Effects of Test Anxiety

Nguyễn Anh Thư

BAFNIU14140

Task 15 (page 59):

To many people taking a test, or exam is not a big deal. However, others find that taking a test is one of the worst thing that they have to do. Test anxiety is a psychological condition in which people experience extreme distress. Many of those people feel that they do not perform as well as they could and get very frustrated with themselves. In fact, that is the problem a lot of people seem to have.

          As you enter the classroom you aware that you are nervous, your heart is beating faster and your muscle is tense. That is one of the popular examples and symptoms of test anxiety. Test anxiety affect your body and your mind. When you are under stress, your body release a hormone adrenaline, which is prepared for confronting the danger. That is what cause the physical symptoms. Another reasons is that focusing on the bad thing. This could happen also fuels test anxiety. For instance, during the test time, people may get the poorly thought about the worst case like, “what if I forget all the thing I have learned last night?” or “ is my answer correct or not?”. Many thought like these will leave no psychological space for the test. The more a person concerned about the bad things that are subject to happen, the stronger the feeling of anxiety becomes.  And people perhaps will not think about the fears that make by others, for example, judgement by parents. This makes the person feel worse and, because his or her head is full of distracting thoughts and fears, it can increase the possibility that the person will do worse on the test.

         Test anxiety can be a real problem if you are so stressed out over a test that you cannot get past the nervousness to focus on the test questions and do your best work. Feeling ready to meet the challenge, though, can keep test anxiety at a manageable level. First of all, using a little stress to your advantage is the psychology method for reducing test anxiety.  Instead of reacting to the stress by dreading, complaining, or fretting about the test with friends, take an active approach. Let stress remind you to study well in advance of a test. In fact, the negative thoughts will be not avoid in your mind, confronting with those thoughts is the only way. Or simply is just relax.  For some people, this might mean learning a simple breathing exercise. Practicing breathing exercises regularly helps your body see these exercises as a signal to relax. To me, I strongly recommend to play sport, as badminton, yoga, tennis, chest, etc. These sport helps people keep calm and concentrate highly. And, of course, taking care of your health — such as getting enough sleep, exercise, and healthy eats before a test — can help keep your mind working at its best.