Students experiencing high test anxiety
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
As students return from spring break and prepare for end-of-year testing, several of them could experience high test anxiety.
Several students around the country and of all grade levels can experience test anxiety, but it's normal for anyone who has to take a test.
Dr. Arpit Aggarwal from MU Health said moderate levels of anxiety can actually help your body and your brain to prepare for a test. However, that can change if you start feeling too much anxiety.
"When this level of anxiety getting starts getting more severe, and then it starts negatively affecting your performance," Aggarwal said.
The common symptoms of test anxiety can be physical, emotional and cognitive. Some physical symptoms can be fast heart rate, sweating or having sweaty palms, and maybe feeling like you are going to pass out.
Some emotional or psychological symptoms can include feeling scared or an overwhelming sense of failure or that you're not going to do well.
Cognitive symptoms can be "all or nothing" type of thinking, Aggarwal said.
"What what if I don't do good on this test? What is my future going to look like? So it's called, like, all or nothing thinking," Aggarwal said. "So if you think of, symptoms as physical, emotional and cognitive, that really helps, students and teachers, keeping a track of these symptoms."
Some University of Missouri students said they experience test anxiety, whether its before or during a test.
"I definitely have. I'd say more leading up to the test. I get super stressed and try to, like, memorize actually everything. But then like after the test, I usually feel more relieved," said MU student Ava Ruby.
MU student Halle Rubin shared some of her symptoms.
"I feel like it makes me paralyzed and I don't know what to study or where to start for anything. So it's just stressful in its own way," Rubin said.
MU student Abby Murphy said she has had test anxiety since the fourth grade.
"I've definitely learned prioritizing the things that stress you out the most are the things you're going to blank out the most," Murphy said. "So just working on those and just going over them a few extra times, that seemed to help me a lot."
All three MU students said that pressure from both parents and teachers are one of the reasons for test anxiety and Aggarwal said it can depend on the relationship.
"It's a fine balance of giving them independence, because they are going to have a more independent life from this point onwards," Aggarwal said. "And also have your natural instinct to help them as much as possible. So and therein lies the problem. You have to have a fine balance."
Aggarwal said common practices to help students with test anxiety include giving them more time to complete their test and be more accommodating of students who specific sensory requirements or learning problems.
