American Test Anxiety Association

amtaa.org

A hundred cartloads of anxiety
will not pay an ounce of debt.
...Italian proverb

Prevalence 

The majority of students report being more stressed by tests and by schoolwork than by anything else in their lives.  About 16--20% of students have high test anxiety, making this the most prevalent scholastic impairment in our schools today.  Another 18% are troubled by moderately-high test anxiety.   

 Handicap

These students  "blank" or "freeze" on tests.  High test anxiety reduces working memory, confuses reasoning, increases mistakes, and lowers test scores.  Students with high anxiety perform around 12 percentile points below their low anxiety peers (about six tenths of a letter grade below).  

Solutions

We look here for programs which are easy-to-administer, provide consistent anxiety reduction, and are shown to improve test scores.  See | Solutions|

No Volunteers?

Many test anxious students are also socially anxious, and do not want to appear conspicuous or odd.  So these students seldom volunteer, and may seek to avoid recommended interventions.  Schools must screen students and win their confidence.   

Action

Only a small fraction of test anxious students ever receive adequate anxiety reduction training.   See what can be done.  Then work together with us, to help make it happen!  

American Test Anxiety Association

Working Together We Can:
 Build Student Confidence  ...  Improve Test Performance ...  Promote Our Most Anxious Students                    

| Is It Serious? |