Individuals typically have one of two mindsets about anxiety:
Each mindset will impact how an individual perceives and responds to the stress of tests.
Students who have a mindset that anxiety is a normal reaction to a test situation will:
Students who have a mindset that anxiety is dangerous are more likely to engage in avoidance behaviours (e.g., not ask questions, put off studying), distraction (e.g., looking around the room, watching the clock), and in the extreme try to escape the situation (e.g., speed through test questions, not attend the exam).
Students caught in an "anxiety as dangerous" mindset perceive the test as a significant threat. They likely feel pressure for everything on the test to go exactly right. They will have a strong need for certainty and a need to answer all the ‘what if’ questions. They typically don’t feel prepared, even if they’ve put hours into studying, and are afraid of criticism or failure.
Students perform at their best with a moderate level of physiological arousal. This physiological arousal motivates them to plan and prepare, focuses attention, and provides energy to take on the challenge of a test. In this way, some anxiety, which brings heightened physiological arousal and emotional activation, can facilitate performance. If the physiological arousal gets too high or if worry demands attention, anxiety can interfere with the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, impeding cognitive processing, reasoning, and memory.
Image retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HebbianYerkesDodson.svg
If you think a student is experiencing test anxiety, it can be helpful to check in about how the student is feeling. With an empathic, reassuring response, you can help the student start to learn a new mindset about anxiety.
Empathy is the ability to walk in another’s shoes by sensing or feeling (affective) another person’s emotions, combined with the ability to understand (cognitive) what they might be experiencing. We can demonstrate empathy, using a curious and tentative tone, by:
You can use this opportunity to share what you’ve learned about "anxiety as normal" and "anxiety as dangerous" mindsets. You might answer any outstanding questions the student has about the content or the test to provide a bit more certainty for the student. You might also introduce the student to one of the following strategies.
Reappraisal is one emotion-regulation strategy through which an individual reinterprets the meaning of a situation to decrease the emotional impact on the individual. Instructors can influence students’ mindset about anxiety and even assist in shifting the meaning of anxiety from harmful to neutral or helpful. Intentional messaging can help students see anxiety as:
Something that is normal to help plan and prepare
Their bodies preparing them to take on a challenge by providing energy to focus attention and increase motivation
Something that helps the brain learn and grow
Sample email
Early research evidence supports the use of reappraisal messaging from instructors to students, such as through an email from the instructor to the class the day prior to an exam (Brady, Hard, & Gross, 2018).
Test anxiety is often fueled by self-criticism and fear of failure. For this reason, self-compassion can be a powerful antidote. Kristin Neff (2003), leading researcher on self-compassion, describes it as being open to and moved by one’s own suffering, experiencing feelings of caring and kindness toward oneself, taking an understanding, nonjudgmental attitude toward one’s inadequacies and failure, and recognizing that one’s own experience is part of the common human experience (Italics added for emphasis). Self-compassion is positively correlated with resilience, healthy perspective-taking, confidence, and adaptive coping strategies, and inversely related to anxiety, stress, and procrastination.
One way to support students’ development of compassionate self-talk related to test anxiety is to invite them to consider what they might say to a friend in a similar circumstance. Click here for an activity you can use with your students.
Strong physiological arousal from anxiety can impede cognitive functioning needed to prepare for and perform on tests. It can also impede a student’s ability to consider an alternate mindset to anxiety. In these situations, it’s helpful to use behavioural strategies for emotion regulation.
*Important note: Relaxation strategies help to manage the physiological arousal associated with anxiety. The aim of relaxation is not to escape anxiety, but to help students manage the anxious situation by calming the student enough to stay in the situation, whether that is studying or sitting in an exam. Think: Pause, reboot, and get back on track.
Breath has a significant impact on the stress response. Deep, slow belly breaths, also known as diaphragmatic breathing, helps to regulate the body. Anxiety likes to trigger fast shallow breaths from the chest. You can coach someone to place their hand on their belly while breathing to focus attention on belly breathing. Steps 1 – 4 may need to be repeated several times if the student is experiencing strong physiological activation.
Worry from anxiety can pull a student out of the present moment. The student might feel out of control and consumed by racing thoughts. The 5 to 1 grounding exercise helps to anchor the student back to the present moment. The benefit of this exercise is that it can be implemented anytime, anywhere. This strategy can be adapted by naming any combination of colours or even shapes and designs. The process can be repeated as many times as needed for the student to feel calmer and more focused on the present moment. Remind the student to take the time to actually name the items they see either out loud or in their minds.
You can debrief this exercise by asking students: “How do you feel?” and “Where is your attention now focused?”
"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally." - Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness is an effective strategy for reducing test anxiety in post-secondary students (John Lothes, et al., 2021). It can improve cognition and psychological health, increase subjective wellbeing and self-compassion, and enhance regulation of behaviour.
Mindfulness can be practiced in many ways, ranging from intentional meditation practices to daily routines such as while brushing one’s teeth. As an instructor, you might consider introducing your students to short mindfulness exercises during classes, prior to practice tests, and leading up to exams.
Mindful observation
Choose an object from within your immediate environment and focus on watching it for a minute or two. This could be a plant, a book, or even the wall.
Don’t do anything except notice the thing you are looking at. Simply relax into watching.
Look at this object as if you are seeing it for the first time. Observing without judgment.
Visually explore every aspect of its formation and allow yourself to be consumed by its presence.
If your attention wanders, just notice and gently bring your focus back to the object.
Notice the shape…colours…textures. Notice the lines or curves. Notice where colours or textures change.
Allow yourself to connect with its energy and its purpose within the world. (Use bell sound to bring attention back to present moment).
Follow-up discussion
Who feels a bit more focused than before?
Did you notice certain thoughts or distractions that caused your awareness to move away from the present moment?
It’s normal for our minds to wander or to feel impatience when first learning mindfulness. With practice, you will find it gets easier to focus your attention, while recognizing that our minds may still wander and we may still feel uncomfortable from time to time. Mindfulness is great because you can really use it anywhere and anytime (e.g., while studying, between classes, before/during exams)! Consider practicing mindful observation with a daily routine, such as brushing your teeth or washing your hair!
Click here to listen to a 3-minute breathing space meditation.
Follow-up discussion
Who feels a bit more relaxed, or at least less distracted, than before?
Did you notice certain thoughts or distractions that caused your awareness to move away from the present moment?
It’s normal for our minds to wander or to feel impatience when first learning mindfulness. With practice, you will find it gets easier to focus your attention, while recognizing that our minds may still wander and we may still feel uncomfortable from time to time. Mindfulness is great because you can really use it anywhere and anytime (e.g., while studying, between classes, before/during exams)!
After this lesson, you will be able to:
Identify signs and symptoms of test anxiety
Determine when students are in heightened distress
Apply five strategies to helping students cope with test anxiety in the classroom
Understand the four steps of the “Responding” model for helping students experiencing test anxiety and/or in distress.
