Helping Your Child Deal with Test Anxiety

It doesn't take long for students to realize that the college stakes are higher in junior year. Your high school junior may be facing the PSATs this month, and the ACTs or SATs down the road. No matter what their exam schedule, they're facing some big tests over the next two years. It's no wonder that many high school juniors -- and their parents -- start to feel test anxiety in junior year.

High school students are experiencing more testing stress today than they have in years past. This may be because America is giving more weight to standardized testing. Standardized test scores, such as your child's PSAT scores, can play a big role in their college acceptance and in their scholarship search.

With this increased pressure, you may be envisioning late night, caffeine-driven cramming sessions and panicky test mornings. Tackling any test anxiety issues now can make life easier in junior and senior years, for both you and your teen.

Test Anxiety
As in many situations, students react to testing pressures in different ways. For some, test anxiety rouses them to action. It helps them gear up to face a difficult situation, compels them to study harder for the test and keeps them alert during the test. For others, it toys with the mind and plays havoc with self-esteem. Students suffering from test anxiety experience some or all of the following symptoms:

• Fear of failing before arriving to take the exam
• Feeling tension as the exam is being passed out
• Physical symptoms such as: increased heart rate, shortness of breath, perspiring, etc.
• Negative thinking that generalizes the situation to some or all other areas of life: "I am going to fail," "I am dumb," "I'll never get into college," etc.
• "Blanking out" on information that was studied
• Recalling information, upon leaving the classroom or a short period later, that was forgotten during the exam

Tips for Overcoming Test Anxiety
In her article Conquering Test Anxiety for Parenting Today's Teens, Diane McDilda offers lots of tips for parents to share with their teens. In a nutshell, the key points are to:

• Take time to prepare for a test -- don't try to cram everything into your head at the last minute.
• Read, then repeat. Go over material again and again.
• A memory recall trick is to close your eyes and visualize material such as statistics, dates and other facts. Then, during a test, you can close your eyes and visualize the same information.
• Do things that build confidence -- find something you're really good at and give it a try. That confidence can help charge up your self-esteem before an exam.
• Don't be afraid to ask a teacher for advice, or to go over any concerns you have about an upcoming test.
• Don't make too much out of a test -- teens pick up on parents' anxieties, too.
• Anxiety before a test will not be helped by drinking coffee or soda.

Try to ensure your child is eating well and getting enough sleep during the days before the exam, no matter how busy they are with studying. A little "mandatory fun" will also help. Your teen should incorporate some relaxing activities into their study time.

Most importantly, be ready to listen to your teen and keep the lines of communication open. An awareness of the stress they're facing will help you both.

Don't Give Up
If test anxiety has already taken a serious toll on your teen and the tips above don't seem to help, turn to a professional. Therapists use relaxation, visualization and positive affirmation to replace a student's negative feelings associated with taking tests with feelings of confidence.

Group therapy for math or language anxiety provides insight into what's causing the problem and strategies for overcoming it in a supportive peer group environment. Special test preparation workshops offered by schools, districts or private tutoring centers can also be very helpful for milder cases.

Educational institutions are recognizing the need for stress-reduction opportunities on campus. If test anxiety is becoming a problem for your child, be sure to talk to their school guidance counselor to find out what programs are available at their school.

Parents also should also be mindful of the messages we are sending our teens about testing. Sometimes our expectations and the way we convey them to our children lie at the root of the problem.

While testing is a necessary part of the educational process -- and one all students must learn to cope with to succeed in school -- the measure of a child's worth or potential should never rest solely on a test score. Teachers sometimes forget this, so parents must work extra hard to keep it in mind and convey it to their teens through their words and deeds.