Test anxiety is a very common occurrence. It takes all forms and happens to people of all ages. It can occur before a high-stakes test, a simple pop quiz, or a presentation. It happens in academics, sports and any other competitive venture you can think of. Every time it happens – be it to a first time test-taker or to a professional golfer, what is going on in the mind is roughly the same process.
The problem is over-thinking. A classic example occurred during the British Open in 1999 to the golfer, Van De Velde, who was in the lead coming into the final hole. The pressure of the eighteenth-hole situation overtook him and when his first swing was unsuccessful, his next seven swings were unsuccessful and he lost, devastatingly.
All the footage of this event shows someone who knows exactly what to do thinking and trying to do the thing they know how to do. In the brain, reason is working overtime and no intuition or emotional response can break through that reasoning. The reasoning is occurring in the prefrontal cortex and the functions of other areas of the brain – like the emotional centers – that might provide the answer or solution are essentially deafened by this hyper-reasoning.
It is important that anyone who feels test or performance anxiety understand what is going on when they feel that way. When removed from the situation, the test-taker knows they know the material and wonder why they forget that in test-taking or performance situations. People need to be reminded to trust their judgment and intuition when it comes to speaking or responding to difficult questions or nailing the eighteenth-hole. To be able to hear the reminder from a parent, mentor, tutor, teacher or friend is the best step to mitigate the unfortunate – and possibly unnecessary effects of test anxiety.
And, remember, it happens to the best of them.
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