by Karen Meeker

Created on: May 22, 2007

There are people that begin to tense up at just the mere mention of a test. Their palms begin to sweat, their stomach hurts, and their heart beats fast and all the while they know from experience that everything will work out. As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to relieve or lessen the stress because I want optimal results for as many students as possible. Stress will affect test results no matter how you look at it.

The first way that stress affects results is by taking the student's mind off the task at hand. Anyone who has ever become anxious over a test before knows that it is hard to concentrate on what is being asked of them on the actual exam. Instead, they are focused on how bad they are feeling and whether or not anyone else is noticing. Certainly, the results of any test will be poor if someone can't manage to gain focus.

Another way that stress will affect testing is that some people just shut down all together. These are the people that have no confidence in their ability and rather than allow the stress to take over, they just don't do the test at all. Imagine a student that shows up for an exam and does nothing or just fills in anything to be done. It not only hurts the outcome of the test scores, but it continues to play a role in that student's self-esteem when they receive the results back.

In fairness, I must mention that for some people, a little stress before a test can actually increase test results. Stress motivates some people to work harder and concentrate more on whatever they are doing. Although this group is less common than those who will do poorly, they do exist.

Whether stress makes scores decline or increases the scores on tests is actually less important than why the student is so stressed. If someone can get to the root of the stress, you are apt to see better results and happier students.

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