Test Anxiety: A quick note.

Test anxiety interferes with students performance in a variety of ways. For one, if a student has a panic attack at the beginning of the exam they seriously shorten the amount of time they have to complete said exam. Test anxiety is is characterized by four factors: tension, worry, test-irrelevant thinking, and bodily reactions (Nitko, 2011). Any of these are enough to interfere with performance on an exam. Bodily reactions like headaches, stomach-aches, or palpitations can make it very difficult to pay attention and recall information. If a student is preoccupied with external factors, such as how their parents will react if they bring home a bad grade, they are not focusing on the exam and that effects performance as well.

To address test anxiety a teacher's best defense is a good offense. Inform the students what the assessment covers, how long they will have, what format it's in, etc. Avoid telling students that an assessment is going to be “hard, difficult, etc”. Provide sincere and comprehensive feedback throughout the year so a student can work on their weaknesses. Dr. Nitko suggests frequent testing to improve performance in anxious students (Nitko, 2011) and arranging assessment tasks from easiest to hardest. Avoid placation like “you'll do fine” and “don't worry”. Instead address the students concerns by answering questions about content and reinforcing the areas they're worried about. During the assessment, try not to walk around and look over students' shoulders. Talking and interrupting the student is obviously a bad idea. Convey a sense of confidence about the students' performance on the exam (Nitko, 2011). If YOU think that the students will not do well, YOU did not do your job in preparing them.

Nitko, A. J. (2011). Educational Assessment of Students. (6^th Ed). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.