Test anxiety occurs when a student worries about doing well on a test to a point where he or she becomes overwhelmed. This type of anxiety often interferes with sleep and eating patterns, social relationships with friends and family and may even cause one to become physically ill. This disorder can become a major hindrance on test performance and cause extreme nervousness, memory lapses and other stress-related symptoms. Parenting children going through test anxiety is not an easy task. Individuals who specialize in child psychology encourage parents to inform the child’s teacher, school counselor or school psychologist when this form of anxiety persist or occurs annually.
The following are tips for parents to use to help their child reduce test anxiety:
Being well prepared for the test is the best way to reduce test taking anxiety.
Help your child space out study time over a few days or weeks, and continually review class material, don’t wait until the night before and try to learn everything.
It’s important for both th child and parent maintain a positive attitude while preparing for the test. It’s also important to think positively while taking a test as well.
Exercising helps reduce stress. During study breaks: run, skip, jump or do other exercises.
Get a good night’s sleep before the test.
Show up to class early so you won’t have to worry about being late.
Stay relaxed, if you begin to get nervous take a few deep breaths slowly to relax yourself and then get back to work. Visit the “Breathing For Relaxation” article in ScottCounseling for extra breathing technique tips.
Read the directions slowly and carefully before beginning a test.
If you don’t understand the directions on the test, ask the teacher for help
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Skim through the test so that you have a good idea how to pace yourself.
Write down important formulas, facts, definitions and/or keywords in the margin first so you won’t worry about forgetting them.
Do the simple questions first to help build up your confidence for the harder questions.
Don’t worry about how fast other people finish their test; just concentrate on your own test.
If you don’t know a question skip it for the time being (come back to it later if you have time), and remember that you don’t have to always get every question right to do well on the test.
Focus on the question at hand; don’t let your mind wander on other things.
If you’re still experiencing extreme test anxiety after following these tips, seek help from your school counselor.
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