Overcoming Test Anxiety:
You Can Overcome Your Test Anxiety!

Many people see life itself as a test. But even those of us who don’t can’t avoid the fact that throughout our lives we are going to be tested for admission to school, or to qualify for employment certifications, or to get and keep a driver’s license. We will have our knowledge and artistic skills tested; we will have our athletic abilities, and mental and emotional stability tested. Each of us will perform brilliantly at some things and miserably at others.

If we perform brilliantly at the things our society values, we will have opportunities to prosper. So is it any wonder, with what’s at stake, that many of us develop test anxiety disorder?

If you suffer from test anxiety, you know how it works: you spend more than enough time in test preparation, and are confident that you know the material, or are ready for the performance involved. Then the big moment comes, and your mind simply shuts down. Why? It doesn’t really matter why you have test anxiety disorder; what matters is overcoming your test anxiety disorder.

Overcoming test anxiety is as simple as overcoming the mental processes which trigger it. The first step you can take towards overcoming test anxiety is to realize that, just because you are used to experiencing it, you don’t have to continue to do so. You can change your mindset with some serious effort.

Once you’ve accepted that change is possible, the next step in overcoming test anxiety is to do a reality check. Decide just how serious, in the real world, the consequences of failing this particular test will be. This part of overcoming test anxiety does not mean that you treat all tests as unimportant, but that you will survive any failure and that, the vast majority of the time, you will have another chance.

And overcoming test anxiety will require that you learn to separate yourself from your test scores. No matter how well or how poorly someone performs on a test, by overcoming test anxiety they will remain aware that they were an entire human being before they took it, and they are the same human being now that it's done. Overcoming test anxiety lets you recognize that you have worth apart from anything you have or do.

So when you sit down, or suit up, or get in the driver’s seat, or whatever, to take your test, overcoming test anxiety will be a matter of asserting to yourself that nothing which happens during or after the test can threaten your worth. If you’re stumped on a question or can’t do an exercise, move on to the next. You will go a long way towards overcoming test anxiety by realizing that you, and not the test questions, are in charge.

Overcoming test anxiety also means that you can accept feeling nervous about tests without thinking you will lose control. You can even channel your anxiety by letting it drive you harder to master the material. Make your test anxiety work for you!

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