Students With Test Anxiety? What To Do As A Teacher?
I remember the young man coming up to talk to me after class. It was the first class period after my students had their first exam of the semester. The young man was more like a child in my eyes. He was 18 but skinny with scruffy dark hair and glasses reminding me of Harry Potter. This student was still very much the same person he was in high school and though he had ventured into college, he hadn't found his footing yet.
The Kid Seriously Looked Like Harry Potter
How could I be mean to Harry Potter?
The student approached me to talk about his exam. He got an F on it. He explained to me that he had very bad test anxiety. As he explained about college being different from high school and not knowing how to study for college tests I noted that he was nervous. He shifted a lot and made awkward body movements.
I'm pretty good at reading people and knowing when students are lying and when they are genuine. This student I believed him when he said he had test anxiety. He didn't ask anything of me. He didn't ask for extra credit or to retake the exam like some students might attempt. He just apologized.
I decided to take pity on him. I offered to let him take his second exam in my office where it was quiet and he wasn't mashed into a tight auditorium with 150 other people.
The hardest part of college for some students is learning to study and take tests. College assignments can be vastly different than the difficulty of high school assignments. I feel sometimes high schools don't fully prepare students for the real world and challenges kids will face.
There's A Test Coming! Time To Freak Out!
Dilemma: Should I Coddle College Students or Leave Them On Their Own?
I always run into an internal debate with myself when teaching. On one hand I want all my students to succeed. On the other hand my students are all adults so I feel like my students should be forced to live up to college level expectations. Should I be compassionate to students with test anxiety or should I be tough and force them to live up to college expectations?
Keep The Baby Birds In The Nest Or Kick Em Out To See If They Fly?
I'm a big softie so for freshman level classes I am often easier and more understanding with students. I try to give them advice to succeed and in times of major screw ups I often offer them a chance for redemption. It's not often I meet a kid who is so afraid of my exams that they tank. When I do I try to help them calm down and focus.
Adults With Test Anxiety
College students are adults but they are often also still kids. Those 18 year old's, fresh out of high school, are going through major changes. In the beginning of college I see so many students struggling to find their footing as an independent adult. No more bells to signal when class starts and ends. No more safe bubble of a high school where teachers and faculty control and plan students every moves during a school day. For the younger college students it can be a challenge waking themselves up and getting to class on time. It can be a challenge learning they have to think and plan for themselves. It's a big world outside the bubble high schools create.
Sometimes college teachers have to show compassion to the younger ones while at the same time showing a little tough love to help guide them into adulthood.
How would you handle students with test anxiety?
Very compassionate to do as an instructor. When getting their blood pressure checked, many patients blood pressure numbers skyrocket! It's called white-coat syndrome. Just the idea their BP is being measured, makes them freak out. I would imagine if that is an actual physiological response in the exam room, it can be in the classroom too, right?
That's actually happened to me! When pregnant every time I had to get my BP checked I'd freak out it would be too high and that would make it go high. It was fine at home but never at the Drs office. Definitely a similar thing in the classroom. Some kids just freak out and that causes them to do bad even though they know the material.
OMG! Yas to this whole post.
Last year I was in a second grade classroom and now this year they have moved myself and the Teacher that I assist to the Third Grade which is a state testing year. The Teacher has test anxiety herself so it was hard for both us to think about this year and preparing kids for getting ready for such a huge test in their lives.
But after the first day we have put the mentality in our minds to make sure they are prepared for challenges and not giving up. A lot of them have tough motivation issues stemming from an inability to get help at home from someone who understands the material so everything is through us. We're going to make warriors of them yet. <3
That's really great you all are working so hard to help the kids get through the tests. Those state tests can be so stressful, especially the first years doing them. I hope the tests go well and thanks for stopping by and reading my post. I appreciate the great comment!
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