Test-Day Emergency Plan

Here's the worst-case scenario - despite your efforts to manage test anxiety by studying, it wells up again during the actual test, stronger than before. Your concentration is shot, none of the questions make sense, and you feel like you might throw up right there. Now what?

If this happens to you, it would help to have an emergency procedure in place. Panic makes it difficult to think clearly, so you should practice your emergency procedure beforehand, just as with a fire drill or any other emergency drill. There are three steps in the test-day emergency plan. If you can't remember anything else for the test, remember these three steps. Here's what to do:

Accept the anxiety. Test anxiety can be incredibly frustrating at a time when you would rather be calm, cool, and collected. But the physical symptoms that result from anxiety can actually help you do well on the test if you know how to manage them. So when you're sitting in the testing center and feel the butterflies in your stomach and your palms begin to sweat, don't fight it. Instead, decide to use the feelings as a tool for success. It's a normal sign that your body is ready to fight for a good score.

Breathe deeply. Anxiety often causes shallow, fast breathing. As part of your test-anxiety emergency procedure, you should take several deep, cleansing breaths. When you inhale deeply, your stomach should rise slightly. If your chest rises instead of your stomach, you need to breathe more deeply from your diaphragm. Inhale as you slowly count to five, and exhale for the same amount of time. As you exhale, imagine all the stress melting into the floor. Do this several times.

Make a fist. Test anxiety increases muscle tension that reduces your concentration. After you welcome the anxiety and do some deep breathing, the final step is to make a tight fist with first one hand and then the other. Squeeze each fist as tightly as possible - put all your nervous energy into your hands as they make a fist. Then release and stretch out your fingers. Picture all the tension dripping off your fingers as your hands relax. Now you're ready to look at the questions on the test again.

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