Teens get anxious about tests, too, so here are some tips for helping teens with test anxiety.
Helping Teens with Test Anxiety
Sometimes homeschooling teens struggle with test anxiety. For the first time in their homeschooling careers, many of our high schoolers will be taking big tests like SATs and ACTs. Even ASVAB, although a career exploration test can feel like a test.
Not only that, homeschool high schoolers need grades for their transcripts, so most of them will be taking chapter tests from their textbooks. Tests, tests, everywhere!
Even in our safe, supportive home environments, sometimes even homeschooling teens get hit with performance anxiety. It can look like:
- Excessively worrying about doing well on a test or project
- Tearfulness or irritability when faced with a difficult lesson
- Fearfulness of being scrutinized, watched, or judged when in front of others (at a sporting event, concert, recital, speech, drama, etc)
- During the stressful event the teen may cry, shrink back, or have a panic attack (shortness of breath, pounding heart)
- Attempting to avoid the stressful situation
- A teen might recognize that the level of fear is excessive (a child probably would not recognize this)
- Feeling overwhelmed
What an unhappy thing!
Often, test anxieties are rooted in our teen’s fears. Let’s discuss the fears and how to address them:
1) Fear of forgetting something important
To help: For chapter tests, have a review session early in the evening the night before and again in the morning. Make sure you are expressing confidence in your homeschooler’s “remembering skills”. If you can get a good laugh out of your teen, it will help the information to stick.
High school is an important time to develop good test-taking study skills. Here are some good tips.
2) Fear of disappointing parents
To help: Make certain that you refrain from giving the impression that only great scores are acceptable. Every teen is different. Their acceptable score needs to look like what they can do best.
Of course, this does not mean, however, that we want our teens to be lazy, do sloppy work, have bad attitudes, or to underachieve.
3) Fear of failing
To help: Help your teens practice talking well to herself. God did not make a mistake when He made your teen. It does not honor Him for someone to insult His children. Teens can practice healthy self-talk like, “God gave me a good mind. He will help me do good work.”
(You can help this by modeling talking respectfully to yourself.)
This is something we talk about in High School Health for the Whole Person. (For families who live in states that reimburse for curriculum purchases, here’s a version of Health that fits requirements.)
Read more about helping teens overcome perfectionism.
The good news is that God gave people tools that help heal the test anxiety. Here are some to try:
1) Oxygen!
Oxygen is your friend. Lead your teen in taking a few deep breaths before, and if possible, during the test or event. The reason this works is that oxygen turns off the stress hormones for a few minutes. Not permanent, but really helps!
2) Make a habit of remembering successes.
In the Bible, King David often told about times God helped him defeat bears, lions, giants and various enemies. It is a great idea to incorporate this into daily life. Each day, spend some time together noting the successes that God has given that day and in the past. Note any little time your teen was strong, kind, quick thinking, or brave. This helps create the expectation of God’s help in any uncomfortable situation.
3) Help your teen prepare well.
For the big tests like SATs and ACTs, it might help to do a prep course. Khan Academy has a free course. My teens actually liked the SATs for Dummies book.
4) Teach your teens positive self-talk.
Before and during a stressful event like tests teens need to verbalize, “I am prepared. I can do this. God will help me.” The more often they practice, the easier it becomes to believe the truth. They can learn more skills when they take Introduction to Psychology (text and optional: self-paced online course). Also, for families in states that reimburse for curriculum purchases, here’s the Psychology version that meets requirements.
5) Celebrate successes!
Each time a test is over, each time an event is completed, praise God together and note the successful parts of the time. (You can do opportunities for growth, AKA goofs, later.)
AND DOWNLOAD for FREE: Carry Each Other’s Burdens: How to help a friend in crisis.
