Beginner's Guide to Test Anxiety
I‘ll be honest: when I tutor a student who has severe test anxiety, I know that we’re likely to face a difficult journey to success on the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, or EA. It’s certainly not impossible to overcome test anxiety, but when an anxious student ultimately does well on the test, we celebrate with extra enthusiasm.
One of my favorite students was so anxious that he broke out in hives during his initial GMAT exam and couldn’t read the questions on the screen. When he finally earned a great score after quite a few months of hard work, it felt like a huge, hard-won victory.
It’s remarkably common to experience some nerves leading up to the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, or EA exam. Who doesn’t feel butterflies in their stomach when the first question pops up on the screen? The line between helpful exam-day excitement and debilitating test anxiety is not black and white, and almost everyone feels somewhat nervous for an event like a standardized exam. Even GMAT tutors get nervous – sometimes REALLY nervous – on test day.
So if you feel anxious about the GMAT or another standardized test, you’re not alone.
Read below to find out:
What is test anxiety?
How do you know whether test anxiety is negatively impacting your performance?
If you have test anxiety, what can you do about it?
WHAT IS TEST ANXIETY?
You’re about to start your exam. You might notice that you have:
Sweaty palms
Shaky hands
A pounding heart
Shortness of breath
Nausea
A sensation of paralysis
Tension in your body
Tunnel vision
An inability to think clearly – even if you don’t feel consciously nervous in other ways
All of these are completely normal and natural reactions to a stressful situation.
Imagine that instead of taking the GMAT or GRE, you’re faced with an angry tiger that’s trying to eat you. You would want your heart to pound, so that it can pump oxygenated blood to your limbs and help you run away or fight. You would want tunnel vision, to keep 100% of your focus on the threat.
These symptoms may be helpful in certain situations, but can be very unhelpful when you’re sitting down to take a test. For a cognitive task like the GMAT, LSAT, or GRE, you want to be alert and attentive -- but you also want to be relaxed, creative, and confident.
Test anxiety occurs when you are overly amped-up for the situation at hand, and the mental and physical reactions to the situation impede your ability to perform at your best. This video explains what happens in your body when you experience test anxiety.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina put it this way: “test anxiety is a combination of physical symptoms and emotional reactions that interfere with your ability to perform well on tests.”
So, the question is not whether you feel nervous about the test. The question is whether your nerves are causing you to underperform on test day.
HOW TO KNOW WHETHER YOU HAVE TEST ANXIETY
For many people, the answer to this question is pretty self-evident: if you feel the symptoms of anxiety listed above and know that they are negatively impacting your test score, then you can skip right down to the “what can you do about it” section below. Other test-takers score far lower on their actual exam than on their practice exams – and that’s often a sign that you’re experiencing test anxiety, even if you don’t consciously feel nervous during the exam.
To develop a deeper understanding of how test anxiety might affect your performance, try our 10-minute test anxiety and performance assessment, which features a breakdown of the mental and physical habits that can affect your score on tests like the GMAT, EA, LSAT, or GRE.
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT TEST ANXIETY?
So… what can you actually DO about test anxiety? You have quite a few options, and the best solution will inevitably depend on the specifics of your situation. Read below for some options to mitigate the negative impacts of test anxiety.
1) REDUCE TEST ANXIETY BY BEING PREPARED
We’ve all witnessed (or lived through) an exchange like the following:
Student 1: “I’m so nervous about the test, I’m going to fail!”
Student 2: “Did you study?”
Student 1: “... well, no…”
Student 2: *summons willpower to be sympathetic and not judgmental*
It should go without saying that if you don’t prepare for a specific test, you’re going to feel unprepared for it.
So, one way to diminish test anxiety is to ensure that you’re well prepared for the exam. If, for example, you’re taking the GMAT, you should be familiar with the format and content of the exam before setting foot in the test center, and you should have several GMAT practice tests under your belt.
Unfortunately, many of our GMAT, GRE, EA, and LSAT tutoring students DO put in plenty of work, but still feel anxiety when they take their exam. So while preparing for the test is one piece of the puzzle, it may not be enough on its own to feel calm and confident as you take a standardized exam.
2) MEDITATE TO REDUCE TEST ANXIETY
One tool that can be an effective weapon against test anxiety is mindfulness meditation. When you meditate, you train your brain to let go of certain thoughts and instead to focus on something neutral and consistent, such as your breath.
This is a valuable skill if you find yourself distracted by anxious thoughts during the GMAT or similar exams. Through daily practice, you can learn to turn your attention away from these distracting thoughts and back to answering the question on the screen in front of you.
Watch this video or read this article to learn more about getting started with mindfulness meditation.
3) BUILD RESILIENCE SKILLS TO REDUCE TEST ANXIETY
In addition to mindfulness meditation, there is a whole host of mental skills that professionals use to perform their best in high-pressure situations.
For example, many professional athletes develop pre-game rituals that help them remain calm and focused as they prepare for important competitions. Or, when something doesn’t go well, they use a different ritual to let go of past mistakes and refocus on the present moment.
You can develop your own rituals for before and during your exam. To learn more, check out this video on how to create successful test-day routines, featuring one of our favorite performance psychologists.
Another mental skill is to reframe the symptoms of anxiety in a positive light. Instead of freaking out when you feel your heart pounding, for instance, you can learn to interpret this symptom as a good thing: you’re about to crush the exam, so of course your body is amped up!
To learn more, watch this video on how to overcome test anxiety, or check out this Q&A with our mental performance coach.
4) LIFESTYLE CHANGES TO REDUCE TEST ANXIETY
Changes to your daily routine could help you enter the test room in a more relaxed and healthy frame of mind. Think about how the following factors might impact your state of mind on test day:
EXERCISE: Some symptoms of anxiety -- a racing heart and excessive sweating, for example -- occur when your body is too amped up for the task at hand. One way to reduce these symptoms is to get regular exercise.
Choose an activity that fits in with your schedule, and make it a goal to elevate your heart rate every day, even for just a short period of time. Doing this will allow your body to expend excess energy so it doesn’t get in your way while taking the GMAT, EA, LSAT, or GRE.
For more, check out this article about how exercise can affect standardized test performance and this Q&A with our physical fitness expert Kyle Krancher, a spectacular personal trainer who holds a degree in psychology. To get started with exercise to help your standardized test performance, try Kyle’s 12-minute workout for mental clarity.
DIET: What you eat can also play a role in managing your energy levels, which can, in turn, help with the symptoms of anxiety.
Think about the way you eat. Do your dietary habits leave you satiated and energized? Do you rely on caffeine or sugar in a way that leads to jitters and crashes? If necessary, make changes to your diet to ensure a consistent level of energy throughout the day.
To learn more about diet and test performance, read this Q&A with our nutrition expert.
SLEEP: Adequate sleep is also imperative for feeling relaxed, focused, and refreshed on test day. Inadequate or poor-quality sleep leaves your body and mind feeling stressed out, and you’ll have less capacity to regulate your test anxiety symptoms if you’re chronically behind on sleep – even if you’re used to powering through your day after just a few hours of sleep.
To learn more, check out this Q&A with our sleep expert.
5) SEEK EXPERT ADVICE TO ADDRESS YOUR TEST ANXIETY
It can be hard to see your own blind spots and address test anxiety on your own, and you may want to seek help from professionals who can help you develop strategies to conquer your anxiety.
Meet our performance experts to see whether they can help you tackle your anxiety on tests like the GMAT, GRE, EA, and LSAT.
Want to learn more about test anxiety on exams like the GMAT, GRE, EA, and LSAT?
Take our 10-minute Test Anxiety & Performance Quiz to help you understand the factors that contribute to test anxiety
Learn more about our mental skills coach and our mindfulness coach