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College Teaching
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Coping with Test Anxiety

a a
Donna L. Mealey & Timothy R. Host
a
Department of Curriculum and Instruction , Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge , USA
Published online: 28 Aug 2012.

To cite this article: Donna L. Mealey & Timothy R. Host (1992) Coping with Test Anxiety, College Teaching, 40:4, 147-150,
DOI: 10.1080/87567555.1992.10532238

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 Coping with Test Anxietv
Donna L. Mealey and Timothy R. Host
F rom the time they enter kinder-
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garten until they complete high
school, students are subjected to
an increasing number of tests and eval-
uations. Although most students face
these situations with normal amounts
of nervousness, some students do not
cope well in testing situations and expe-
rience moderate to severe anxiety,
which has a detrimental effect on their
test performances and, subsequently,
their advancement. In teaching devel-
opmental reading to college freshmen,
we have seen many bright, able stu-
dents who do poorly on tests and at-
tribute their performance to their ex-
treme nervousness corning into the test
or their inability to “think” or concen-
trate during the test.
Frustrated by seeing these hardwork-
ing students perform poorly on tests,
we examined the research on test anxie-
ty to see if we could discover ways to
help them. We will present here a brief
summary of the typical causes of test
anxiety and discuss three ways that
teachers can help their test-anxious, or
even simply “test-nervous,” students:
by teaching effective learning strate-
gies, using cooperative learning, and
providing a positive classroom atmos-
phere.
Donna L. Mealey is an assistant professor,
and Timothy R. Host was a graduate
student in the Department of Curriculum
and Instruction of Louisiana State Univer-
sity in Baton Rouge.
VOI. 40/No. 4
What Causes Test Anxiety?
In the past four decades, much re-
search has examined the possible causes
of test anxiety. Two main sources have
been identified. First, researchers be-
lieve that some highly test-anxious stu-
dents have deficits in the organization-
al stage of test preparation, primarily
inadequate learning or study skills
(Culler and Holahan 1980; Hodapp and
Henneberger 1983; Naveh-Benjamin,
McKeachie, Lin, and Tucker 1986; Witt-
maier 1972). Because some students are
unable to process or organize informa-
tion effectively for recall, they have
high levels of anxiety going into a test-
ing situation. The problem, then, for
this type of student is not the test but
rather the preparation for the test.
The second major cause of test anx-
iety stems from habitual, irrelevant,
negative thoughts that some students
have during a testing situation (Mc-
Keachie, Pollie, and Spiesman 1985;
Sarason 1984; Wine 1971). These nega-
tive thoughts distract students from the
task of taking the test and cause them
to focus on their fears, inadequacies,
and past failures. The effect is the crea-
tion of an attitude of “learned help-
lessness” (Dweck 1975; Dweck and
Licht 1980; Schwarzer, Jerusalem, and
Schwarzer 1983; Schwarzer, Jerusa-
lem, and Stiksrud 1984; Seligman
1975). Learned helplessness occurs
when students who have failed or done
poorly in the past develop negative
self-images, causing irrelevant thought
I
patterns during the test. “I can’t do
this,” “I ’m not smart enough,” “The
teacher is watching me,” and “Every-
one is finishing before me” are com-
mon thoughts that this type of test-
anxious student has reported during
testing situations (Ganz and Ganz
1988; Stipek 1988). Although these stu-
dents may have adequate study skills,
they become distracted and anxious
during the test, causing poor perform-
ance.
In a related matter, other studies
have shown a link between poor study
skills and learned helplessness (Naveh-
Benjamin, McKeachie, and Lin 1987;
Paulman and Kennelly 1984; Tobias
1985). Students who think they are stu-
dying effectively-but, in fact, are
not-easily develop a sense of learned
helplessness and come to fear taking
tests.
Therefore, it appears that there are
three main categories of test-anxious
students: Those who (1) do not have
adequate study and test preparation
strategies, realize that deficiency, know
they are not well prepared for testing
situations, and are worried; (2) have
adequate strategies in their repertoire
and use them but become distracted
during testing; or (3) mistakenly be-
lieve they have adequate strategies, do
poorly on tests, and anxiously wonder
why. We have seen all three types of
test-anxious students in our college de-
velopmental reading, undergraduate
education, and graduate classes. The
147
 important issue, now, is to determine
what teachers can d o to help these stu-
dents overcome their problems and ex-
perience success.
Suggestions for Helping Students
with Te$t Anxiety
Research indicates that test-anxious
students feel that they d o not know
how to learn the course material and
that they do not know what to do with
all of the information once they finish
reading or studying it. They also feel
alone, isolated, and, sometimes, hope-
S tudents working in groups demonstrate different
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cognitive and study strategies to each other, and
they discuss information aloud.
less. Tests seem threatening, the teach-
er’s way of “making” them fail and
look bad. We see three areas in which
all teachers can help test-anxious stu-
dents begin to overcome this difficulty.
Empower Students with Learning and
Metacognitive Strategies
Many of the students we now teach
in developmental reading have never
learned or developed the strategies nec-
essary for organizing, encoding, and
retrieving information from texts.
They believe that rereading the text and
their notes will make the information
“stick.” They study passively, expect-
ing to learn by looking at the pages of
words and believing, usually errone-
ously, that if they look long enough,
they will remember the material.
To help students with poor or few
study strategies, Mealey (1990) recom-
mends “a content-based, strategic
learning approach. Rather than em-
phasizing skills mastery, developmen-
tal reading instructors can focus on
teaching a variety of reading, study,
recitation, and test preparation strate-
gies . . .” (559). Such a program active-
148
ly engages the student with the materi-
al. Strategies such as text annotation,
mapping, and self-questioning, to
name but a few, help students encode
and elaborate the material into a mean-
ingful organization. Test-preparation
strategies also reduce anxiety because
students are actively involved in carry-
ing them out. When students manage
their study time, predict and prepare
for different testing formats, check the
effectiveness of their study plans, and
evaluate subsequent test performance,
they are no longer simply reading the
text, waiting for something to happen.
Students should be taught effective
study strategies; it is equally important
that they understand when and how to
use them (Mealey 1990). By under-
standing the relevance and conditions
under which different strategies may be
used, students can gain control over
their studying and test performance
and become successful learners.
Provide Opportunities for
Social Support
Students often develop anxiety as a
result of feeling isolated and alone.
They convince themselves that every-
one else is a better learner than they are
and develop negative self-images that
perpetuate their anxiety. Cooperative
learning-or, in this case, studying in
groups-can be effective in reducing
this type of student anxiety.
There is evidence for a positive rela-
tion between cooperative learning and
self-esteem (e.g., Blaney, Stephan,
Rosenfield, Aronson, and Sikes 1977;
Lazarowitz, Baird, Hertz-Lazarowitz,
and Jenkins 1985; Madden and Slavin
1983), although it is not unequivocal.
According t o Slavin (1990), “[Tlwo of
the most important components of stu-
dents’ self-esteem are the feeling that
they are well liked by their peers and
the feeling that they are doing well aca-
demically. Cooperative learning meth-
ods affect both of these components
. . .” (44).Social support or coopera-
tive learning can help reduce or elimi-
nate negative feelings and allow students
to concentrate more fully on the relevant
task of learning.
Lambriotte, Dansereau, Rocklin,
Fletcher, Hythecker, Larson, and
O’Donnell (1987) found that students
who use cooperative learning strategies
are able to recall more information
than students working alone. In addi-
tion, McDonald, Larson, Dansereau,
and Spurlin (1985) found that the skills
acquired during cooperative learning
can transfer into individual study strat-
egies. When students work in groups,
they not only demonstrate different
cognitive and study strategies to each
other, but they also practice and re-
hearse text information aloud. Anoth-
er important outcome of a social sup-
port strategy is that students begin to
feel part of a group, rather than feeling
alone.
We have found three other advan-
tages of using cooperative learning in a
college developmental reading pro-
gram as well as in content area courses.
First, students gain considerable in-
sight and confidence by working to-
gether. A student sees how other stu-
dents approach the task of mapping,
for example, and can imitate those ap-
proaches. The task does not seem as
threatening or overwhelming when the
student has help getting started.
Second, eliciting student responses
to reading and writing assignments in
small groups has proven to be a posi-
tive experience. For example, we re-
cently assigned our classes a response
paper to The Prince of Tides (Conroy
1986). We asked the students to discuss
what they liked and disliked most
about the book and its characters and
to describe the incident that left the
strongest impression on them. The fol-
lowing day, we divided the class into
small groups and had each person read
his or her paper to the group, which
COLLEGE TEACHING
 then discussed the paper. At one point,
a slightly heated debate erupted:
“What do you mean Lila is your favorite
character because she is a good mother?
She’s a terrible mother! She always made
the kids feel guilty, and she lied to them and
used them. Remember after Rose died, she
called Tom in and told him that the other
kids were worthless and he was the only one
she could trust? And then she did the same
thing to Luke and Savannah!”
“Yeah, but she taught them how to ap-
preciate nature and reading, and she only
lied to protect them from being hurt by the
people in the town.”
The debate continued, each student
citing additional examples of why the
character was good or bad. At the end
of the class, we pointed out to the stu-
dents the value of what they had just
done: they had formed opinions about
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something they read and then logically
supported their opinions with relevant
examples from the book. Through their
group discussions, they were forced to
think about why they felt or thought
the way they did. Students were sur-
prised and pleased with this realiza-
tion. Not only did group work help the
students see that they really could
think, it also prepared them for essay
exams in which they must support their
opinions with quotes from the text.
Students break the cycle of fear and
perceived inadequacy when they realize
their capabilities by working together.
Finally, students can use social sup-
port in reviewing for tests. Instead of
simply rehashing material in a lecture
format, we have students break up into
groups or pairs and predict possible
objectives and essay test questions.
Then, we go through the questions as a
class, allowing each group or pair to
present its questions to the others.
Also, we strongly recommend that stu-
dents form study groups outside of
class for our course as well as for their
content area courses. The students
learn from each other what informa-
tion is more or less likely to be included
on the test and how to distinguish be-
tween major and supporting ideas.
Create a Nonthreatening Classroom
and Testing Environment
Even the best and brightest students
are intimidated by an uncomfortable
Vol. 40/NO. 4
and threatening environment. Teachers able minority wanted teachers to be en-
can reduce the intimidating quality of a couraging and accepting rather than
testing situation by using one of the judgmental after the test, even when
easiest, yet least often attempted, students had not performed well.
methods imaginable: Ask the students The simple gesture of finding out
what they want or need. what students want and need to reduce
We asked our developmental reading
their anxiety is an important step in
students to write a response to the creating a more positive test-taking sit-
question, “What might a teacher do uation. Sometimes, of course, teachers
(or not do) to help you feel more re- may not want to comply with students’
laxed or less nervous before, during, wishes-for example, in the case of
and after a test?” The responses from students who have cheated on tests in
five classes (n = 102) were consistent the past. In general, however, respect-
and tended to fall into four main cate- ing students’ wishes in a testing situa-
gories: tion is not unreasonable, especially in
1. More than half the students (n = developmental education courses where
62) stated that the teacher should not test results may determine whether a
talk or interrupt during a test. “I find student exits from the class and meets a
that when a teacher constantly disturbs university requirement.
For most teachers, few things are
the class, or repeatedly asks students to
refer back to another page of the test, more frustrating than seeing hard-
working students do poorly on tests be-
it makes the student nervous because
he will think he doesn’t have enough cause they have test anxiety. By helping
students develop effective learning
time and will rush.”
2. Approximately three-quarters of strategies, allowing them to learn from
each other, and providing a positive at-
the students (n = 74) want the teacher
to review the material before a test. “I mosphere in the classroom, teachers
can make it possible for anxious stu-
like it when a teacher goes over the ma-
terial with the entire class rather than dents to succeed.
have the students do it on their own.
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