Test anxiety is a common problem among many individuals. This anxiety can begin as early as kindergarten, as students are now required to take standardized and computerized assessments to compare school achievement. When students are under pressure without sufficient coping mechanisms, test anxiety begins to set in. Fortunately, there are many strategies and methods to reduce test anxiety that can be learned at any age. Yoga is an incredible mind and body practice that allows participants to relax and reconnect the mind and body through various stretches and movements. These practices are proven to be effective to increase metacognition and mindfulness, thus improving a person’s ability to ground themselves and focus on specific tasks with a more relaxed mindset.

What is Test Anxiety?

Sometimes, nervousness on assessments can actually make you perform better. However, there’s a fine line between understanding the stakes of an assessment and experiencing test anxiety. Test anxiety falls under the category of performance anxiety. This means that in high pressure scenarios where performance on an assessment is of utmost importance, some people experience anxiety that cripples their ability to perform their best. Despite study efforts, attention in class, and understanding of concepts, test anxiety can make a prepared test taker feel as though they’ve never seen the material before. Because of this, stress begins to snowball due to the fact that you feel unprepared for what is in front of you. Test takers could potentially experience symptoms of test anxiety that include physical, behavior, cognitive and emotional struggles.

Physical symptoms could range anywhere from butterflies in your stomach, to shaking, sweating, or even fainting. When thinking about behavioral or cognitive symptoms, those with test anxiety might experience avoidance, fidgeting, and even substance abuse or dropping out of school. One of the most common forms of cognitive symptoms of test anxiety is negative self-talk. Essentially, this refers to “beating yourself up” about not knowing or remembering the answers on a test. This directly relates to the emotional symptoms of test anxiety, such as low self-esteem and anger. Negative self-talk has the potential to create these emotional responses.

Why do some experience test anxiety and others don’t? There are many possibilities, but some of the most notable attributes are fear of failure, poor testing history and unpreparedness. Although this is a serious setback for many, these causes of test anxiety can be overcome with a few simple things such as adequate sleep, deep breathing, and preparation. Deep breathing is something that can be accomplished and mastered through the practice of yoga.

Yoga & Stress Management

Yoga allows the brain to learn to control breathing in order to interrupt negative thoughts and feelings. This practice will allow students to take control of their mind when it runs rampant in a testing situation. Although it might look a little funny to start doing yoga prior to an assessment in a classroom or testing center, yoga can be practiced the night or morning before a testing situation to hone the skills of deep breathing, meditation and body awareness. This calming strategy will ease the mind and remove negative thoughts, self-talk and potentially the anxiety itself.

Practicing yoga utilizes several different stress-releasing techniques. These techniques include relaxing the body, clearing your mind and learning to control your breathing. Many might think that yoga is time consuming or that you need to attend physical classes in order to practice, but according to VeryWellFit, there are daily poses that you can do within five minutes to help reduce stress as a whole. For those that might be intimidated by yoga, its easiest to just think about it as extended stretching. The simple poses that are suggested are the Pelvic Tilt, to relieve strain and stiffness that can be caused by stress, Cat and Cow, to invigorate your spine and awaken your body, Mountain Pose and Raised-Arms pose, which help elongate your body and promote deep breathing, and finally, Corpse Pose, where it is essential to spend a few minutes letting your body take in the benefits from your yoga session.

Utilizing these simple poses, whether on your own or with the help of an instructional video, can promote a healthier mindset, blood-flow and stress level. It’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, and forget that taking care of your body and mind are equally as important as all of the other things on your to-do list. If you’re a student experiencing test anxiety, yoga can benefit not only relieving that stress, but other stressors that might not be on the forefront for many.

High-Stakes Assessments

High-stakes assessments have a place in many lives of students across the board. From elementary school on, students are asked to participate in assessments that potentially are the source of major stress. Students are exposed to the undue pressures of assessments like this from day one in their educational careers. Suppose a student never learned strategies and coping mechanisms for the stressors that come with testing. That student would be unlikely to continue their educational career, where high-stakes and standardized assessments are required. If we think about graduate students entering Medical School, they will most likely have skills in order to prepare and cope with the stress of MCAT prep.

Wherever you are in your educational journey, yoga has the potential to assist all students with test anxiety stress and other stressors that occur in life. Using yoga to learn deep breathing is something that can be directly applied to test taking strategies. When struggling with, or “blanking” on a question, deep breathing and mindfulness can help students clear their minds of the distracting thoughts of not knowing or not being good enough. A breathing method that is learned through yoga called box breathing is a quick and easy way to get your thinking back on track, calm nerves and start fresh. Box breathing requires one to inhale deeply for five seconds, hold their breath at the top of the inhale for another five, and exhale for five more seconds. The process is repeated until the adequate calming results are achieved. This breathing technique is learned through the practice of yoga, but is directly applicable to test taking situations, and even other situations that students might face. Although yoga might feel foreign to some, the practice is helpful to reconnect your body and mind and can be done so quickly from your own home.