Test Anxiety

Test anxiety is a combination of physiological over-arousal, tension and somatic symptoms, together with worry, dread, fear of failure and catastrophizing, that occurs before or during a testing situation, creating a significant barrier to learning and performance; research has found high levels of the resulting emotional distress directly correlated with reduced academic performance and higher student drop-out rates. It has been studied formally since the early 1950s, beginning with researchers George Mandler and Seymour Sarason and continued by Sarason's brother Irwin G. Sarason, and can also be labeled anticipatory anxiety, situational anxiety or evaluation anxiety; between an estimated 25 and 40 percent of students experience it, disrupting attention and memory function by creating a sense of threat during a test rather than reflecting genuine intellectual or preparation problems.