How to Overcome Testing Anxiety
First things first, we need to rock our exams! What if you struggle with anxiety, performance anxiety, or testing anxiety and your grades are tanking?
I struggled with debilitating testing anxiety that began in college and I didn’t overcome it until early March of 2025. I’d get physically sick, overwhelmed, and have panic attacks during my exams.
So how did I do it?
Answer: effort and experimentation
You can search testing anxiety on the internet and it’ll give you a pretty formal definition. Excessive fear/worry when taking a test is a good working definition, but what does it feel like?
When I took tests in high school, I would get stressed, but I could still think clearly enough to do well on an exam. That wasn’t testing anxiety, that was experiencing nerves. Those were good nerves because they allowed me to stay vigilant and focus.
My experience with testing anxiety began during my Organic Chemistry I midterm. I was in an auditorium and was surrounded by 200 brilliant classmates who intimidated me. Once I started my exam, my mind went blank. There were no thoughts and I couldn’t think no matter how hard I tried. It was like there was a fog that was placed in between my eyes and thoughts.
I believe I scored in the 60s on the exam and I was so upset because I thought if I studied harder, then I would get the results I wanted. Sound familiar? My grades improved, but it was an uphill battle all semester because the testing anxiety overwhelmed me.
Something that no one talks about when you’re a college student is that it’s really difficult to course correct when you do poorly on exams from testing anxiety. You have no time to adjust, which exacerbates the testing anxiety. You think if you meditate, mimic the testing conditions, or study more, then that’ll get you a better grade. Unfortunately, it’s usually not that simple since it’s a mental block and doesn’t involve your intelligence.
I’m sure many of you have looked up online “How to get rid of testing anxiety?” You probably read tips like: be mindful, meditate, keep practicing, etc. Did this help you? I know it didn’t help me. In fact, it worsened the testing anxiety because I felt bad that I couldn’t overcome something that was considered easy by the internet’s standards.
The reason these internet solutions don’t work is because they don’t address the root cause of the testing anxiety. They’re just a bandaid and until you confront what’s causing the testing anxiety, it’ll continue affecting your performance.
So what’s the solution?
f(arousal) = performance
Testing anxiety is complex. We first need to understand arousal because that’s what happens when we’re anxious. There’s a component of the brain called the amygdala that’s activated when our brain detects stimuli as threatening and we experience fear.
There’s an important theory in psychology called Optimal Arousal Theory. It posits that arousal is normally distributed (where are my statistics friends at?). The theory is an example of the Goldilocks principle.
If you aren’t aroused enough while taking a test, you won’t get a good result because you’ll be careless and miss the fine details. If you’re too aroused, your body is in a heightened state and it’s focused on trying to protect you, which clouds your judgment. Even your field of vision narrows because you’re in a hyper alert state.
Based on the image above, arousal is an independent variable, which means you can manipulate it. You can’t manipulate your performance because that’s an outcome. It’s a simple concept, but if you can change your arousal, then you can overcome the testing anxiety for good.
Usually testing anxiety is correlated with perfectionism. I’m a perfectionist at heart and it can be debilitating because my need for perfect results causes me to never feel prepared enough. There’s always something that I feel like I can learn just a little bit more to feel better for a test.
If you’re like me and struggle with perfectionism, give yourself grace. Focus on the fact that your desire for a good score means you care. This is huge. You care so much to where your body perceives there’s danger. It’s all about reframing! So accept your testing anxiety and perfectionism.
You’ll next need to figure out why you’re a perfectionist. Is it due to external pressure? Is it from pressure you put on yourself? Are you working for other people or for yourself? A way to help you find the answer to these questions is to take personality tests. I recommend first starting with MBTI and then following with Enneagram. These are great tools to help you become more self aware of your strengths and weaknesses.
I wanted to be perfect because I thought it would make me happy and feel good enough. The issue is that perfectionism is based on a lie. When I cracked the code and scored well on exams, it initially felt good. That feeling was quickly replaced with emptiness because I assumed the results would make me happy. The irony is that the less I cared about the results, the more I allowed myself to be happy in the present and good grades were a byproduct of that mental shift.
Failure is inevitable. The people you look up to and think are perfect have failed more times than you can count. What you see is the results of their dedication and diligence, NOT perfection. Perfectionism means you fear failure and it causes you to avoid the things you need to do. It takes courage facing your fears.
Instead of being afraid of failure, learn to embrace it. It’s just feedback for what you need to improve on. Detach yourself from the results and focus on understanding the material. Life is messy and it’s fun when you allow it to be. The most successful people aren’t necessarily the smartest, they just fail the most and keep going.
The key to overcome testing anxiety is by letting go. The worst thing you can do is judge yourself for making mistakes. It’s been proven so many times that humans learn best with positive reinforcement. Why do we judge ourselves so harshly for having the guts to try in the first place? I’m guilty of doing this all the time. I think we’re our own worst enemy because we’re not focused on the present and we take for granted the effort it took to get to where we are.
Allow yourself to fail in a controlled environment and make your preparation harder than the test. This will desensitize yourself to the material and it’ll allow you to be more resilient during the test.
Focus on understanding the basics first. You need to learn how to crawl really well before you can walk and ultimately sprint. You essentially have to sprint for your test.
What if you’re not motivated to study? You need to ask yourself what gets me moving?
I get immense joy from checking off items on a to do list, and it keeps me organized since I love multitasking. Make sure your list is easy to complete. Completing it will give you momentum to keep going.
I struggled with fatigue in college due to chronic illnesses. My solution was listening to music (specifically rap) while completing homework and studying. Music energized me and helped me reach a flow state in my work. Physics, Organic Chemistry, and Math are the best subjects to listen to music to while studying because you don’t have to focus on memorizing facts.
It’s a little controversial multitasking while you’re studying, but forget about what science or society says is not optimal for learning. Remember, we’re playing by the rules and staying in our box, but we’re making our box work for us. Make your studying work for YOUR needs.
If you only study when you listen to music, then that’s better than not studying at all. Your brain will believe whatever you tell it. For example, I took an exam in February and barely slept the night before the test. Right before the test started, I kept telling myself that I had a wonderful night sleep (in reality, I was exhausted!) so that I wouldn’t panic.
Guess what happened? I aced my test because I was confident in my preparation. I spent several months pushing myself beyond my limits, which helped me remain calm and not allow something like sleep affect me.
Disclaimer: Sleep is extremely important for learning so don’t make neglecting sleep a habit. If you suffer from sleep problems, consult your doctor or therapist.
Do what works for you and forget what people say is a better way to study.
In college, there were times where I’d work on my homework and couldn’t figure out how to solve some problems no matter how hard I tried. If this happens to you, then you have 1 of 2 options: work on homework for a completely different subject or take a walk. This helps you come back to the problem with a fresh perspective.
You can use this same strategy when taking a test. If you’re struggling to solve a problem, then star it to come back to and move on to the next problem. You need to learn to let go of trying to solve the problems perfectly the first time.
I had several mottos that I abided by in college to help me let go:
Don’t make the same mistake twice
Progress over perfection
Focus on understanding and the rest will take care of itself
Do your best and forget the rest
It’s only as hard as you want to make it
My newest mottos that help me when I’m feeling overwhelmed are:
How bad do you want it?
If you want it, it’s yours, but you gotta work for it
My next solution is take regular walks. This will clear your mind, relax you, and improve blood flow to your brain for optimal brain functioning.
Figure out what inspires you. For me, when I see or read about someone who is confident, a trailblazer, and exceptional at their job, I get a boost. This makes me believe that I can do hard things. You can also talk to friends or a therapist if you’re feeling insecure because they can give you a different perspective. I realized much of my recent struggles were due to me being judgmental of myself and not allowing myself to fail. I would’ve never known this if I hadn’t asked my support system for help.
Now you may wonder if I ever hired a tutor as a college student. I didn’t because I needed to teach myself in order to learn. I don’t have an amazing attention span and if someone is trying to teach me something, I’ll quickly lose focus unless I can use my hands to make a connection. As a result of my limitations, I had a very specific way of studying that worked for me (I’ve since modified it because it was very inefficient).
This is an unpopular take, but I think study groups are a waste of time. The whole idea behind forming a study group is helping each other understand topics you don’t understand. What if no one knows what’s going on in the class? Congratulations! You just wasted 2-3 hours getting even more confused.
My suggestion is go straight to the source. Ask your professor questions during their office hours because you may not like their teaching style, but they’re an expert in their field. If this still doesn’t help, then I recommend hiring a tutor. The smartest people are the ones who hire a tutor because they have enough self-awareness to know when to ask for help. It’s always okay to ask for help.
Something that was crucial in my success as a student was developing a “game plan” for each of my classes every semester.
Here’s an example of a game plan I made for my Ecology class:
-Read the textbook
-Take notes on the textbook
-Review notes from class
-Review lecture slides
-Make up practice questions
-Make sure you fully understand the chapter
-Make sure you fully understand the content and topics
-Go to office hours if you need help
In Summary:
Understand the cause of your perfectionism as it’s linked to testing anxiety
Desensitize yourself
Give yourself grace
Allow yourself to fail
Keep trying
Take regular walks
Get inspired
Ask for help
You can overcome the testing anxiety, it doesn’t need to define you. Experiment with what works for you and be confident in your preparation.
