By Stephen Beech via SWNS
Exam stress for teenagers is made worse by pressure to achieve, a leading academic has warned.
He says it means many pupils don’t reach their full potential.
Professor of Education David Putwain warns that “heavy-handed” messages around test results can fuel extreme worry among some 16- to 18-year-olds, even when others respond well to such messages.
Forer teacher Putwain has identified several risk factors, for example, students with certain personality traits, including those who are highly self-critical, can underachieve because of severe anxiety during exams.
Certain groups also report higher exam anxiety, including girls and those from economically deprived backgrounds.
“Temperature checks” to identify at-risk pupils early and evidence-based psychological interventions to control negative thinking are among the broad reforms Professor Putwain calls for in his new book “Understanding and Helping to Overcome Exam Anxiety.”
Based on extensive data, the book debunks the “a bit-of-stress-is-good” myth and highlights how around one in six students in the UK (16%) are suffering high exam anxiety – among the highest of all Western nations, according to one report.
Putwain, of Liverpool John Moores University, said: “A potentially large number of students aged 15 to 18 years may be underachieving and exposed to pressures that are leading to dangerously high levels of anxiety.
“Many of the severely exam-anxious students may not be reaching their full potential and achieving less they would do otherwise.
“Heavy-handed messages about the importance of exam grades for students’ life trajectory may be true and may motivate some students.
“They are a risky strategy, however, and will act as an anxiety trigger for some students resulting in the opposite outcome.”
As well as analyzing external factors, Putwain also identifies the internal, psychological drivers of exam anxiety.
He suggests it is not always prompted by a fear of failure but is also triggered by a threat to self-worth.
Putwain says some pupils adopt “safety” behaviors such as studying to excess to prevent a “catastrophic” outcome; or they become convinced that worrying will provide a solution, a belief that means they fail to break the cycle of anxiety.
Anecdotes from pupils are used in the book to highlight the impact of high exam anxiety on educational achievement.
As anxiety overloads working memory, some students talk about their minds going blank or remembering the test answers only after they have left the room.
Putwain recommends psychological techniques to help professionals identify and support highly test-anxious students.
These include Tackling Exam Pressure and Stress (STEPS), an approach he pioneered based on controlling anxiety to change negative thinking.
Stress is often unavoidable in life but what counts is how one responds to pressure, according to the book.
Putwain said: “A challenge response is when students have the resources to cope but stress becomes a threat when they believe they lack these resources.
“Anxiety is a response to this threat and leads to burnout over time and underachievement.”
The book offers approaches for teachers, parents, and professionals involved in school welfare to address the pressures of preparing for high-stakes exams in educational systems worldwide.
Putwain suggests that secondary schools should normalize the ‘theatre’ of exams – sitting children in rows in silence – by starting the process earlier and reassuring them that they should not fear exam stress.
Other recommendations include broad policy reform, including replacing the current system with several smaller exams that can be retaken, alternative forms of assessment such as essays, and school inspections that support schools.
