10 Ways to Stay Calm During a Test

Written by : Kaydence Henry & Esme Davis

Taking tests can cause a lot of stress and anxiety to many people. It is always good to be on your toes before a test, but sometimes we can be a little too stressed before a test. Staying calm with no distractions is the best way to head toward an exam. But phones and the overall fear of failing can add a lot of unneeded and unnecessary stress to your life. Anyone can get stressed out from 1st graders to college students. That is why it is important to practice healthy test strategies so we can all be calm and collected before a test. Here are some strategies to remove the test stress away.

1. Study well before a test: Whether we like it or not, studying is a vital part of preparing for a test. A lot of times we like to gaslight ourselves into thinking we know the material for the test and procrastinate until the night before. This can cause a lot of stress and take a toll on your cleared mind before a test. Would you rather be sitting in a test knowing that you’re barely studying and regretting leaving it for last night when you had a whole 2 weeks? Or would you rather sit in a test knowing that you studied well enough for you to try your best? I think you know the answer so why not study yourself? To not procrastinate here is an easy way to get up and start working. Set your alarm clock for 5 minutes and start doing your work, after that you can decide whether or not you want to keep working. By doing this you get into the flow of your work and you want to get it done so it helps to get on a roll.

2. Get a good night’s sleep: This is an average human necessity but we tend to forget how important sleep really is. When you start middle school you should at least be getting 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Many students of middle school age start to get messed up with sleep schedules. This causes fatigue, mood swings, memory problems, and lack of energy. Having memory problems can affect your studying. If you just studied for 4 hours prior to a test but it’s 2 in your overall energy. Sometimes people do end up eating unhealthy and unreasonable breakfast instead of none. Eating sweets, candy, or too big of meals can make you feel full and slumpy. This is not beneficial to the fresh feeling you want during an exam. Breakfast is called the ‘most important meal of the day and for valid reasons. It supplies a full stomach through the beginning of your day so

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a.m., by the time you wake up your work will all be scattered around your brain. There are even some potential health effects connected to lack of sleep like high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes, or stroke. On top of that, you’ll be tired and have a lack of energy. Getting a good night’s sleep can help your mental and physical performance throughout the day.

3. Eating a good breakfast: Food is fuel for our minds and body to work well and efficiently throughout the day. It surprises me how many people skip breakfast at my school. So having a healthy balanced breakfast could make a difference you don’t walk around with an empty angry stomach. It also supplies glucose to your body to raise your energy levels to start your day on a good note.

4. Have positive thoughts throughout the day: It may seem simple but whatever energy you put out into the world comes right back to you. Positive self-talk can Help withhold your emotions in stressful situations. It is so easy to talk negatively about yourself in situations where it causes a lot of stress and builds up concern. But you must stay positive and talk in an optimistic way about yourself and the situation. 9

Of course, you can understand that the test or situation that’s happening is hard but the way you approach it mentally is what it’s really about. Speaking negatively through your day makes a dark cloud of pessimistic thoughts. Saying positive affirmations can help manifest a good outcome. Even saying positive things on a day-to-day basis can help with your self-esteem.

5. Avoid going online before your test: Your phone, computer, and television have many different fun entertaining things to watch and scroll through. After taking it off it leaves us strained and thinking about being on our phones. Being in class only makes me think about the funny memes and videos I was watching prior to the class. But especially during the test, I think about my phone and all the funny videos I watched earlier. Being the first generation with mobile devices and an extreme variety of electronic apps and channels, it’s hard to give up such an everyday item. It becomes a distraction and we constantly think about our online activities, we even hang out with our friends on our phones. But it is advised to not go on your phone very little before the test and if you’re disciplined enough, only for 1 and ½ before a test.

6. Take deep breaths before the test: I know we all always see this on those random posters about how to stay distressed and those informative videos on how to calm down but no one really does it. But it helps your well-being with keeping a clear mind. Deep breaths help air flow through the body. This practice can also help calm nerves, and reduce stress and anxiety. It can help improve your attention span which can majorly help during tests where you need sharp focus. Taking heavy deep breaths can lead to feeling fresh and relaxed. 7. Focus on your own test: You know that feeling when everyone is flipping to the last page or even packing up during a test and you’re only halfway through. You feel rushed and behind compared to your other classmates leaving you feeling lower than others. But it’s fine, take your time. Everyone has their strengths, weaknesses, and time bounds for different subjects. Looking at other people speeding through their tests makes anyone feel anxious to finish faster. But this can lead to you putting in weaker answers and showing the lack of effort you put in your test, which you don’t want. So just focus on yourself and don’t worry about others. Because everyone has their own way of taking their test, yours just works for you.

8. Read questions carefully: Whenever people open a new app they tend to skip the instructions. Or when a videogame gives you important information we tend to skip that also. Even the terms and conditions on new updates. All of these ‘boring reads’ can help you out in the long run. During tests, we tend to speed through and not read questions carefully. A lot of times when we don’t carefully read questions we get them wrong, and over a simple mistake. On tests, as you get older then questions need focused comprehension to understand the material. So it’s an important learning skill to slow down and read questions thoroughly to get a clear understanding of the material.

9. Know the time and place of the exam: We all have those moments where we are going to someone with a planned time, but we don’t check how far and long it takes to get there. So when we do 10 minutes before we leave we are shocked at the distance and time and start to freak out and regret the decision of not checking at least a day prior. Same goes for test classrooms. Knowing the classroom can help change your mindset for your environment and your mental well-being. Knowing the time can help you mentall prepare and relax throughout the time span of when you wake up to the moment your class starts. We all have different moods during the day so knowing where your class is and time can help you mentally prepare and just another thing to check off your list.

10. Make sure you know the subject you are testing on: We all have different feelings in different classes. And our teachers have very different and subjective ways of test layouts. Make sure you are aware of your test layout and how it’s going to be. A lot of times teachers put on a cross what your test is going to be about. Knowing what the test is about and the ‘culture’ of your teacher’s test. You can take an educated guess on how the format of your test will be and mentally prepare for something along the lines of said class.

Hopefully, this advice will help you with upcoming tests. Understanding how your body performs under different circumstances is good to help prepare you for tests. I hope you are more confident with your mindset on tests now and can go into a test energized, educated, and calm with no distractions.