Many students have begun to exhibit the characteristics of test anxiety because of increased emphasis nationwide on high-stakes testing.

Test anxiety is most often defined as a situation-specific anxiety trait with emotionality and worry as its major components. In the terminology of the DSM-IV*, test anxiety is a specific phobia, situational type. The situation is test taking.

Common symptoms

Test anxiety is composed of two major variables, emotionality and worry. Worry is the cognitive component of test anxiety. Emotionality consists of the physiological symptoms that often characterize an anxiety attack. These symptoms may include sweating, dizzy spells, heart palpitations, stomachache or headache.

Worry consists of the cog-nitive symptoms that often characterize an anxiety attack. These symptoms may include low self-esteem, catastrophic thoughts, feelings of failure, worthlessness and dread.

Students with test anxiety may report stomach upset and headaches the day before and/or the day of the test. They may not feel like eating or have difficulty sleeping the night before the test. Some parents report bedwetting and crying.

During testing, these students may stare into space or look around the room and are incapacitated by the task before them. They may start to fidget and become hypervigilant. Often these students report they can't remember information they knew the night before the test. They feel stupid or ashamed of themselves. As one child put it, "I know I'm smart; I just can't prove it."

The suffering of these children is real, but many remain unconvinced of their plight. They are told that they haven't studied enough or that they need to work harder.

As a consequence, the law of diminishing returns comes into effect. The harder the student tries, the more difficult it is for him to pass a crucial test. The pressure increases with each test administered.

In one particular situation I am aware of, a student missed passing the state math proficiency test six times by just one or two points. The result of such a situation can often be hopelessness, rage or both.

Proper assessment and modifications

School psychologists can help alleviate the symptoms and negative effects of test anxiety. The treatment of test anxiety begins with a proper assessment that includes carefully taking a clinical history and using rating scales. After taking a student's history from a variety of sources (parent, teacher, child), it is important to determine the intensity, frequency, duration and inhibiting impact of the symptoms on the student's functioning.

Once test anxiety is determined, the remediation of its effects can begin. The treatment of test anxiety takes four forms in a traditional school setting: the modifications of time, test setting and test presentation and the teaching of test-taking and study skills.

Time refers to the extension of time to complete a test satisfactorily.

Test presentation refers to the alteration of the test format such as essay tests instead of multiple choice tests, as one possible example.

Teaching test-taking and study skills refers to the student's ability to understand the characteristics and formats of a test, or the test taking situation, to receive a high test score.

Students with test anxiety often need to practice test taking or simulating the test-taking experience to control or manage their anxiety. Studies have indicated certain groups of test-anxious students lack the necessary study skills to perform adequately on tests, as well as class assignments.

John Zbornik is a school psychologist with the Lakewood City Schools in Lakewood, Ohio. He can be reached at (216) 227-5130. This article appeared in Today's School Psychologist, November 2001.
©2001 LRP Publications. Reproduced with permission.

* Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV. Published by the American Psychiatric Association.