Test Anxiety
Treatment

Therapy for Test Anxiety

Is Test Anxiety Holding You Back?

Does This Sound Like You?

  • Seeing or hearing the words testexamscantron, or pop quiz (shudder…) makes your heart rate go up and your palms sweat a little
  • Every time you see your study materials your anxiety goes through the roof
  • You put off studying as long as possible and then find yourself cramming the night before the test
  • You study for hours on end and stay up way later than is good for you, going over and over the test material
  • You walk into your exam as prepared as you possible can be, sit down, and realize you suddenly can’t remember anything you’ve ever learned in this class

If you’ve walked into a test with your stomach in knots or find that your mind goes blank as you read the first test question, then you’re familiar with the experience of test anxiety.  The body’s anxiety response is designed to keep us safe in dangerous situations, but unfortunately this does not translate well to remembering chemical formulas or historical facts!

Test Anxiety and Higher Education

If you decide that attending college is the right path for you, the increased pressure of high-stakes exams can aggravate test anxiety even further.  While a small amount of anxiety can actually motivate you to study or prepare for an exam, higher anxiety levels can make studying and test taking feel impossible.  This can be particularly problematic when a specific exam is standing in the way of your dreams.  

Such exams might include:

  • The SATs
  • The GRE
  • The CBEST
  • The MCAT

Check out the screening tool below if you are wondering if you might have test anxiety.

What Causes Test Anxiety?

Most anxiety is caused by a combination of two main factors: genetics and environment.  What does this mean? 

First, you may have inherited a greater likelihood of developing test anxiety from your biological parents.  Just like green eyes or brown hair, anxiety is something that can be passed down from one generation to the next.  Like other traits, however, just because your parent has a hooked nose or anxiety, that doesn’t mean that you are destined to.

Second, the way that you learned to handle anxiety growing up may have made your anxiety worse over time.  For example, if you had a parent or caregiver that worried about everything all the time, then you may have picked up this habit from them.  Or if you learned as a child that avoiding certain things helped you to feel better, then this may have solidified your anxiety around those things.  Unfortunately, what tends to help us to feel better in the short-term often makes anxiety worse in the long-run!

The good news is that whether you were born with anxiety or you picked it up along the way, therapy can help you learn how to cope with your anxiety more effectively and stop letting it interfere with your life.

What Does Treatment for Test Anxiety look like?

If you’re ready to stop letting test anxiety hold you back, the good news is that test anxiety is very treatable!  Below are the 3 main types of treatment that I use in counseling for test anxiety.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps you  break your cycle of anxiety and face your fears in gradual steps.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on breaking unhelpful patterns in your thinking and acting and finding more effective ways of being.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) incorporates mindfulness and acceptance strategies to help you be more present and bring your life more in line with your values.

No matter what your goals are, we would work together to make a plan to help you overcome your test anxiety in manageable steps.  Treatment for test anxiety is both effective and can be relatively quick.  My goal is to give you the tools you need to move forward with your life as quickly as possible.

So What Next?

For some immediate tools, you can check out my article “6 Helpful Strategies To Beat Test Anxiety.”

If test anxiety is still getting in your way, I encourage you to reach out for help!  If you are looking to take anxiety out of the equation when it comes to taking tests, I would love to help you learn the tools you need to cope with test anxiety and have your test scores reflect what you are really capable of.

Dauntless Test Anxiety Treatment Sacramento

Let's talk!

If you’d like to talk about how I could help you with your test anxiety, please feel free to reach out!

Book a free 15-minute phone call with me.