Understanding Test Anxiety & Test-Day Performance Factors
If you’ve found this page, you’ve probably already taken our Test Anxiety & Performance Quiz, and you’re probably wondering what to do about your results. (And if you’re thinking “um, what quiz?”, here’s a 15-minute assessment that will give you scores on five factors that can affect test anxiety and your overall test-day performance.)
In our decades as test-prep tutors (yes, decades), test-takers’ core struggles have changed enormously. Thanks partly to the proliferation of resources such as free GMAT video courses, an increasing number of test-takers are well prepared from an academic standpoint, and they “know” more than enough to succeed on tests like the GMAT, GRE, EA, or LSAT.
But unfortunately, achieving your best possible test score is about more than just knowledge. We meet hundreds of test-takers each year, and before they begin working with us, a majority of those students underperform on test day, generally because of some combination of test anxiety, an inability to stay focused during the exam, and a lack of stamina.
Our Test Anxiety & Performance Quiz is designed to help test-takers identify the underlying causes of their test-day underperformance. We’ve broken those causes into five broad factors — Mental Skills, Mindfulness, Sleep, Nutrition, and Physical Fitness — all of which have been proven in peer-reviewed studies to have a profound impact on cognition and test performance.
So if you’d like to learn more about how to improve your skills in these five areas, keep reading.
-
Why Mental Skills Matter for the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
Mental skills allow you to approach standardized exams with a resilient, flexible, and confident mindset that can help you overcome test-day anxiety and perform your best when it matters most. Mental skills include:
Developing a pre-test routine. Pre-performance routines are employed by professional athletes and surgeons to focus their minds before high-stakes performances.
Reframing stress signals. Learning to interpret test-day nerves in a positive light can improve test results.
Managing your energy through breath control.
Many more, depending on your individual needs.
Interpreting your Mental Skills Score
There are four components to the Mental Skills score from our quiz:
Coping with Adversity (25% of the total score): Maintaining a positive outlook in tough circumstances; using effective coping skills to remain calm and focused.
Peaking Under Pressure (25%): Enjoying and rising to the challenge of high-pressure situations.
Goal Setting (25%): Setting daily and weekly goals to guide your GMAT, GRE, EA, or LSAT studies.
Freedom from Worry (25%): Remaining focused on the task at hand instead of worrying about future outcomes.
If you’ve taken our Test Anxiety and Performance Quiz, a low (0-39) or medium (40-74) score indicates that your mental skills have a negative impact on your GMAT, GRE, EA, or LSAT performance.
Your overall Mental Skills score could be dragged down by just one of the four components listed above, or by a combination of multiple components. We offer a detailed analysis of these sub-factors for our Test Anxiety Program and private tutoring students.
Mental Skills Resources for GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT Students
Want to learn more about how improving your mental skills can help your GMAT, GRE, EA, or LSAT performance? We’ve got you covered:
Videos
How to Overcome Performance Anxiety on the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
How to Create Successful Test Day Routines for the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
How to Close the Gap between Practice and Test Day on the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
Articles
One-on-one mental skills coaching
Our performance psychologist, Erika Osherow, provides one-on-one mental skills coaching for elite athletes, Fortune 500 executives, and top-performing students, among others. Her coaching is ideal for GMAT, GRE, EA, and LSAT students who struggle with test-day anxiety. Learn more about Erika here.
-
Why Mindfulness Matters for the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
Mindfulness is a nonjudgmental awareness of your moment-by-moment thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. This awareness allows you to react to difficult situations in ways that help you achieve your goals.
On tests like the GMAT, GRE, EA, or LSAT, this means that you can focus on answering the question in front of you instead of being caught up in distracting thoughts or worries. Studies have shown that even two weeks of mindfulness training can have a significant, positive impact on test results.
Mindfulness meditation is certainly not the only way to improve your mindfulness, but it is a particularly effective intervention for students who have test anxiety, struggle to focus on the task at hand, or who get caught in unhelpful patterns of thought.
Interpreting Your Mindfulness Score
There are three components to your Mindfulness score:
Awareness (33.3% of the total score): Being aware of disruptive stimuli and their associated internal reactions.
Non-judgment (33.3%): Adopting a non-judgmental attitude towards these stimuli and reactions.
Refocus (33.3%): Quickly refocusing attention on goal-related tasks.
If you’ve taken our Test Anxiety & Performance Quiz, a low (0-42) or medium (43-74) score indicates that your current level of mindfulness has a negative impact on your GMAT, GRE, EA, or LSAT performance.
Your overall score could be dragged down by just one of the three components listed above, or by a combination of multiple components. We offer a detailed analysis of these sub-factors for our Test Anxiety Program and private tutoring students.
Mindfulness Resources for GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT Students
Videos
Articles
One-on-one mindfulness coaching
Our mindfulness coach, Dr. Jenny Forman, provides one-on-one mindfulness coaching. In addition to her skills as a mindfulness coach, Jenny has served as a therapist, educational psychologist, and educational testing expert for more than two decades. Her coaching is ideal for standardized test-takers who struggle with anxiety, self-judgment, and distracting thoughts during their exams. Learn more about Jenny here.
-
Why Sleep Matters for the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
Getting adequate sleep is essential to brain function. The vast majority of adults need at least 7 hours of sleep each night. Failing to sleep for this length of time negatively impacts your memory, your reasoning skills, and your ability to pay attention -- things that are vital to learning test material and performing your best on test day.
Sleep deprivation can be acute (you can't sleep the night before the test), or chronic (you haven't had a good night’s sleep in a long time). To achieve optimal cognitive function, you must build routines and habits that allow you to sleep 7+ hours on a consistent basis.
Interpreting Your Sleep Score
There are four components to your Sleep score:
Subjective Sleep Quality (30% of the total score): Your perception of your overall sleep quality.
Sleep Latency, Duration, and Efficiency (30%): How long it takes you to fall asleep; how long you sleep each night; and the ratio of total sleep time to the amount of time you spend in bed.
Sleep Disturbances (20%): How frequently disturbances interrupt your sleep.
Daytime Dysfunction (20%): How much trouble you have staying awake during daytime activities.
If you’ve taken our Test Anxiety & Performance Quiz, a low (0-32) or medium (33-67) score indicates that your current sleep habits have a negative impact on your GMAT performance.
Your overall score could be dragged down by just one of the components listed above, or by a combination of multiple components. We offer a detailed analysis of these sub-factors for our Test Anxiety Program and private tutoring students.
Sleep resources for GMAT, GRE, EA & LSAT students
Articles
One-on-one sleep coaching
Our sleep coach, Shannon Glenn, provides one-on-one sleep coaching for students, executives, and elite athletes, among many others. Her coaching is ideal for GMAT, GRE, and LSAT students who struggle to maintain consistent focus and energy on test day, or for students who simply want to optimize the quality of their sleep. Learn more about Shannon here.
-
Why Nutrition Matters for the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
Your brain is fueled by the food that you eat, so it’s unsurprising that cognitive performance is deeply influenced by your diet.
Optimal brain function has been linked to regular consumption of specific foods such as leafy vegetables, fatty fish, berries, tea/coffee, and nuts. Excess refined sugar and other highly processed foods, on the other hand, have a negative effect on cognitive performance.
Just as important as what you eat is when you eat: your test-taking performance can be influenced by blood sugar levels that are too high or too low.
Finally, hydration is an essential – and often overlooked – aspect of nutrition that can impact your test performance. Even mild dehydration can result in impaired cognitive function.
Interpreting Your Nutrition Score
There are two components to your Nutrition score:
Brain-Healthy Diet (45% of the total score): Eating lots of brain-healthy foods and avoiding foods that impair brain function.
Diet Consistency (55%): Eating in a way that results in consistent energy levels throughout the day and week.
If you’ve taken our Test Anxiety & Performance Quiz, a low (0-35) or medium (36-64) score indicates that your current eating habits have a negative impact on your GMAT performance.
Your overall score could be dragged down by just one of the two components listed above, or by a combination of both components. We offer a detailed analysis of these sub-factors for our Test Anxiety Program and private tutoring students.
Nutrition Resources for GMAT, GRE, & LSAT Students
Articles
One-on-one nutrition coaching
Our nutrition coach, Brandee Hommerding, provides customized nutrition advice. She is particularly passionate about applying data and testing – such as gut biome inventories and hormone testing – to help clients optimize their health, mental performance, and overall energy levels. Learn more about Brandee here.
-
Why Physical Fitness Matters for the GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT
There is a growing body of evidence that ties physical fitness to cognitive function.
One study found that people with a higher fitness level scored 10% better than their less fit counterparts in a series of tests to measure the participants’ ability to learn, reason, and problem solve -- skills that are pretty important for conquering standardized tests like the GMAT or LSAT. Exercise improves the flow of oxygen to the brain, increases grey matter in a couple of key parts of the brain, and enhances connections between separate brain regions.
In addition, physical fitness can offset the negative effects of anxiety in high-pressure situations. When you exercise, you expose yourself to the physiological symptoms of anxiety (which overlap a great deal with the symptoms of a good workout), and over time you become less sensitive to the “fight or flight” signals that might spell disaster for your test.
In other words: instead of creating a feedback loop of increasing anxiety, exercise can help you learn to regain your composure and focus on solving the problem in front of you.
Interpreting Your Physical Fitness Score
There are three components to your Physical Fitness score:
Anxiety Sensitivity (40% of total score): Fear of anxiety-related physical sensations.
Self Efficacy (30%): Believing that you can succeed in a given situation.
Fitness Level (30%): Consistently exercising in a way that enhances brain health and reduces anxiety.
If you’ve taken our Test Anxiety & Performance Quiz, a low (0-30) or medium (31-68) score indicates that your current exercise habits have a negative impact on your GMAT performance.
Your overall score could be dragged down by just one of the three components listed above, or by a combination of multiple components. We offer a detailed analysis of these sub-factors for our Test Anxiety Program and private tutoring students.
Physical Fitness Resources for GMAT, GRE, EA, & LSAT Students
Videos
Articles
One-on-one fitness coaching for mental performance
Our fitness coach, Kyle Krancher, is possibly the world’s most thoughtful personal trainer, with a degree in psychology and a deep understanding of how fitness training can help you achieve your goals in all areas of your life. He is particularly passionate about using fitness as a tool for improving mental performance and emotional well-being.
Kyle offers customized online fitness programs, as well as one-on-one training sessions. His coaching is ideal for GMAT, GRE, EA, and LSAT students who struggle to maintain consistent focus and energy, and for students who want to improve their confidence and performance in all areas of their life. Learn more about Kyle here.