Test Anxiety

Test anxiety is one of the most challenging hurdles that some students deal with when taking the SAT and ACT. Test anxiety is an emotional and physical response to the stress of taking a test. Here are some techniques students can use to effectively cope with this issue.

1.  Be prepared! It’s easy to feel stressed if you don’t feel well prepared for a test, so make sure you learn lots of strategies, review tested concepts, and take lots of practice tests so that you feel confident and prepared on test day.
2. Remind yourself that you are prepared. Make an effort to push negative thoughts from your mind and tell yourself that you are prepared and will do well on test day.
3. Sign up for lots of tests. Knowing that your next test is not your last test can do a lot to calm your nerves.
4. Breathe slowly. Breathing in and out slowly can help slow your heart rate and make you feel calmer.
5. Don’t procrastinate. It’s easy to push off tasks that make you feel anxious, but this will only make you feel worse in the end. Make a study and practice schedule and stick to it so you don’t allow yourself to fall behind.

Take care of your health. Make sure to get plenty of sleep in the days before the test, eat a healthy breakfast on test day, and get some physical activity the morning of the test. Feeling good physically will help you feel good mentally.