Students and teachers both feel exam anxiety. Teachers hear the anxiety and stress in the voices and comments of their students. Many teachers, being sensitive mentors, are hoping the best for the students. Hoping they studied, asked enough questions, and will pull through the exam with flying colors or at least pass! We want the students to do well and also to learn from the consequences of not passing for when it may count even more when they are out in the world. What do we do with the pressure of finals week or important exams? The good news is we can do so much more than we used to using Mindfulness and meditation techniques. My students confirm that taking a few deep breaths before taking a test lowers their anxiety. Teachers can guide a class through a quick and simple set of “arrive and settle” techniques to help us all arrive to class with both our bodies and minds; feeling grounded in our chairs by closing or lowering our eyes and taking 3 or more relaxing breaths can settle the nervous system; visualizing ourselves easily answering test questions and calmly working through parts of the test that are more difficult. Realize that there are hills and valleys when test taking.

Lastly, I like to ask students to respond to the test results in a positive way no matter what. This helps to drive home the point that one that fails is not a failure. Do your best and learn from the experience in order to be more successful next time. Naming exam anxiety and pre-teaching relaxation techniques can also lower the teacher stress that comes from having to find time to grade all the exams, enter the grades, and deal with disappointment or frustration from the students and sometimes parents.