1. Test Anxiety
Causes and Cure

2. Stress Pressure to perform well (from self and/or others)
Lack of adequate study time (work, family, too many courses)
Fear of unknown or preconceived notions about test difficulty

3. From Stress to Anxiety
Student begins to fear test before time to take it
Fear reaches highest point at time to take the actual test

4. Within seconds ~ Muscles tense Blood pressure rises
Stress hormones are released…

5. From Anxiety to Anguish
Difficulty breathing
Difficulty concentrating
Mental “blank-out”
How does this happen??

6. Logical brain BYPASS

7. It is impossible to think clearly so long as the amygdala is excited.

8. Is it hopeless?
Thorough studying and careful preparation can help but will not necessarily prevent test anxiety
A student may know the answers both before and after the test, but not while taking the test!

9. Is it hopeless?
Even the best performers get stage fright –
Test anxiety works by the same brain mechanisms

10. But there is a solution …
Progressive relaxation can be performed
While sitting at a desk
In only two or three
minutes time

11. Progressive Relaxation
Feel your feet. Sense their weight. Consciously tense your toes. Tense hard and hold for a second. Relax them completely while taking a deep, slow breath. Then consciously tense and relax your whole foot in the same way, remembering to breathe deep and slow.
You will work your way up your body with this same exercise of tense and relax. Concentrate, and try to tense and then relax only one part of the body at a time – toes but not foot, then foot but not leg, then legs but not abdomen and so on. When you get to your upper back and shoulders, try to tense and relax that area without tensing your stomach muscles or your neck.
Take a few seconds for each step of this exercise, even though in the beginning this task will seem almost impossible. When you are finished with the progressive tension and relaxation, take another deep, slow breath and relax your entire body. Taking an extra few seconds to imagine that your body is very light - light enough to float - will finish off this total relaxation nicely.

12. Benefits NOW When experiencing test anxiety, this exercise:
draws awareness to each area of the body
adds oxygen to the brain
and relaxes the muscles

13. Benefits NOW These three things combined: calm down the amygdala
dispel stress hormones
allow the brain to think
clearly once again!

14. Benefits LATER
If you continue to perform this exercise on a regular basis:
You will learn to notice when certain areas of your body become tense

15. Benefits LATER
Tension in the upper back and neck is often caused by stress
Leads not only to pain in those areas but also to headaches

16. Benefits LATER
If you continue to perform this exercise on a regular basis:
You will learn how to quickly relax those tense areas of your body

17. Benefits LATER
Less stress
Less back and neck pain
Fewer headaches

18. Follow-up
While medical benefits of this exercise are known, educators may want to document whether and how much this exercise helps students overcome test anxiety

19. Measuring Success Before and after Control groups Anecdotal evidence
Surveys

20. References
Debiec, Jacek "Fear and the brain." Social Research. Winter.
Educational Testing Service (ETS) “Reducing Test Anxiety.” The Praxis Series. Online at:
LeDoux, Joseph The Emotional Brain: the Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. New York.: Simon and Schuster.
University of Maryland Medical Center “Sleep Disorders Center: Relaxation Techniques.” Online at
Westen, Drew, et al “Neural Bases of Motivated Reasoning: An MRI Study of Emotional Constraints on Partisan Political Judgment in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 18, No. 11: 1947–1958.

21. Images
amygdala -
woman afraid of monster -
worried young man -
anxiety cartoon character -
meditation, backpain -
headache -
happy people -
glasses -
success image -