Managing Exam Anxiety

Abstract

Exam anxiety is one of the most important aspects of negative thoughts and has direct negative effects on school performance. Exam anxiety is a psychological condition that involves severe distress before, during and/or after an exam, making it impossible for students to do deliver best performance. As any parent or teacher knows, exam can create crippling anxiety in students–and anxious kids can perform below their true abilities. This is because highly anxious children are more sensitive to failure and react more to evaluation from adults than low-anxious children do. More specifically, high-anxious children have strong drives to avoid criticism and failure because they fear negative evaluation. In contrast, low-anxious children are more motivated to approach success and obtain praise since they do not have as much fear of failure. These differing motivational patterns have important behavioral consequences. But new research in cognitive psychology and science is giving us a clear idea of the link between stress and performance, and allowing experts to develop specific strategies for helping kids manage their fears. These potential solutions are reasonably simple, effective and, as recent studies show, inexpensive. Some work for a broad range of students, while others target specific groups. Yet they’re unfamiliar to many teachers and parents are not familiar, who remain unaware that exam anxiety can be so easily relieved.