I do my best not to generalize about any group of people, including my students, but after almost 25 years of helping thousands of prospective educators pass their certification exams and become licensed teachers, I’ve noticed that the great majority (90% or more) share one characteristic: Test-Taking Anxiety.

What is test-taking anxiety? 

Aside from over 25 years as a tutor and test-prep professional, I am also a clinical social worker.  Helping people through test-taking anxiety is in my skill set.  Anxiety is a normal human experience, natural to the human condition; nobody is immune to it.  

Anxiety is an evolutionary survival mechanism—the “fight or flight” response of the autonomic nervous system.  While evolving on the savannah, humans needed to react to threats—a pride of lions, for example—or die.  Those of us who reacted best survived, bred, and their genes are now in all of us.  For modern homo sapiens, we don’t often face true life or death situations, so our thoughts and emotions are what trigger a fight or flight response—increased heart and respiration rate, butterflies in the stomach, tension, etc.  In essence, what we often identify today as anxiety.  If we don’t learn to deal with our anxiety or stress, it can exert much more control over our lives and decisions than we’d like.

There is no way to completely avoid anxiety, but we can learn to mitigate and control it.  When this natural process impacts our ability to perform a task to the best of our ability, we have “performance anxiety.” When the task is an exam, it is labeled “test-taking anxiety.” 

Don’t wish away all your stess; anxiety is actually important for success.  The relationship between anxiety and performance can be graphed and represented by the standard Bell curve:

If our anxiety is low, our performance will be poor.  For example, if you don’t take an exam seriously and do not prepare for it, you won’t do well. Conversely, if you’re too stressed out about the exam, anxiety will impact your ability to perform well, and you won’t do well either. The trick is to have “average” anxiety; the top of the curve is peak performance. From the peak of the performance curve, draw a line down to the “anxiety” axis and you’ll see that peak performance coincides with the middle of the anxiety scale.   This is exactly where we want our level of anxiety to be for us to do our best at any task.  We need to take the MTEL seriously and prepare, but if we freak out while we’re taking it, the results won’t be as good as we hoped.

Why do some of us suffer from it more than others?

Some of us are more prone to anxiety than others.  Both “nature” and “nurture” determine our susceptibility to anxiety and stress; our genetics and the environment we grew up in are the main contributors. 

If someone knows that they aren’t ready for an exam, he or she will undoubtedly experience anxiety.

For those of us who suffer from anxiety and its afflictions, wishing it went away won’t help.  We can, however, change how we respond to it.  

How do I cope and succeed if I suffer from test-taking anxiety?

When I started this business over 20 years ago, my first slogan was “Be Prepared, Not Scared!”  My thoughts have not changed. 

The best way to combat test-taking anxiety is to be very well prepared for the exam.

ETI’s primary objectives are to teach the content and strategies necessary to pass your exam.  You will be more confident going into your exam and know that you’ll pass after taking one of our programs.  Even if you need more time to absorb content, you will have absolute confidence that you will pass.  

Learn a test-taking system

ETI teaches its own logic-based test-taking techniques. Learn how the writers of these exams try to trick you and the strategies necessary to make sure that you do not fall for “attractors,” answer choices used to divert your attention from the correct choices. 

You’ll also learn how to correctly apply the process of elimination—there is an actual process that must be followed and even a right and wrong way to eliminate answer choices.  There are even strategies that will let you get an answer correct without having any idea what the answer actually is.

Knowing the “rules of the game” helps test-takers immediately.  Most people who fail these exams underperform and would pass just by applying our strategic system.  Of course, this system decreases anxiety in several ways because you are focusing on a system (that works!) and not thinking about the last dozen times you’ve failed multiple-choice exams. 

Ways to Help Cope with Test Taking Anxiety. 

• When you first notice the feeling of anxiety taking over—stop and breathe.
• Regulate your respiration by breathing slowly in through your nose, holding your breath for a couple of seconds, and exhaling through your mouth.

• Focus on your test-taking techniques.  
• Take a little “vacation” in your mind. Go to the beach, mountains, a relaxation spot.
• Practice progressive relaxation.

• Do something else while waiting. Bring a book and read before going in.
• Beat the practice tests!