8 Ways to De-Stress "The Test"

Reducing stress during testing time involves helping students lessen the anxieties that negatively impact testing, recognizing the benefits that a little healthy stress can have on performance. This article offers eight simple stress-reducing tips for both teachers and students.

Stress and Standardized Testing

Stress-free testing? Yeah right, you say! The words "stress and standardized testing" go together like "peanut butter and jelly." Reducing stress during testing time is not about attempting to create a stress-free environment. It is about helping students lessen the extra anxieties that aren't helpful for testing and showing them that some stress can be useful in helping us to perform up to our potential.

Test Stress Busters

The following eight stress-reducing tips may seem almost too simple, but they work wonders for teachers and students. Try some or all of these stress-reducing strategies to help your classroom or school cope with predictable test-time stress.

Acknowledge the Stress

Standardized testing is a stressful time for everyone. Assure students that feeling stressed or anxious is both expected and common. Share examples of ways that you as the teacher may also feel stressed. Explain to students that stress is a natural human response. The emotional and physical feelings of tension produced by stress is something that we all experience. However, each of us responds to stress in individual ways. Acknowledging the stressor of standardized testing with students and discussing ways that we respond to stress as individuals can help students feel calmer and more confident.

Discuss (Some) Stress as a Healthy Motivator

Too much stress leads to physical and mental health problems, but a small amount of stress can help us perform daily activities well. This small amount of stress can be motivating and improve cognitive function. Knowing that a little bit of stress can help us do well on tests can be a powerful bit of knowledge that children (and adults) can use to their benefit, on testing days and in life!

Create a Positive Environment

Sound simple? It is! Teachers have supported students’ knowledge and confidence building all year, and now is their chance to show what they know. You'll be amazed at what a warm smile on your face and a reassuring glance of confidence can do for your students, and for you! When they see that their teachers have a positive attitude about their abilities, students can feel it too.

Take a Deep Breath

Help students practice calming deep breathing techniques well before the day of the test. Taking deep breaths sends a message to the brain. This message tells the brain to relax and in turn the brain instructs the body to calm down by lowering blood pressure and reducing heart rate, which can be physical feeling related to stress. Start simple so that students can experience taking a deep breath in through the nose and out through the nose or mouth. Then, make time for practice or a classroom routine that supports relaxation.

Make It Special

We all remember how good it felt as a child to get a sticker from the teacher, or an award from a coach. It's no different for today’s students. As you are preparing your materials for students, take that one extra step to make it special. Share a simple note of encouragement for each student. You might leave it on the top of a scratch paper or slip it in with the pencils. As each student sees those few words expressing how proud you are, their focus will slip further away from the stress of performing well, and instead to the knowledge that you believe in them.

Encourage Healthy Habits

This suggestion goes back as far as testing itself! Discuss the benefits of rest and a healthy diet on our brains and our learning. As you point out the need for a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast, show your students that it's more than just words. Be sure to model healthy habits for your students; when they see you pulling a baggie of vegetables or a hard-boiled egg out of your lunch bag, they will believe in it more than if they just hear the words.

Involve Parents

Taking the time to communicate the testing schedule with parents may seem like an extra stress now, but it can help you to feel that as the testing approaches, you are not in it alone. You can even communicate your ideas to help reduce stress in the classroom and encourage the parents to do the same at home. Encourage parents to reach out if they have concerns or feel that their child is experiencing unmanageable stress so that support can be provided.

Read a Children's Book

There are many books out there written with the intent of teaching self-confidence, among plenty of other life lessons. Your students can relax just a bit more as they begin to realize that these books are so popular because students all over the world feel the exact same way they do! One of my personal favorites is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day. I mean come on...an entire book dedicated to test taking and stress? Thank you, Dr. Seuss!

Everybody experiences stress around testing time. Help your entire classroom or school to “de-stress” the test with these eight simple strategies.