Test Anxiety: Test anxiety is a combination of physiological over-arousal, tension and somatic symptoms, along with worry, dread, fear of failure, and catastrophizing, that occur before or during test situations. (Wikipedia)
Now let me tell you what it’s really like.
It all happens too fast. There isn’t any way to prepare yourself.
So you start by preparing. Write the exam times in your agenda in the boldest, blackest ink you can find so you absolutely will not forget. Then, you decide your study methods – will it be a long listed study guide or flash cards? Or both? You basically do whatever physically possible to better prepare yourself for that awful 1.5-hour exam. Take a couple trips to your professor’s office to review example questions.
It’s the week before the test and you have studied everything completely. Cover to cover. But, still, you decide to pull a couple more all-nighters just to make sure you’re an absolute pro at it.
It’s best to be smarter than the professor, TBH.
Its test day. There is no turning back now. You did all you could and now it’s time to put it to the test (literally) The professor hands out the exam and you try not to lose any of that piled up information while filling out your scantron.
Because spelling your name can be distracting. Right?
You read the first question and then it happens. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Okay relax, read the question again.
Nope. Nothing.
Did we even learn this?
I think I’m going to throw up.
I know I learned this. I remember sitting in class taking notes on this.
It’s like a strong brick wall blocking everything.
Try moving on to the next question.
I am not stupid. I am not stupid. I am not stupid.
Again. Again. Again.
This is when the real anxiety starts to kick in. You look up at the time to see you have already wasted 20 minutes trying to solve problems that you ended up leaving blank. Everyone around you is flipping pages and punching numbers into their calculators while you stare at a completely blank scantron. The paper doesn’t even look like words anymore, more just like letters and numbers thrown together like a word-search puzzle.
Okay panic. Okay hyperventilating. I need fresh air.
Where is my inhaler? Is it embarrassing to take an inhaler in the middle of the exam? Will they kick me out?
Seriously might throw up.
Nervous habits set it - Leg shaking. Pencil tapping. Neck cracking. Thumb twiddling.
STOP AND FOCUS RIGHT NOW.
*another 5 minutes pass*
10 minutes left in the exam and you still have blank answers and no shot of figuring it out.
Do not start crying in the middle of this test. EVERYONE WILL SEE YOU.
*starts crying*
Okay at least don’t get tears on your scantron.
5 minutes left and you are one of the last people in the room. At this point, it’s time to face the music.
When in doubt, chose C. – amirite?
So test day is over and you get back your grade with that lovely F put into blackboard. Then when you go back over your answers you realize that A could’ve easily been yours. So much for trying…
Drink to celebrate a good grade, drink to mourn a bad grade.
If you’re one of the blessed ones, then you only face test-anxiety and not its lifelong partner of anxiety-disorder. This bad boy likes to ride along with depression too.
But remember, “It’s just one test.”
Yeah right. It is so much more than that.
