To most people tests, are just part of life as a student. What's the big deal anyway? For most people testing is not a huge deal, but coming from someone with test anxiety, it's a whole different story. My test anxiety causes me to get extremely nervous and anxious when faced with an exam, often it causes me to get flustered to the point where I forget the information even though I know it stone cold.
When I was younger, I vividly remember being taken out of third grade to be tested for different learning disabilities. Yet, I ended up not having any of them... but I still struggled in school and my grades didn't reflect the type of student that I actually was. I would perform well when it came to all my homework assignments and projects.
Yet when you put a test in front of me it was like I was a completely different student. As I got older, I began to better understand that this was an actual problem and I had to deal with it because it is just who I am. High school was probably one of the hardest times because there is much more testing than in middle and elementary school. Not to mention that high school meant preparing to take the SAT and ACT which would impact where I ended up going to college.
Luckily, I had some help from tutors to give me different strategies on how to actually take the tests. Still, it can be very frustrating when test scores do not fit with the type of student that I am and how tests can be so easy for other people. Now as a junior in college, this is still something that is a constant struggle for me when it comes to exams and midterms.
Some tests in college can make or break your grade which just adds to the anxiety when taking the actual exam. I have found specific strategies that help me with this issue, such as flashcards and Quizlet which makes practice tests and mixes up different questions I could get asked. I also really focus on the vocabulary of the chapter or chapters because it helps with answering the questions and takes away some of the anxiety on the exam. I do also study much more in advance than most of my friends even for the simplest exams and study much more than they may study because it makes me less anxious and makes me feel that I fully covered all possible information that may show up on the exam.
Some may say that I study too much but it really doesn't make sense to anyone unless they're in the same boat as me with test anxiety. Though this issue will impact me for the rest of life I know that I can use the different strategies that I have come up with to deal with it all. Anyone in the same boat, keep chugging along and do the best that you can do!
