I’m Anxious About My Test Anxiety

My Experience

My name is Jack Kybo. I am a college graduate in his mid-thirties who taught in the classroom for six years, I have been tutoring the ACT and SAT for over ten years, and I suffer from test anxiety related to assessments intended for people half my age.

Lined up in the hallway before I take a test, my brain goes into fight or flight mode, rushing through all the horrible scenarios that will happen once I enter my testing room.

My brain is reacting to the test experience in the same way it would react to encountering a lion in the wild. It sees a threat, and it’s trying to prepare my body to either face that threat or get the heck away from it. It’s not particularly attached to either plan; it just wants to survive.

In the lion scenario, I will eventually get away, and my brain will be able to recognize “we are safe.”

In a testing situation, my brain never gets that “we are safe” signal. It simply wasn’t designed to handle this kind of stress. As such, it will keep sounding the alarm about the test for as long as I let it.

Fortunately, my test anxiety abates once the test actually starts. Taking a test is a place of safety for me because I’ve devoted so much of my life to studying and making fun of test materials. It’s then when my brain remembers “Oh, you’ve prepared for this moment for way longer than anyone should. We’re actually going to be fine.”

What should high school students who aren’t willing to devote the next decade of their life to college entrance exams do?

My Advice

Please note: students who experience severe test anxiety and/or generalized anxiety should speak with a mental health professional. I’m just some guy on the internet who knows the difference between a participle and a gerund.

Adequate preparation.

Put in the work ahead of time—both in-lesson and in your practice. That will not only help you counter the “you’re not prepared” thoughts your brain is trying to throw at you, but it might also help lessen those thoughts in the first place.

Figure out your test morning routine.

What time do you need to go to bed the night before to give yourself the best chance of waking up feeling good?

What food and drink options will help you feel good without making you need to use the bathroom in the middle of the test?

If you’re unfamiliar with your testing center, make sure you give yourself more than enough time to get there, park, and find your testing room.

Acknowledge anxious thoughts, and then let them go.

I know, it’s easier said than done, but our brains our highly adaptable. We can train them to overcome their natural or learned tendencies.

For minor annoyances, I’ll acknowledge that the thought exists before moving my focus back to the test.

For more racing anxious thoughts, I’ll counter them with evidence of how I prepared for this moment. I’ll take a breath, and I’ll move forward.

Lions already exist. Don’t make more.

Remember: A test score does not define you, your worth, or your intelligence. All it does is tell us how well you knew the test on that day compared to others who also took the test. Is it important? Yes. Is it the only important part of your college application? No.

“Tests don’t matter.”

Some student paraphrasing what I just said while explaining to their parents why they actually don’t need to study.

Don’t turn the test into a lion. There are already enough of those in your life as it is.

If you’re a current KYBO Club member, why not take out some of that anxiety on some categorized drills? Those always cheer me up.