Test Anxiety as a Problem

Here is another problem-solving conversation using the seven problem-probing questions that describe the heart of the 5 Minute Manager process. 

I started the problem-probing questions with Janet, “What for you is the problem that you’d like to discuss?”  Without any hesitation she replied, “My test anxiety; it’s terrible.”  “Okay, and how would you describe the problem?”

“I describe it as my biggest source of anxiety; I hate it whenever I’m asked to take a test or do any kind of performance review.  I get so nervous that I can’t think and often go blank, I just know that I will do terrible on the test.”

I then asked the outcome question.  “Okay, so that is what you do not want; what do you want?  What would be the change that you’d like to experience from our conversation?”

“I want to stay calm and not worry about failing or being exposed as unintelligent; I know I’m intelligent and know the information, but the my anxiety gets so strong that I can’t remember what I know.”

That led to the conversation question.  “What would be the subject of the conversation that you’d like us to have, a conversation that will help you resolve the problem?”

“I guess I want to talk about how to stay calm and not let the anxiety arise.  That would be good.  And to not be so afraid of tests.”

I next asked the symptoms question.  “From what you’ve already said, it sounds like the problem creates some really strong symptoms—symptoms which themselves are problematic.”

“Yes of course!  From the anxiety comes the nervousness, the sweating, and that leads to not being able to think, or my mind racing so I can’t concentrate, to sometimes even going blank, and then doing terrible on the test.” 

On a pain or suffering scale, how bad are all of those symptoms? 

“You mean from 0 to 10?  They would be a 7 or 8 before the test and then a 10 during the test.”

I was now ready for the fifth question, problem thinking question.  “So Janet, what thinking are you doing which creates the problem?”

“The thinking?  Well it is obvious, tests are hard, they make me nervous.  Also I’m just not a good test taker, that all through school, I was never good at tests.  I got nervous because my grades are on the line, and I knew that if I don’t do well, I may never get into the graduate school that I want to attend.”

“So for you, the problem thinking is about the tests themselves—they are hard, they make you nervous, they determine your grades and your future, and you’re not a good test taker.  Is that right? [Yes, definitely.] And tell me, what do you believe about tests?”

“Believe? [pause] Well, just what I said, they are hard.   I don’t know what else to say.”

“Do you believe that all tests are ‘hard?’   [Yeah!] So you’ve never had an easy test or one that you aced?”

“I guess I have, but the hard tests are the ones that make me so anxious that I can’t think or handle them.”

I didn’t probe any further, but went to the question about a question.  “What question would you like to have answered, the question when answered solves the problem of getting anxious about tests?”

“The question would be ... it would be something like, ‘How can I learn to not get anxious when I think about a test.’  Or, ‘How can I stay calm when I take a test?’”

Finally, one more question, the assumption question.  “Given all that you have said, what have you been assuming about tests, yourself, learning, calmness, etc.?”

“I don’t know; I don’t think I’ve been assuming anything.  Like what would I be assuming?”

“Well, possibly that somehow your worth or esteem as a person is tied up with how you do on a test.  Or maybe that how you learned to worry and get anxious in the past is always going to be a part of how you face tests.”

“Yeah, well isn’t both of those things true?”

“For me, no, but what about you?  Are they true for you?”  There was a pause, Janet did not answer, so I said, “Now let me ask you a truly critical question.  Are you ready?  Okay, brace yourself for this.  ‘If you knew deep down at the feeling level that your worth as a person was a given and unconditional and that how you do on a test has nothing in the world to do with your value, how much anxiety would you have a bout a test?’ Sit with that for a moment.  Now waht do you think?”

“Would you like another one?  ‘How much worry or anxiety would you feel if you changed your  thinking and viewed a test like a scale.  It measures how much you have learned so far, that’s all?’”

Round Two

Question #5: If a ‘test’ is just an external condition, and you think that tests reflect on you as a person—that people will see you as unintelligent. Is that your problem thinking?

“Yes, I give far too much meaning to tests, I make them out to be bigger than me.”

Question #6—what’s your question?

“My question then is, How can I reduce the size of tests in my mind?”

Question #7 — What are you assuming?

           “I guess I’m assuming and acting as if I didn’t create how big the problem has become in my mind which then creates all of my symptoms.”

Critical Question: “If you knew that all of your representations are your productions, how easily and how quickly could you reduce the size of the problem?”

Discovery

In this instance we used the second set of questions (#5 through 7) for a second round.  Sometimes you might want to do additional rounds, three rounds, four rounds, etc.  The design would be to inquire until you get to “the heart of the matter.”

Problems are problems because of the way we think about things.  That’s why problems are always in someone’s mind as a person’s way of interpreting things.  For a ‘test,’ it is just a set of questions to find out what you know or don’t know.  But when you view a test as determining your personal worth or your social worth—now you have made it into a really big problem.  You have semantically loaded it up with far too many meanings.  And yet, the meanings you give to a ‘test’ or to anything, that determines how you will experience it.  And the good news is tht when you change the way you think about something, not only do you change your mind, but your emotions change, your responses change—your world changes!  Welcome to your neuro-semantic world!