Test anxiety can take an otherwise sharp, well-prepared student…and totally torpedo their SAT or ACT score.
Racing thoughts, pounding heartbeat, a headache that won’t quit: not exactly a recipe for clear focus in the testing center.
If you’re someone who already gets nervous before school tests, you might be worrying that standardized testing—which can accrue way more hype and pressure than finals—will really spell a test-day meltdown.
I’m here to say: don’t worry. We’re not going to let that be YOUR fate.
But how?
I’m a private SAT and ACT tutor to very ambitious (and thus often very anxiety-prone!) high schoolers. It’s my whole job (and passion!) to make sure my clients successfully navigate whatever bumps in the road they encounter while en route to a superb SAT/ACT score. That includes psychological bumps in the road. And today I’m going to share with you the key points I’ve learned about test anxiety: what it is, who gets it, and how to overcome it.
Whether you’re a high schooler or the parent of one, I invite you to join me in learning how to do away with the internal hurdles that hurt external scores.
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Video version of this article
2. How mindset affects Digital SAT/ACT performance
4. What kinds of students get Test Anxiety?
5. Root causes of Test Anxiety
6. Test Anxiety hack #1: Three points of contact
7. Conclusion
Watch this article as a video:
How mindset affects Digital SAT and ACT Performance
Elsewhere, my blog has explored the foundations of SAT/ACT prep: having the right study plan, creating and actually pursuing a testing timeline so you get the high score you need (without peaking too early), developing clear ACT or SAT goals, and learning the actual content and strategies necessary for your exam of choice.
But there’s one more essential piece of the puzzle: mastering the mental jiu-jitsu of test-taking. You need to teach your mind to work FOR you—and not against you—before that pressureful Test Day comes along.
Many students don’t even realize that testing zen is a skill in and of itself that they need to prepare beforehand. They lose serious points when they’re in the testing seat and go all deer-in-the-headlights. Therefore, by learning to master your own nervous system ahead of time, you’ll gain a major edge over the competition.
Test Anxiety Definition
Please note: I am not a doctor. If you need medical or psychiatric help, please contact an appropriate professional.
It would be, frankly, pretty weird if you didn’t feel at least a little anxious when you sat down in the testing center to take your first Digital SAT or ACT. An activated, shaky feeling in your hands? A slightly elevated heart rate? These are not necessarily extreme enough to qualify as test anxiety per se.
Instead, test anxiety is: an extremely intense form of performance anxiety, often characterized by all-consuming feelings of fear, worry, or dread. Unfortunately, all of those negative emotions can sometimes manifest in physical symptoms, like a racing heart, sweaty palms, feeling sick to your stomach, or your brain going as blank as a new sheet of paper…even when you’re working on a type of question you definitely prepped for a hundred times.
What kinds of students get test anxiety?
Over the course of my 16+ year career as a test prep expert, I’ve observed that the students most subject to Test Anxiety typically fall into one of two categories: the “Perfectionists” and the “Slackers.”
Perfectionists and test-day nerves
The Perfectionists hold themselves to such an impossibly high standard that they can develop an overwhelming phobia of making mistakes.
This kind of student typically—for internal or external reasons—bases a lot of their identity and self-worth in excellent grades, test scores, and other accomplishments. The result? They’re REALLY hard on themselves when they don’t meet their own (or their parents’) high standards for a given task.
When all of the pressure and expectations come home to roost on test day, the Perfectionist will often totally freeze up. No thoughts, just a humming in their mind. It’s hard for them to remember their own name, let alone how to solve a system of linear equations.
For the Perfectionist, beating Test Anxiety is a mental game. One you CAN win, with the proper strategy. I’ve helped many students do so over the years.
(Plus, there are serious side benefits: if you do this self-work now, you’ll also gain higher self-esteem and won’t spend nearly as much on therapy as your friends do ten years from now!)
Procrastinators and test anxiety
The Slackers/Procrastinators, by contrast, experience a flavor of Test Anxiety that is not entirely irrational—because they actually do arrive at test day less prepared than they could and should be.
But even though there’s some material truth behind the Slacker’s test anxiety—unlike the purely psychological ordeal of the Perfectionist—there’s also a doom spiral quality to the Slacker’s thinking that soon makes things even worse. After all, if you truly AREN’T prepared, DON’T have a thorough understanding of the test’s structure, sections, content, strategies, or goal—of COURSE you’ll have to deal with a negative internal monologue about what a bad score you’re going to get!
As you might guess, the Procrastinators are the opposite of the Perfectionists in some ways: rather than studying for five hours a day, seven days a week, the Slackers aren’t ready for the test because they tried to avoid and delay studying as long as possible, waiting until the eleventh hour to hit the books/hire a tutor (if they even do so at all).
What drives someone to such acrobatic feats of procrastination? I’ve encountered plenty of students who fit this bill (before I got them in shape with a custom study strategy, that is). And I’ve noticed that they often don’t study early and often because they feel like it’s pointless. I mean, why bother putting themselves through the paces if they truly believe they won’t get a good score, or eventually get into the college they want to attend? That’s a waste of precious energy and time they’d rather spend on Instagram or Call of Duty.
A variation on this is when a Slacker avoids studying because they can’t see how the work of test prep brings them to a certain big-picture outcome they want. Problem sets and drills sound like a lot of extra work….and what’s the point in going through all of that? Life’s too short! You’re only young once!
But that brings us to the good news here: if Slackers can learn to see how the sometimes-tough work of test prep helps unlock their long-term academic and career dreams, they can escape the damaging influence of who-cares thinking and take the first steps towards the scores they’re capable of.
Root causes of test anxiety
If you Google this topic, you’ll find somewhat unsurprising answers to the question of what causes test anxiety:
“Situational Causes” (you’ve only got a certain amount of time to complete the test; there’s tons of pressure!; you don’t know the content; insufficient study skills; lack of preparation; lack of control; you’ve done badly on tests in the past; etc.); and
“Mental Causes” (worries over getting a bad score; fear of disappointing your parents or teachers; high expectations; self-worth that’s wrapped up in accomplishment; negative self-talk; putting too much pressure on a single performance; etc.)
But if we contemplate further, it turns out that virtually all of these reasons can be placed under two big, umbrella reasons:
Test anxiety is caused by lack of preparation
Test anxiety is caused by mental noise or chatter
… which—how convenient for us!—correlate to the two main types of students who typically suffer from Test Anxiety in the first place! (Don’t worry—I’ve given you strategies for tackling both root causes in this Test Anxiety blog post series.)
And if we want to dig even deeper (because, well, that’s my job as an SAT/ACT guru!), the reasons for procrastination and under-preparedness are ALSO psychological. It’s the Slacker telling herself why the effort isn’t worth the reward because she DOESN’T see the significance of the test—AGAIN, a matter of negative inner monologue. And the Perfectionist is ALSO facing down some scary dragons in his own mind: mainly, the stories he tells himself about how end-all-be-all this one test sitting is.
So really, the Perfectionist and the Slacker are two sides of the “Significance” coin. The Slacker doesn’t see the significance of the test for her personally, while the Perfectionist sees nothing BUT the significance—and is thus knocked down by dread and self-doubt. (And, interestingly enough, I’ve found that some Slackers are actually secret Perfectionists—they feel SO intimidated by the importance of the test that they don’t even know where to begin trying...so they give up before they begin.)
And where is all this “Significance” or “lack of Significance” coming from? Why, the stories you tell yourself in your head—i.e. your mental chatter or your “self talk.”
What I mean by mental chatter is: if you let your mind go blank for a moment and don’t hear that running commentary you’re having silently in your head about what you’re reading right now—yeah, THAT commentary right there!—there would be no “story.” There would be no chatter.
And when you clear your mind of chatter, an incredible thing happens: you become what meditation teachers call “present.” You can then use your mind to do what it’s SUPPOSED to do: proactively THINK and solve problems—like the ones on the Digital SAT and ACT! And when your mind is uncluttered and only directed at the test questions at hand, you tend to get them right. And get INCREDIBLE scores, while you’re at it.
But HOW do we clear your mind of all that clutter? There are MANY ways, and different ones work for different people. (That’s why this post is just one of several I’ve published about Test Anxiety.) And today, I’m going to share just one of my favorite strategies.
Test Anxiety Hack: Three points of contact
By “three points of contact,” I mean that you’re going to bring your attention to three different physical sensations in your body, all at once, and hold your focus there for three deep breaths.
For instance, here are three I notice at this very moment:
The gentle weight of my glasses on my nose as I type out this post;
The sensation of my chest moving in and out as I breathe;
The feeling of my left foot resting on the floor.
For you, maybe your three points of contact are:
The pressure of the chair you’re sitting on against your right thigh;
The feeling of your elbow on the table;
The soft tickle of your hair against your neck.
Whatever your three points of contact are, find them, and notice ALL THREE at the SAME TIME while you take in THREE DEEP BREATHS. (I like to do this with my eyes closed, but you don’t have to.)
Something incredible will happen: if you stay focused on ONLY those three points of contact and on ALL of those three points of contact at the same time, the mental chatter will soften or even disappear entirely, at least for a while.
Make it a habit to do this before you start a test section or a study session; it only costs you about ten seconds. Soon, this ritual will become second nature, and you’ll win more and more precious mental space for your brain—which brings clarity. And focus. And comprehension, retention…and yes, more points!
Points that it’s my job to get you more of, my friend.
Conclusion
To some, test anxiety might sound like a New Age-y, hard-to-pin-down concept—but there’s real truth behind it: I’ve seen many students noticeably improve their scores just by calming their test-day nerves.
The type of advice outlined in this post is why my private students (and their parents) often give me feedback like, “you offer a fantastic service that includes assessment and coaching, which goes way beyond what a traditional tutor does.” (A real email I received from a client!) If you want that level of personal attention and expert skill to help get you YOUR target SAT or ACT test score, contact me here.
OR, if private tutoring doesn’t fit your budget or study style, never fear! My online course will let you proceed at your own pace:
This video class—which, once purchased is yours to replay forever—will help you leave your test anxiety behind once and for all. I walk you through over a DOZEN tricks and strategies for keeping calm and testing on. If you liked the tip that today’s post had to offer, just imagine the kind of score you can achieve with buckets MORE of them.
