Test Taking Anxiety 101

Entrance Exams. Admissions. Uncertainties. Life and Career Changes. Balancing Act of Doing It All.

There’s so much to study. So much to answer in a limited amount of time.

Deciding to go into the healthcare industry can be daunting and you would not be the first or last person to feel EXTREME anxiety from time to time. It is 1000% normal.

If joining the healthcare industry, becoming a nurse, or becoming some sort of specialist technician or therapist was easy and stress-free, we wouldn’t be facing a shortage of nurses and healthcare workers.

The reality is, yes, it can be stressful, and sometimes it feels like literally anything else would be easier. It might be tempting to procrastinate making the jump or to consider switching majors.

All of that is normal.

It’s also normal to have a normal job and life outside of healthcare and wake up one day and say “Hey! I think I want to be a nurse!”.

That’s pretty much what happened to Nurse Melissa who had already graduated college, had been out of college for years, with a major in SPANISH. Literally ZERO knowledge of anatomy, medical dosage, or any of that. ❌❌❌

We’re going over test-taking anxiety and how to overcome it. This is a question we get ALL of the time on Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok. Before diving into tried-and-true strategies to overcome test anxiety, we wanted to share a replay of a “Ask Me Anything” with John and Nurse Melissa who talk about anxiety, how to prepare for nursing school, what school is *actually* like, and more.

You’ll hear other HESI test-takers chime in and say they feel probably the same way you do, this video is 100% worth your time!

• Nurse Melissa’s Story and Journey
• What was the first semester of nursing school like?
• Nursing School Scholarships
• Is an accelerated BSN program doable with kids or a newborn?
• LPN VS RN
• In what ways has nursing school challenged you?
• How did you study and go back to school after having no science experience?
• How long should I study for the HESI exam?
• Do you recommend an associates or bachelor’s program?
• Was it difficult to form study groups?
• What’s the best way to study for nursing school entrance exams?
• Do you think it’s hard to find a job as a new graduate?
• Can becoming bilingual help you?
• Tips for test anxiety
• Is it normal for people in nursing school to doubt themselves?
• How many times per week did you have lectures or clinicals?
• Any advice for people who have failed their HESI multiple times?
• Best way to retain information from A&P

🤺 Here is how you can beat test anxiety:

⏰ If you are anxious about the fact that the exam is timed, the best thing you can do to overcome that is to take as many timed realistic practice tests as possible. Taking a practice test section that simply has 55 questions is not enough, you want to be taking a 55-question test in the required time limit so you can get a sense of how slow or fast the time passes, how long it takes you to answer each question and to see if you’re able to complete the test on time.

If you do this over and over again before your real entrance exam, you won’t be surprised or feel rushed because you’ll be used to the ticking tock. With repetition comes improvement. This is why all of our practice tests in the HESI online course are timed. Set aside the hour or so you need to take each section and take the test seriously.

If the first few attempts, you’re coming up short on time, write a note to yourself to evaluate why it might be taking you so long or what topics are slowing you down. Is it word problems? Is it because you’re unfamiliar with the 4-function calculator, is it because you’re drawing a blank or having to re-read a passage twice before answering the questions. Figuring out what your “time blocks” are ahead of time and working on improving those will make test day significantly less scary and easier.

😱 If you are anxious about a particular subject or section, the best thing you can do to overcome this is gain confidence in that subject. How do you do this? You can do this by identifying exactly which topic within that subject you are struggling with and laser focusing your studying time to that particular topic.

For example, if you say, “I have A&P, reading, and grammar in the bag, but not math”, we’d say to you “what part of math specifically?” You obviously aren’t horrible at ALL math otherwise you wouldn’t be where you are today. You’ve taken 10+ years’ worth of math classes at some point in your life. Am I right?

Instead, you can frame your mind to think “It’s been a while since I’ve learned math and applied it, I need a refresher because I have forgotten most of it”. That’s a much more powerful phrase. You do know it, you’ve seen it before, it’s not a crazy foreign language or insanely high-level math problem related to building rocket ships.

At that point, you would take a math practice test, review your results and identify the weak areas and strong areas.

You may figure out that you’re actually great at addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and you remember things like mode, median, and range, but you cannot remember how to do the order of operations or how to work with fractions or ratios. That’s okay. Now you can say “I’m OK at math, I just need more help on fractions, ratios, and order of operations.”

If you spend 1 hour a week on each of those math topics and watch the videos in the course, use the practice questions in the course, evaluate how you’re doing, and repeat. You will see the difference. If you give yourself the grace and chance to get better at fractions, ratios, or order of operations, you will see an improvement. You know more than you are giving yourself credit for. This applies to all subjects.

💻 If you are nervous about taking the exam online/remotely, familiarize yourself with the process and prepare your test-taking space and computer for the remote test. We’ll go over what to expect when taking the test remotely in the next module along with a checklist. Like with anything else, if you demystify the process, it will be a lot less anxiety-inducing. Hundreds of people take the test online every day and while some issues do and can occur, most of it is preventable with preparation.

Some simple things to know:

1. You can and should install all of the required browser extensions ahead of time.
2. You can and should make sure your device is compatible with the system requirements (no phones, no iPads).
3. You will be emailed a few days before your exam with a “dry run” and instructions so you can practice logging into the system, accessing the test, and answering a practice question or two (these will not be scored).
4. You can familiarize yourself with the common problems that may occur such as slow internet speed or too many people using the WiFi near your test space. We’ll go over these common issues and how to avoid them in the next module once you click “mark complete” below.
5. You will be asked to show your space with the video camera on your computer. This is to make sure you don’t have notes, study material, cheat sheets, a friend hiding under the desk helping you with math problems, etc. They will have you turn on the camera and keep it on during the test and you will have to scan the room so they can see the entire room, not just your desk.

If you’re feeling anxious, in general, remember, that is OK and that is NORMAL.

Here are a few things to NOT do if you are feeling anxious:

1. Don’t procrastinate. It is human nature to avoid things that make us scared and anxious. However, procrastination is a pitfall because it will ultimately make you have to rush studying until the last minute and you will feel even more frazzled. Things are way less scary when you approach them step by step. We provided you with A LOT of information, but we gave it to you in tiny dosages of information so you can be as prepared as possible. If you didn’t even look into the exam until two weeks ago and your test is tomorrow, you can imagine how freaked out you would be. Don’t procrastinate. Give yourself the time you deserve. Remember, this is for you. Not for your family, not for your friends, not for anyone but you. Be your own advocate and best friend and give yourself the time. Even if you just start with baby steps, that’s better than avoiding it all together.

1. Don’t rely on things that don’t work for you. The whole reason we created Smart Edition Academy’s HESI Online Course is because after seeing Nurse Melissa struggle to study what isn’t and isn’t on the test, squinting to make out some A&P chart in tiny black and white, and getting a lot of conflicting information, we realized there has to be a better way to make studying for this test easier. Thus, we thought about what would help learners who prefer color, visuals, audio learners, and interactive learners. Reading black and white text out of a book with 300+ pages is so played out. Use study resources that work for you so you can best learn the material, you don’t need to use the same thing as everyone else. Again, this is for YOU.

1. Ignore pressure and negative people. This is for you. You’re putting in the time. You’re the one who will have to show up and go to class for the next few years. You’re the one undergoing this next step. You’re the one in control. Your family isn’t in control. Your coworkers are not in control. Your friends are not in control. No one is going to do the work for you, pay the tuition bill, or go to class for you. Therefore, ignore anything that isn’t positive. You don’t need to announce your scores to the world. You don’t need to tell everyone what you’re going through. Keep it to yourself and don’t compare yourself to others. THIS IS FOR YOU. If you want to eliminate anxiety, you’re got to prioritize peace and positivity.