Test Anxiety: 5 Methods to Help You Overcome Exam Stress

Ever find yourself, the night before the exam, unable to get to sleep? Then, in the morning, you’ve got this feeling in the pit of your stomach. When you get into the exam, you’re struggling to swallow, and it’s difficult to concentrate — you end up with a complete mind blank. If this is you, you could be dealing with test anxiety.

You’re not alone when it comes to experiencing test anxiety — it is a very common experience among students. In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to deal with the pressure so you can minimise it and get through your exams.

What is test anxiety?

Before sitting any type of exam, you may experience a level of nervousness or stress and that’s normal. In fact, a moderate amount of stress can actually be beneficial. A bit of nervous energy can help you feel motivated by making you feel alert, engaged and challenged, which can lead to optimal performance. 

However, test anxiety goes beyond that “optimal” level of stress and is no longer productive for your performance, which is something you need to deal with. That stress can end up being too intense and affect your ability to concentrate, and ultimately, you aren’t able to do as well as you would normally.

What causes test anxiety?

In order to know how to deal with test stress, it is important to understand what could be causing it. If you are experiencing exam anxiety, it may be attributed to:

1. A lack of preparation or study prior to the exam
2. Negative self-talk — telling yourself things like “I can’t do this” and “I’m not going to do well” can have a significant impact on how you feel during the exam.
3. Putting pressure on yourself to achieve a particular mark or perfectionism
4. Fear of failure 

Being aware of the potential causes can help you manage these feelings of anxiety in future exam settings.

What are the symptoms of test anxiety?

Test anxiety can manifest in different ways — the following are a few symptoms you may experience.

Physical

1. An increase in heart rate 
2. Sweating
3. Shortness of breath
4. Feeling nauseous or needing to vomit

Emotional

1. Feeling hopeless
2. Feeling nervous and/or overwhelmed
3. Experiencing low self-esteem

Cognitive

1. Struggling to concentrate or stay focused
2. Having mind blanks and finding it hard to remember key concepts
3. Worrying about how much time left you have to complete the exam
4. Comparing yourself to others during the test
5. End up knowing the answers after the exam is over

Behavioural

1. Procrastinating study
2. Making silly mistakes on questions you would normally find easy
3. Last-minute cramming
4. Fidgeting

How to deal with test anxiety

Knowing how to deal with test stress doesn’t only mean coming up with strategies to cope during the exam — being able to relax when taking a test involves working on lessening that anxiety well before the actual exam. 

Here are the main tips you can follow to know how to death with exam anxiety.

1. Start revising for your exams as soon as you can.

Once you are notified of when an exam will be, it’s time to start preparing for the exam. As mentioned previously, one of the main causes of test anxiety is being unprepared and not knowing what you may be assessed on. 

Determine the study techniques that work best for you and create study notes. Review previous lectures, answer practice questions,  get your hands on past papers (if they are available), and get support from a 1-on-1 tutor if you need help staying accountable. These will all help to manage your expectations and give you a better understanding of what content will be covered and what your exam may look like. 

2. Map out your exam prep.

Don’t underestimate the power of planning out your study in advance! In the lead-up to your exam, it can get a bit overwhelming if you don’t have a clear direction of what revision you need to accomplish before your exam. Using a calendar to schedule time to study will help keep you accountable for what you want to accomplish before exam day and also ensure that you get a certain amount of revision done. 

3. Cut the negative self-talk

Sometimes, you can be your own worst enemy with the thoughts you have about yourself. Telling yourself that you “didn’t do enough preparation” and “aren’t good enough” can impact your stress levels. Essentially, the thoughts you have about yourself can affect the way you feel and, more often than not, the way you behave. 

So if you’re telling yourself that you aren't prepared enough, that’s how you’re going to feel, and during the exam, you’ll tackle it as if you haven’t done enough preparation. Whenever you find yourself engaging in unhelpful self-talk, reframe it as a positive thought. Think to yourself, “I have prepared as much as I can and I’m going to get through this exam”. You can even take it a step further and be your hype-person! Reaffirm yourself. 

4. Remember that your well-being matters too.

Taking care of yourself is important, but it can be forgotten when life gets busy! In order to function at your best, you need to eat well, get an adequate amount of sleep each night (and rest!), and exercise regularly. These are all forms of self-care that should be prioritised.

While it can be tempting to skip sleep to study more (especially the night before an exam), you’re better off just sleeping, as it aids your concentration and memory.

5. Practice using relaxation/grounding techniques

Prior to the exam, it’s good to equip yourself with some relaxation techniques to help bring you back to the present moment if test anxiety or stress is taking over and you need to deal with it. 

a. 5-Sense (5-4-3-2-1) Method

If you are feeling overwhelmed, you can implement this technique by thinking of:

• Five things you can see
• Four things you can touch
• Three things you can hear
• Two things you can smell
• One thing you can taste

Using this method, you’ll be able to shift your focus from thoughts induced by test anxiety and ground yourself. 

b. Box Breathing

When you’re feeling anxious, you might experience a rapid heartbeat, and one way to slow it down is by taking big, slow and deep breaths. Slowing your breathing will help to slow your heart rate, and will help ground your awareness. 

You can slow down your breathing with the box breathing technique — breathing in for 4 seconds, holding for another 4, exhaling for 4 seconds and holding for another 4. By focusing on your breathing, you won’t be thinking about all those negative thoughts which fuel your test anxiety.