
From a young age students are required to take exams to ensure they properly understand information taught in school. Exams challenge one's knowledge, and depending on how well a student scores can determine his or her grade in a course, which can further determine the likelihood of having a successful future. An immense amount of stress and anxiety can result from pressure students at all levels of education face during exams. Thomas J. Russo, an assistant professor of education at Wisconsin University, defines testing anxiety as "the apprehension cued off by a threat to some value that the individual holds essential to his existence as a personality" (162). Anxiety, more specifically testing anxiety, is often overlooked and what some consider normal to experience in the classroom. In reality, students with test anxiety are more likely to perform poorly academically, even if the they study appropriately and understand the material expected of them. I propose testing anxiety negatively impacts a student's performance before an exam because it decreases study habits; during an exam due to multiple-choice questions; worry over grades; and lack of motivation from threatening learning environments; and after exams due to reflection over test questions. Proper treatment strategies such as immediate feedback, humor, and study guides all contribute to reducing test anxiety at all phases of development. By reducing test anxiety, research indicates that students receive better grades on tests and therefore have a better chance of becoming more successful in the future.

An article written by Donna L. Mealey and Timony R. Host argues there are three different ways to classify testing anxiety. The first category groups students who struggle to adequately organize the information required for an exam, so the student enters the exam room already feeling test anxious, knowing he or she has not studied the information effectively. The second category is for students who know how to plan, organize, and study the material successfully, but before or during an exam have sudden negative thoughts that they are not capable of doing well, decreasing the capability of performing their best on an exam. The last category of test anxiety is for students who believe their studying techniques are effective, take an exam and perform poorly, and from that point forward have a fear of taking tests. Mealey and Host state, "anxiety has a detrimental effect on their test performances and, subsequently, their advancement" but by placing a student into one of the three categories, their test anxiety can be properly assessed and treated (147).

Before taking an exam, testing anxiety negatively impacts students by decreasing their ability to study efficiently. An article written by Bruce C. Wittmaier, a college professor at Eisenhower College, argues that test anxiety can be measured on an Alpert-Haber (AAT+ and AAT-) scale. Students who claim to have high test anxiety are placed under the ATT negative category, while those with low test anxiety are categorized as ATT positive. After conducting an experiment on a sample of 3000 undergraduate psychology students, the students are placed into one of the two categories according to their level of testing anxiety. Wittmaier states, "students with high AAT- scores should fit the pattern of Spielberger and Weitz' test anxious and have less effective study habits than those with low AAT- scores, who were expected to have good study habits" (352). After observing the habits of the students in each of the two groups, Wittmaier concluded students with high testing anxiety have less effective study habits, which causes them to perform poorly on exams. This article illustrates even before students enter a testing atmosphere, testing anxiety negatively impacts their study habits, which in turn causes the student to perform worse on an exam.

Test anxiety more commonly arises during the process of test taking. Linda Crocker and Alicia Schmitt, professors at the University of Florida, argue that multiple-choice questions, a strategy used from elementary up until graduate school, can trigger anxiety during test taking. The idea of multiple-choice is to assist the student in test taking by narrowing down the answer choices until the most accurate answer is left. Crocker and Schmitt state students generally use a "response generation" method during test taking that involves multiple-choice. Reponses generation is "a process whereby the examinee, confronted with a multiple-choice question, formulates a response, and then compares it to the options of the multiple-choice item" (201). If a student matches a response to the idea generated in their mind, this process is successful and no anxiety should occur. Crocker and Schmitt claim if a student thinks of an idea and cannot find it in the multiple-choice options, their testing anxiety increases due to the response generation mechanism failing and the student will in turn perform poorly on an exam. The authors conduct an experiment to test this idea among 124 undergraduate students in three different classes using a practice multiple-choice exam followed by a feedback assessment. After viewing the results, only 13% of students claim to not have anxiety if they cannot find the correct answer. If use of the response generation method fails, the multiple-choice strategy will have a damaging impact on the student and his test anxiety will increase, causing the student to perform poorly during an exam. 

Along with multiple-choice questions, the fear of grading also contributes to increased anxiety during test taking. Jerome Rubin, a professor at The University of Baltimore, claims testing anxiety originates in the act of grading. Rubin states, "Grading, a universal part of American high education, is one of the greatest causes of anxiety among students across the nation" (305). Rubin argues that students are more focused on grades rather than learning the material expected of them because grades are what defines a students' future. When students study information just for a grade in a class, their anxiety increases because they are only focused on a letter grade rather than learning new information for their own benefit. Rubin argues if a student learns information for the benefit of his knowledge rather than a grade on an exam, the anxiety of the student will decrease. To test his idea, Rubin implements a strategy to only have the final exam of a class determine a student's final grade and to have all previous scores graded by the student for their own benefit. Through this process the student will learn effective study habits, learn from their mistakes on previous tests, and go into the final exam with less anxiety and perform to the best of their ability. By focusing a class less on the grades and more on the benefit of learning new information, Rubin demonstrates testing anxiety arises during the grading process and has an undesirable outcome for a student while testing.

Neil Ellman's article, "Reducing Test Anxiety," additionally claims the grading process causes students an increasingly amount of anxiety. Ellman states listening to the different opinions of students as to why anxiety has a negative impact on their performance best assesses testing anxiety. One student states, "Of course I get nervous; the test means so much. If I fail it, I'm not going to graduate" (28). If students were less focused on the grades received and more intrigued with learning the material for their own benefit, the amount of anxiety produced when taking tests would decrease vastly. The given student believes that one test will define his or her career, when the main goal of the course is to properly understand the material taught in the class. Shifting the focus away from grading leaves the student feeling confident, anxiety free, and perform to the best of her ability on the exam. Ellman responds, "No single test should ever take on so much importance that it can, by itself, have such consequences" (28). By giving this advice to the student, Ellman illustrates that grades, more specifically one grade, should not be the focus of a student's future. This article demonstrates the detrimental impact of anxiety and states students perform better on exams by understanding a single grade does not define one's future.

Studies show that test anxiety has a harmful impact on a student's motivation during test taking. An article written by Dawson R. Hancock, a professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, argues threat and anxiety can decrease a student's motivation during an exam. Basing this idea off of scholarly researchers in the field of anxiety such as Hedl, Sarason and Hembree, Hancock states, "In a meta-analysis of 562 studies that related test anxiety and academic achievement, Hembree (1998) found that test anxiety routinely causes poor performance" (284). To test this claim, Hancock placed 61 postsecondary students into different classrooms, some being "low-threat" classrooms and others being "high-threat" classrooms. High-threatening classrooms include a teacher stating passing his or her class is impossible, where as a low-threatening class room includes a laid back atmosphere with no stress. After administering an exam to students in each of the testing atmospheres, Hancock studied the results and concluded students in high threatening test atmospheres have increasingly amounts of anxiety and are twice as likely to perform worse on their exams. The students are also less likely to care about the grades they receive, which illustrates decreased motivation due to threat and anxiety. Those in low threating test atmospheres report feeling relaxed while taking their exams, and after receiving a good grade due to less anxiety have more motivation to do well again on the next exam. Through Hancock's research, anxiety and threat have a negative impact on student's motivation which in turn causes them to poorly on exams, but by placing a student in a low-threatening testing atmosphere, the student will perform better on an exam. 

According to David Dibattista and Leanne Gosse, professors at Brock and Wilfrid Laurier University, test anxiety can also occur following a test. The time in-between completing an exam and waiting for a grade back can cause anxiety due to overthinking responses or referring back to notes and finding questions answered incorrectly. To avoid anxiety following an exam, David and Leanne offer a method referred to as the "Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique" which provides scores immediately following an exam. Through this process, students are able to instantly view what questions are answered incorrectly and how well they perform on an exam, eliminating the anxiety a student may feel while waiting to see how well they score on their exam. Dibattista and Gosse state, "More than 80% of undergraduates using IFRT (Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique) for the first time indicated that they would like to be able to use the IFAT in all of their courses" (313). By allowing students to immediately see what they have answered incorrectly, they can access their study habits and learn what they should study more effectively in the future. By displaying a student their score right after completing an exam through the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique, the student's anxiety following an exam is significantly reduced.

Humor often decreases tension and anxiety in stressful situations. According to an article written by Ronald A. Berk, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, humor relieves anxiety during tests and improves the performance of a student. Berk claims humor "promotes an objectivity that buffers the negative response and provides a sense of empowerment over the testing situation that can improve students' mental functioning and performance" (151). By simply incorporating humor into an exam, the students take their minds off the threat and anxiety the exam may cause, which allows them to properly perform to their ability. Humor gives the students an "empowering" feeling, which causes them to perform better on the test (151). In a study conducted by Berk, nine undergraduate psychology classes at Johns Hopkins incorporated humor into their exams. All students in the classes claimed having humor in their exams relaxed their minds and assisted them in performing their best during exams. Berk additionally compared the exam scores of those students versus other psychology classes and found the students with humor incorporated into their exams scored higher on the tests. Through his research, Berk illustrates that humor reduces anxiety and results in helping students perform better on exams. 

In addition to humor, study guides also prove to reduce test anxiety. In a sociology course at the University of Iowa, more than half of the 334 students in the course admitted to having anxiety before an exam at some point in their life. Robert F. Szafran, a professor at the university states, "anxiety triggers responses in the individual which are not task relevant and which often interfere with the ability to recall information or evaluate subsequent questions" (32). Szafran argues the importance for teachers to incorporate methods of reducing anxiety in their curriculum because placing a student in an already stressful atmosphere and continuing to feed their anxiety is setting students up for failure. Following his claim, Szafran suggests a method for teachers to help reduce anxiety among students. By using a "question-pool" study guide, students will feel more prepared for the exam beforehand and their anxiety will decrease during the test. The question-pool study guide is a list of possible questions a professor will include in the exam. Two groups of students are placed into separate groups, one group given the question-pool study guide and the other left to study the information on their own. After comparing the results of exam grades, Szafran concludes students who use the question-pool study guide are less anxious during an exam and therefore perform better on their exam. Students without it went into the exam feeling an increasingly amount of anxiety, which inhibited their ability to perform well. Though Szafran's experiment, anxiety has a harmful impact on how well students perform on exams. By using the question-pool study guide method, students feel more confident going into the exam, reducing test anxiety and assisting students in performing better on an exam.

Although anxiety is more commonly thought of as a negative factor, Jerry Shaw, a writer for Spice Marketing and LinkBlaze Marketing, states test anxiety has a positive impact on the functioning of students and causes them to perform better in stressful situations. Shaw states test anxiety increases motivation and when a stressful situation occurs, such as an exam, students want to do everything in their power to get rid of the anxiety of the exam so they study as much as possible and therefore perform better. Shaw also claims students with anxiety have a fear of failing, and to avoid failing they learn the proper ways to study and succeed. The author states, "When the test is taken, they [students] can use positive self-statements to convince themselves that the test is not as difficult as they thought it would be, and feel pleased with what they have learned" ("Positive Effects of Anxiety"). Although this claim can vary from person to person, the idea that students have negative thoughts which inhibit their ability to perform to full potential is more common among a student, especially with test anxiety. Donna L. Mealey and Timothy R. Host site evidence from C.S. Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, which states students with test anxiety develop a trait referred to as learned helplessness. Learned helplessness occurs "when students who have failed or done poorly in the past develop negative self-images, causing irrelevant thought patterns during the test" (147). Learned helplessness, created due to anxiety, decreases students' abilities to perform as well on tests.

Test taking is a procedure that students of all ages face throughout a lifetime. Test anxiety, whether it be before, during, or after test taking, has a negative impact on test results and limits a student's ability of performing to his or her full potential. In order to fully ensure a student performs their best on exams, test anxiety should be reduced by strategies such as humor, immediate feedback and study guides. Using these approaches will not only reduce the amount of test anxiety a student endures, but also will assist his or her in performing better on exams, which in turn will contribute to the likelihood of having a bright and successful future.

