Test Anxiety

Dr. Hutt’s Published Article on Test Anxiety in the WSCA (Western Suffolk Counselors Association) Publication, Fall 2006

 

One of our primary jobs as counselors/educators/mental health professionals is to recognize situations that impede learning and to remove obstacles that prevent students from succeeding. One major and often unrecognized obstacle is test- taking anxiety. Sometimes it occurs with a particular subject; other times it is triggered by a particular testing situation, such as standardized testing. When a student performs well in the classroom under non- testing conditions or with a tutor at home but then fails to perform to expectations on tests, test anxiety might be the culprit. According to Dr. Thomas M. Haladyna, a professor of educational psychology from Arizona State University, a quarter (25%) of the population has test anxiety. If his statistics are even remotely accurate than we have a nation of very nervous students.

Several factors have recently added to the problem of test anxiety. Admission to the top 200 universities is increasingly competitive. Impossibly high standards seem to get even higher every year. Why is this? There are three primary reasons. First, is the law of supply and demand; there are simply more students as our population grows. Second, a college education is no longer the province of a select few. Most children are now raised with the expectation they will go to college and they are prepped and primed from birth. Globalization is the last macro factor. Some of our finest and elite institutions admit many foreign students, thus shrinking the domestic applicant pool. At New York University’s commencement ceremony in 2006 there were 160 countries represented.

Not only do students have to perform better, but their performance is measured more often. Since the No Child Left Behind Act, standardized testing has become the norm at all levels of education. SAT’s have become longer, and more challenging. The stakes are high, and for many students, anxiety inhibits their performance.

There are many permutations of test anxiety. Math anxiety is probably the most common subject that triggers students’ anxiety. However, I have treated students who are subject specific with no easy answer as to why. I once treated a high school student with a history test phobia. She was an A student in all other subjects. Test anxiety often surfaces on standardized tests such as the SATs. It can also emerge late in the game; it is not uncommon for students to develop test anxiety for the first time in college or graduate school. I saw the best example of this when I treated a number one ranked law student whose test anxiety was so severe that she contemplated dropping out shortly before graduation.

Let’s face it; a test can simply be scary to a student. One of the most common dream themes in western civilization is being unprepared for an exam. In the dream, a test is handed to us in a classroom and to our utter horror we are paralyzed with fear because we know that we cannot answer a single question. In most instances these dreams are metaphorical. They occur at different stages of our lives because life can be seen as one big test. Expressions such as “someone is testing me” or “God is testing me” exist in our culture because life is challenging. This dream can be a warning to students who have not properly prepared for an exam that they need to do so.

But for students suffering from test anxiety, simply being prepared is not the answer. Well- prepared students facing a straightforward exam with no surprises can experience test anxiety. Although adolescents with learning disabilities or behavior disorders are especially vulnerable to test anxiety, students without such problems can, and do, suffer from it. The underlying reasons for this vary. As researchers have found, a fear of negative evaluation may underlie the anxiety. Parental pressure, unrealistic or not, can also contribute to the student’s anxiety. Often students are their own worst enemy; those who are self- driven become self- deprecating if they do not meet their own expectations. Catastrophic thinking often ensues leaving the student in a spiral of negativity that feeds on itself. The student becomes a prisoner of his or her own self- induced paranoia. In the more competitive schools, some students get caught up in comparing themselves to other high achievers around them. During tests, some fixate on how others are doing, thus losing focus, concentration and self- confidence. On a psychodynamic level, test anxiety is an attempt to unconsciously sabotage oneself or it can be an indirect expression of rage or anger. From a psychosocial perspective, test anxiety can be an outgrowth of an unstable and tumultuous living situation or reflect an unresolved personal trauma.

Studies reveal that test anxiety usually does not just go away and if untreated, the problem increases over time. One of the first treatments for text anxiety was developed in the 1960s by Dr. Tosi. The treatment, called Rational Stage Directed Hypnotherapy, involved a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnosis using vivid emotive imagery. Building on this framework, and borrowing from Milton Erickson, a pioneer in hypnosis and trance work, metaphors and other suggestive language can be used in conjunction with traditional hypnosis. A body- centered technique called Tapping, described below, can also be used. The most effective strategy combines these cognitive, behavioral, and hypnotic therapies, and is usually brief, only three to five sessions.

The most important experience for the patient during the first session is to have an immediate sense of mastery. This is accomplished by the use of self- hypnosis after a heightened stress state has been induced. The second session is a formal hypnosis experience. The third session makes use of a very rapid and powerful hypnotic trance and a discussion in order to further help the patient feel that the symptoms are a thing of the past. In the event that the patient feels anxious during the test. I teach a back up technique that many report has helped quell the anxiety. It is basically a finger signal that has been reinforced in the patient while in a hypnotic trance.

Although psychodynamic problems can be addressed, this approach works for most students irrespective of any other accompanying emotional problem or learning disabilities. It is especially effective with adolescents and young adults for several reasons. To an adolescent, hypnosis is a thrilling experience that fits them to a tee developmentally. Students resistant to counseling or psychotherapy oftentimes adapt easily to a model that offers such a shift in consciousness. The brevity of treatment is also attractive to this age group, and is part of the cure. When students/patients are told that they will be cured quickly, they respond rapidly. The short- term nature also prevents pathologizing the problem. It signals that test anxiety is not deep seated and does not require extensive psychotherapy or medication.

Following are two case studies that demonstrate how test anxiety can be cured in two very different patients. One student had with no problems other than test anxiety, which is a very typical scenario that many students experience. The other involves a student with clinical pathology. Of course their identities are concealed.

Barbara, a 17-year-old high school junior, was a high functioning individual, an athlete who worked part time and had no presenting problems other than text anxiety. Although she maintained a B average, she would panic on all math tests and “big tests” in all other subjects. She over thought, overanalyzed, and generally questioned her answers. She did not trust her instincts and oftentimes changed the right answer to a wrong one. Her physical symptoms included body numbness, shaking hands and legs and belabored breathing. Her family first addressed the problem by increasing her private tutoring. But the more she studied the more distressed she became, feeling more and more incompetent with each passing test. Barbara responded so well to treatment that she was basically cured after two sessions but she was seen for a third to solidify the gains that she made.

Beth was more atypical and challenging case. This 17-year-old student saw herself as potentially Ivy League bound, an honor student in the top 2% of her high school class. Beth was referred to me by her math tutor, who said that she was brilliant, capable, and the most “stressed out kid” he had ever met. She was clinically depressed with a diagnosable case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as well as a severe tic disorder. Our contract was to first treat the test anxiety and than tackle her other problems. Her test anxiety manifested exclusively on standardized tests, specifically the SAT. Her symptoms included absolute dread, panic and total negative and catastrophic thinking. Beth was an athlete who had recently seen a hypnotist for performance anxiety, with no success. Hence she was skeptical and doubted she was even hypnotizable. To replace the hypnosis, I used Tapping, a meridian based healing system, that can best be described as acupuncture for the emotions, and which can provide immediate relief. Throughout the treatment, I also used language and imagery calculated to work on both a conscious and unconscious level to shift her thoughts to a more positive pattern. The postscript was that she got an 800 on the math portion of the SAT and did above average on the other parts of the test. She did not go to an Ivy but did get into an honors program at a highly selective tier 1 university.

These two cases demonstrate that test anxiety can be easily treated, without medication or protracted therapy, allowing students to reach their true academic and personal potential. Thus, for students who are performing below par, test anxiety should be explored as a possible explanation.