There’s no need to worry at test time

Parents and teachers can work together to help children learn content and develop the right exam skills

THE term “test anxiety” often brings to mind images of a school pupil or university student worried about an upcoming exam.

Parents and teachers can be better prepared to support pupils and students by thinking about their own approaches to tests.

What is test anxiety?

Test anxiety is a “nervous feeling” that gets in the way of learning and writing a test.

Children could complain of headaches, nausea, sweating and shortness of breath or feelings of fear, depression and helplessness. They might fidget, pace up and down and avoid studying.

Some pupils will talk of “going blank”, having racing thoughts or saying bad things about themselves in a test.

Although not all pupils experience each of these problems, the impact of one or more can badly affect their ability to write tests. In time such problems may seriously harm children.

The trouble with testing policy

A narrow sense of “achievement” – measured by standardised tests in select subject areas – often doesn’t give a good idea of the key knowledge and skills children need to be successful in schooling and life.

Education is more likely to be successful when assessment of children’s abilities includes the views of teachersand communities.

What parents and teachers can do

1. Offer positive messaging.

For example, parents can encourage positive self-talk,

offer relaxation techniques and reassure children that anxiety is a natural feeling.

2. Keep communication open – Parents also need to talk to their children’s teachers – particularly since pupils do not always show test anxiety in all subjects.

3. Lower the pressure – It is important for parents to understand and also tell their children that tests are only way pupils can show how well they are doing in a subject. No test is a perfect reflection of what a pupil knows or is able to do.

Seeing tests as one piece of information about how a child is progressing, and seeking out added information as needed, will help parents gain perspective.

4. Take care of yourself – Just as parents must be aware of what messages they send, teachers also need to look after

themselves and avoid showing their own anxieties to pupils.

For example, studies have shown that when a teach is anxious about his or her own maths abilities, that anxiety can be passed on to the teacher’s pupils.

Similarly, teachers’ worries about how their class will do when compared to other pupils in the school, province and country, can transfer to pupils.

A positive development to emerge from some of these troubling findings is that there is a growing recognition of the relationship between teacher and student wellbeing.

5. Emphasise test skills, not drilling – Teachers can also help pupils deal with test anxiety by building up the pupils’ skills in preparing for tests.

This should not be confused with trying to teach children only what will be asked in a test.

Rather, practising strategies such as re-reading difficult questions, writing brief outlines beside shortanswer questions and managing time during tests will be helpful.

Preparing pupils to write tests well also includes teaching them about how tests are created – types of question, the thinking behind how marks are given for different questions and common difficulties with different question types.

Together, these skills can be used with and curriculum or test.

Pupils who have been well prepared, know the content and have test skills tend to have less test anxiety and are more capable of managing their time and responses. – The Conversation

A well-prepared and confident child will do well in any test.