In her November 14 blog post, Deb brought up the subject of “Test Anxiety” and shared some wonderful experiences from her own life that relate to the subject matter. I started writing a reply comment on her blog post but then I realized that the reply was getting too long for a comment. So, I decided to commit the reply to a blog post of my own hoping that it would benefit the community at large.

But before I proceed with my comments, I would like to thank Deb for bringing up this topic for it is important that we assist our students in dealing with their test anxiety.

The reasons for the anxiety may vary from one student to another but the fact that anxiety is something that many of our students experience, we (instructors) must do our best to assist them in overcoming as much of their anxieties as possible. Following are a few things I have done in my classes to try to alleviate as much of the students’ anxieties as possible.

0) Preparation, preparation, preparation! This is what Deb did to overcome possible anxieties that may arise while she was getting ready to tackle challenges she never had to encounter before. So, helping students with their preparation process to any challenge not just tests would go a long way in assisting them overcome their test anxiety. I share with my students study techniques I have used in the past to adequately prepare myself for tests and exams.

1) Accommodations: Some students have needs that if they articulate we must do our best to accommodate them. So, I have always accommodated any student who mentioned that she/he cannot do the test in the company of other students for it somehow distracts her/him. Thankfully, in the Physics room, there is a lab storage room adjacent to the class space, so I set up a spot for such student(s) to use it for test taking and I check on her/him to make sure that the test conditions are fine and adequate. I rarely had more than one or two students at a time requesting to have such special arrangement.

2) Food: I always have food/munchies available in class and especially during tests. Immediately after I pass the test papers, I wish the students “Goody Good Luck!”, then proceed to the tradition of distributing munchies [specifically, I would have sweets (for quick energy intake)], and I make a point of saying “Sweets to sweeten your thoughts!” Most of the students accept the food offer and very few decline them, some start consuming them right away while others wait until they seem to hit a snag and then they reach out for the food, and invariably all are thankful that I have provided them with some energy (I also quip every now and then by saying to them “Energy must always be conserved, the test is taking some from you so I must provide you with some energy back.”) I also allow students to eat/drink their own food items if they choose to do so to feel at ease and as casual as they felt during regular class days. The key idea here is that the students must realize that the tests are a class activity just like any other class activity, labs, Clickerisms, and any other formative assessment tools they have been experiencing in our class all along.

Source: http://handstitch.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/animal-crackers.jpg	Source: http://www.candywarehouse.com/assets/item/large/airheads-im-127096.jpg

3) TLC & Reframing: It is vital that we reframe what tests are all about. In other words, students must understand that tests are never to be interpreted as us against them type of thing. Rather, they must accept the fact that tests are always going to be us and them working together to bring forth what they know through their tests and as craftily and as logically as possible. So, when a student brings her/his test to hurriedly submit it, I quickly scan the test and if I see that the student left a question unanswered, I encourage her/him to go back and make an effort to give the question a try, especially since there is still more time for her/him to work on that question. If a student wrote just answers but did not provide explanations/justifications (the crux of learning), I prod them to go back and provide more meat to their work. This helps students realize that I would like for them to deal with tests the same way they have been expected to do in homework, labs, and Clickerisms. This also demonstrates to students that I am working with them to ensure that their performance in their tests is as optimal as possible and they generally express their appreciation for such TLC gestures on my part.

4) Value of Variety in Assessment: One way to reduce anxiety is to provide students with a variety of assessment options in any given course so that they realize that they have a variety of ways for them to demonstrate their knowledge acquisition. If students happen to be weak in tests (because of test-taking anxieties), then they may demonstrate the sophistication and depth of their learning through projects, labs, homework, portfolios, etc. High stakes summative tests that have great weight in any given course are bound to induce anxiety and they also are unidimensional in their establishment of whether students did indeed learn the course concepts or not. So, let’s spice our courses up with a variety of tangible and reliable assessment tools that would convince our students that tests are just one of many components that we use to assess their level and extent of knowledge acquisition.

Of course, as is the case with everything educational, the above items are just droplets in the sea of ideas on how to deal with test anxiety. I hope you would use the comment area to critique the above statements or share your own cool ideas of how you go about assisting your own students conquering their test anxiety.

Thank you and take great care! 🙂