triggered by a question or answer later in the test.  This may provide information for an earlier skipped question or allow you to correct a question you might have already answered and missed.
• If time is running out, concentrate on those questions you know best and/or carry the most weight.
• Use all the time allowed for double-checking your answers and completing ideas on essay questions.  On multiple choice tests, remember that your first impression is usually right and only change answers if you are sure of yourself.

Essay Exams.

Organize your thoughts and write out a brief outline. Answer difficult essay questions by writing down what you do know even if you know it isn't a complete answer.  Writing down what you know may spark your memory.  Start with a short summary or topic sentence and then fill in the details. Be concise and avoid rambling.

Objective Exams. 

Answer each question in your own words prior to looking over the choices provided by the Professor. Try to eliminate clearly wrong answers and make an educated guess at the right answer.  Remember to mark difficult questions and come back to them later. 

Things to do after the test:

• Avoid going over exam answers with other students.  This will only increase your anxiety.  Reassure yourself that you studied hard and did your best given all the variables in your life.
• Plan on a post-exam reward.  Catch up on missed leisure activities, friends, etc.
• Review your study process.  Did you accurately identify the information emphasized on the exam?  Check off the material that actually appeared in the exam (in case of a later comprehensive final).  Learn from your mistakes and improve your study strategies for that particular Professor's exams.
• Begin preparing for the next test by previewing the next chapter and getting an early jump on reading.