Some anxiety is natural and helps to keep you mentally and physically alert, but too much may cause physical distress, emotional upset, and concentration difficulties. While test anxiety may be difficult for some college students, there are ways to cope, somewhat reduce the stress and possibly rid of it entirely. Take a moment to consider how much the test matters: unless your degree or acceptance into grad school rides on a single test, chances are you can recoup any losses from a less-than-great performance. Managing Test Anxiety: Ideas for Students Jim Wright (www.interventioncentral.org) 4 to the test will improve the odds of doing his or her best on an examination and avoiding the ‘testing jitters.’ Take practice exams. What Is Test Anxiety? People are less likely to become anxious when doing something that is familiar. In addition to talking to your professor and/or student counselor about test anxiety, there are some ways to help you stay calm and focused come exam time. Here's what you can do to help your soon-to-be-university student prevent college-related anxiety. Although figures vary, it’s estimated that about 16 percent of college and high school students have high test anxiety and 18 percent have moderately high test anxiety, according to psychologist and author Richard Driscoll of the American Test Anxieties Association.. Anxiety has surpassed depression as the most common mental health diagnosis among college students, … Test anxiety is more than feeling a little nervous before a test. Simply understanding where a single test fits in the grand scheme of your life may be the most effective tactic to minimize test anxiety. Test anxiety is a psychological condition in which a person feels distress before, during, or after a test or exam to the point where stress causes poor performance. “Sometimes studying is getting away from the studying — go for a walk, watch a movie, play with your dog, get away from it for a while,” Enos said. Anxiety in college students occurs for a variety of reasons and takes on many different forms including social anxiety, test anxiety, and even panic attacks. The 2014 National College Health Assessment found that 54% of all college students report feeling overwhelming anxiety, up from 46.4% in 2012. Those who study for college tests are less likely to become worrisome or tense whenever given a test. For students who struggle with test anxiety, a bit of pre-exam nervousness turns into debilitating feelings of worry, dread, and fear, which can negatively impact performance. Anxiety during a test interferes with your ability to recall knowledge from memory as well as your ability to use higher-level thinking skills effectively. Overview of Test Taking and Anxiety Test anxiety is a feeling of agitation and distress associated with test taking, which impacts your ability to study or perform on the test. Test anxiety mainly stems from the college student did not study for whatever test was being taken at the time. Students can struggle with test anxiety … Bad study habits, poor past test performance, unrealistic expectations, and underlying anxiety problems can all contribute to test anxiety, which can take a major toll on your academic success. According to the American College Health Association Fall 2018 National College Health Assessment, 63% of college students in the US felt overwhelming anxiety in the past year. Test anxiety is the most common academic impairment in grade school, high school, and college. In the same survey, 23% reported being diagnosed or treated by a mental health professional for anxiety in the past year. 61% of high school students reported suffering from test anxiety at least some of the time, as many … Sometimes the student needs to simply relax.