ABSTRACT
Anxiety can impact learning in both positive and negative ways. Some students will suffer more with anxiety than others and will require greater support. Understanding the cause of the anxiety is the first step to developing effective interventions. Students prone to severe anxiety are more likely to underperform. Coping strategies should be embedded in all students. These strategies might suggest that the best way to deal with anxiety is to avoid anxiety-provoking situations. For test-anxious students, normalising test environments and situations can help them to cope more effectively. Because tests are associated with anxiety, one needs to be able to help the student re-learn and associate test-taking with less stressful emotions. Anxious teachers and parents can pass these anxieties onto students through stress contagion. Strategies such as mindfulness can help calm anxious students, while regular low stakes testing can acclimatise them to the test-taking environment.
