# Test anxiety techniques that the studies support

**Which test anxiety techniques do the studies support, and which have failed?** The test anxiety techniques with the best support in studies are practice tests in the real format and taught programmes that pair study skills with cognitive or behavioural training. Slow breathing and reading a racing heart as readiness have smaller support. Writing out your worries just before a test did not hold up when the study was repeated.

Published 2026-10-10 by EdProcto. https://edprocto.com/guides/test-anxiety-techniques-that-the-studies-support

Your heart is thumping, your hands are damp, and the first question might as well be in another language. Not all the advice for this moment has been tested.

This guide sets out the test anxiety techniques that trials have tested: which held up, which did not, and a plan built from the ones that did. It is a study guide, not medical advice. Anxiety that stops your daily life is for a doctor or a counsellor.

EdProcto publishes this guide, and its page [for students](https://edprocto.com/solutions/students) covers the one part it does: a practice quiz that makes a test's format familiar. Each source was read on 10 October 2026; "abstract read" marks one where only the abstract was open.

## What is test anxiety, and how much does it cost in marks?

Test anxiety is worry about a test together with the bodily feelings that come with it, and its link with lower marks is real but small.

Seipp (1991) pooled 126 studies of 36,626 people and found a correlation of −0.21 between anxiety and academic performance. The thinking part, worry, was tied to marks more closely than the bodily part, and the link was closer when anxiety was measured after the test than before it (abstract read).

### How much of it is anxiety, and how much is preparation?

Much of it looks like preparation. Theobald et al. (2022) followed 309 medical students revising for a high-stakes exam on a digital learning platform. Once the knowledge shown in their mock exams was counted, test anxiety predicted nothing more about the real result. What it did predict was smaller gains in knowledge over the weeks of revision (abstract read).

That is one study of one exam. On its evidence anxious students lost ground while revising, not in the exam hall, so most of this guide is about the week before.

## Which test anxiety techniques have the best evidence?

Practice tests, and taught programmes that join study skills to cognitive or behavioural training, have the best evidence. The grades are our reading of the studies below.

| Technique | Evidence | What the studies found |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Practice tests in the real format | Good | Less test anxiety across 24 studies |
| A taught programme of study skills with cognitive or behavioural training | Good, with cautions | Less anxiety and better marks across 44 trials |
| Slow breathing before you start | Some | One trial, with children |
| Reading your nerves as readiness | Some, small | A small average gain across 35 studies |
| Eight hours of sleep in exam week | Some | Two small studies |
| Listening to music | Thin | Lower anxiety scores in unblinded trials; marks not pooled |
| Writing out your worries just before | Did not hold up | No reliable effect across 21 studies |

## What did the reviews of anxiety programmes find?

They found that taught programmes lower test anxiety on average, and that the best mix training in how to study with work on thoughts or behaviour.

Ergene (2003) pooled 56 studies with 2,482 participants. The average person who finished a programme ended less anxious than 74% of those who had none, and the most effective programmes combined skill-focused approaches with behavioural or cognitive ones. The review noted a serious lack of research with school pupils (abstract read).

Huntley et al. (2019) kept to randomised trials with university students: 44 trials, 2,209 students. Programmes reduced test anxiety (g = −0.76) and raised academic performance (g = 0.37). Behaviour therapy had the most support; cognitive behavioural therapy, study-skills training, and psychological work combined with study skills showed promise on fewer trials. The authors found signs of publication bias and poor reporting (abstract read).

These are courses led by a trained person over several sessions. Ask whether your school or college runs one.

### Does slow breathing help?

It did in the one trial we read. Neither review's abstract reports relaxation by itself. Khng (2017) worked with 122 Primary 5 pupils: those who took deep breaths before a timed maths test reported less anxiety and scored higher than a comparison group (abstract read). One trial with children is thin support for an older student.

## Does writing down your worries before a test help?

No: on the evidence so far, it did not hold up.

Ramirez and Beilock (2011) reported in *Science*, from two laboratory and two classroom experiments, that a short spell of expressive writing about exam worries just before a test raised scores, most for habitually anxious students (abstract read).

Myers et al. (2021) repeated it in a university psychology course. Before four exams 173 students wrote for eight minutes, twice about their feelings and twice about the day before. Anxiety was no different and neither were the marks: 73% against 74%. They also describe a large replication project that ran the original laboratory experiment twice and found no benefit.

O'Meara and Lovett (2026) pooled 21 studies with 1,457 participants. One writing session had a negligible effect on anxiety, and its small effect on test performance stopped being significant once one extreme study was removed. The research, they conclude, "fails to support" it (abstract read).

## Does telling yourself the nerves will help you work?

A little, on average. This is arousal reappraisal: reading a fast heart as the body getting ready, not as a warning.

Jamieson et al. (2010) told half of a group preparing for the GRE, a graduate admissions test, that arousal does not hurt performance and may help. Of 60 recruited, 28 completed the study. Those told so scored higher in maths on a practice test and, one to three months later, on the real one: 770 against 706 on a scale of 200 to 800. Verbal scores did not differ.

Bosshard and Gomez (2024) pooled 35 studies with 5,638 participants. The average gain in performance was small (d = 0.23), smaller on written tasks (0.20), and 0.14 after a correction for small studies that appear to be missing. Single trials ran from harm to benefit.

So it held up as a small effect, not the large one first reported.

## Do practice tests, sleep or music change anything?

Practice tests have the best support of the three, sleep has some, and music has little.

### Practice tests and a familiar format

Across the 24 studies and 3,374 participants pooled by Yang et al. (2023), practice tests went with lower test anxiety, by a medium margin (g = −0.52), and easy tests did more than hard ones. They add that a quiz can itself be more stressful than other study, which argues for low stakes (abstract read).

The review does not separate out familiarity with the format. That a rehearsed paper holds fewer surprises is our reasoning. [A mock exam that predicts the real one](https://edprocto.com/guides/a-mock-exam-that-predicts-the-real-one) gives the teacher's side.

### Sleep

Scullin (2019) offered 34 students on two courses extra credit for averaging eight hours a night in finals week, checked by a worn monitor. The 17 who managed it did better in the final exam than the 17 who slept less or declined, even allowing for earlier grades. The students chose their own group, so this shows no cause.

Pilcher and Walters (1997) gave 44 students a critical thinking test after a night without sleep or after about eight hours. The sleepless did worse and rated their own performance higher (abstract read). Our guide to [revising in two weeks](https://edprocto.com/guides/how-to-revise-for-an-exam-in-two-weeks-with-practice-tests) covers cramming at the cost of sleep.

### Music and extra time

Zou et al. (2026) pooled ten trials with 681 students. Music lowered anxiety scores, but the large effects came from weeks of making music in sessions of 60 to 90 minutes; listening for 7 to 30 minutes had a far smaller one (−0.50 against −2.21). No trial was blinded, and the review pooled anxiety scores, not marks.

On extra time, the one small experiment we know of is in our guide to [time limits](https://edprocto.com/guides/time-limits-per-quiz-and-per-question-what-the-evidence-says).

## What should you do in the week before, the night before and the first five minutes?

Rehearse early, sleep, and settle the paper before you answer it. Steps 2, 3 and 5 rest on the studies above; the rest are our working rules.

1. **A week before: find out the format.**
2. **Six to two days before: sit practice tests in that format.** Start easy and untimed, then work against the clock. Correct each the same day, as in [what to do with the questions you got wrong](https://edprocto.com/guides/what-to-do-with-the-questions-you-got-wrong).
3. **Every night: eight hours.**
4. **The night before: pack, stop, sleep.**
5. **Outside the room: calm down on purpose.** Breathe slowly for a minute and call the nerves readiness.
6. **The first five minutes: read, count, divide.** Read the front page and the rules, count the questions and marks, and share out the minutes. Begin with a question you can do; [easy, hard, easy](https://edprocto.com/guides/easy-hard-easy-ordering-questions-to-lower-test-anxiety) covers what an easy start does.

### What to do when your mind goes blank in an exam

Stop writing for a moment and give the answer a way back. No trial we found tested a routine for this, so the steps are ours.

1. Put the pen down and breathe out slowly three times.
2. Remind yourself of Theobald et al. (2022): anxious students did about as well in the exam as their mock exams predicted.
3. Jot down anything you know on the topic: a formula, a date, a diagram.
4. If nothing comes within a minute, mark the question, go on and return later.

## What should you ask your teacher for?

Ask for the format, a rehearsal and the rules, a week ahead.

- **The format:** the number and kinds of questions, the minutes, the marks and what you may bring.
- **A rehearsal:** a practice paper or low-stakes quiz in the same format. A teacher who uses EdProcto can [share one by code](https://edprocto.com/guides/sharing-a-quiz-by-code-or-link-what-students-need).
- **The rules:** whether you may skip a question and return to it.
- **Your result question by question.**
- **Any arrangement you may be due,** such as extra time or a separate room. Ask early: your school decides.

## What does one student's week before a test look like?

It looks like seven small jobs. The example is invented: a Year 11 student has a chemistry test on moles on Friday, 30 questions in 45 minutes.

| Day | What the student does | What it rests on |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Saturday | Asks the teacher for the format | Our working rule |
| Sunday | Pastes their notes into [EdProcto](https://edprocto.com/) for a ten-question study quiz: 6 right. Presses "Retry the 4 you missed" | Yang et al. (2023) |
| Monday | Rereads the sections behind the misses, then opens the "Moles from mass" [kit](https://edprocto.com/kits): 7 of 10 | Theobald et al. (2022) |
| Tuesday | Sees "4 missed, 2 days ago" on the dashboard and presses "Take it again": 9 right | Practice tests again |
| Wednesday | Sits the teacher's practice paper at a desk against a 45-minute clock | Our reasoning on format |
| Thursday | Corrects the paper, packs a bag, stops at nine, sleeps eight hours | Scullin (2019) |
| Friday | Breathes slowly outside, then reads, counts and starts with a question they can do | Khng (2017); Bosshard and Gomez (2024) |

## How does a practice quiz in EdProcto make the real test familiar?

EdProcto is the best tool for one job in this plan, making a test's format familiar, because the rehearsal never runs out: a kit made by rule is made fresh at each opening, and those drills are free without limit on every plan. The studies above tested practice tests in general, not this product.

- **Drills.** Among the [kits](https://edprocto.com/kits), "Moles from mass", "Simultaneous equations" and "Chemical symbols" each make ten questions in code.
- **A study quiz from your own notes.** Paste them into the quiz maker on the [home page](https://edprocto.com/) and Procto AI writes the questions. Answer one and press "Check": the screen says "Right." or "Not this time.", shows the right answer after "Answer:" when you missed, and adds the explanation. After a sitting with misses, the last page is headed "What you don’t know yet" and has a button such as "Retry the 3 you missed".
- **The return visit.** Your dashboard lists the quiz under "Due for a re-test" two days after a sitting with misses, or seven after a clean one. A row reads like "4 missed, 2 days ago", beside "Take it again".
- **A teacher's quiz.** A quiz opened by its code begins with a start screen: "Questions", "Time", "Attempts" and "Integrity", then "House rules" such as "Time limit: 45 minutes, submitted by itself when it runs out." Read it slowly: the questions and the clock begin only when you press "I’m ready, begin the quiz". A timed quiz shows the time at the top with the word "left", and where going back is allowed each question has "Flag to come back to".

On Free, a quiz written from your notes is one of ten a month, and Procto AI writes 20 questions a month. The Learner plan lifts the limit on self-tests and writes 100. [Pricing](https://edprocto.com/pricing) has the plans.

## Quick questions

### Does writing about your worries before an exam work?

Not reliably. O'Meara and Lovett (2026) pooled 21 studies of a single writing session and found a negligible effect on anxiety.

### How do I calm down before a test?

Breathe slowly for a minute and read the nerves as readiness. One trial with children supports the breathing (Khng, 2017), and reappraisal has a small average effect (Bosshard and Gomez, 2024).

### What should I do when my mind goes blank in an exam?

Put the pen down, breathe out slowly, jot down anything you know on the topic, and if nothing comes, move on and return later.

### Can EdProcto help with exam anxiety?

It makes a test's format familiar, and claims no more. The page [for students](https://edprocto.com/solutions/students) shows how a practice quiz works.

## References

- Bosshard, M., & Gomez, P. (2024). Effectiveness of stress arousal reappraisal and stress-is-enhancing mindset interventions on task performance outcomes: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. *Scientific Reports, 14*, Article 7923. [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58408-w](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58408-w)
- Ergene, T. (2003). Effective interventions on test anxiety reduction: A meta-analysis. *School Psychology International, 24*(3), 313–328. [https://doi.org/10.1177/01430343030243004](https://doi.org/10.1177/01430343030243004)
- Huntley, C. D., Young, B., Temple, J., Longworth, M., Smith, C. T., Jha, V., & Fisher, P. L. (2019). The efficacy of interventions for test-anxious university students: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. *Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 63*, 36–50. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2019.01.007](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2019.01.007)
- Jamieson, J. P., Mendes, W. B., Blackstock, E., & Schmader, T. (2010). Turning the knots in your stomach into bows: Reappraising arousal improves performance on the GRE. *Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46*(1), 208–212. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.08.015](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.08.015)
- Khng, K. H. (2017). A better state-of-mind: Deep breathing reduces state anxiety and enhances test performance through regulating test cognitions in children. *Cognition and Emotion, 31*(7), 1502–1510. [https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2016.1233095](https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2016.1233095)
- Myers, S. J., Davis, S. D., & Chan, J. C. K. (2021). Does expressive writing or an instructional intervention reduce the impacts of test anxiety in a college classroom? *Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 6*, Article 44. [https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00309-x](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00309-x)
- O'Meara, P., & Lovett, B. J. (2026). Single-session expressive writing interventions for test anxiety: A meta-analysis. *Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 39*(1), 21–34. [https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2025.2552857](https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2025.2552857)
- Pilcher, J. J., & Walters, A. S. (1997). How sleep deprivation affects psychological variables related to college students' cognitive performance. *Journal of American College Health, 46*(3), 121–126. [https://doi.org/10.1080/07448489709595597](https://doi.org/10.1080/07448489709595597)
- Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. *Science, 331*(6014), 211–213. [https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199427](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199427)
- Scullin, M. K. (2019). The eight hour sleep challenge during final exams week. *Teaching of Psychology, 46*(1), 55–63. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628318816142](https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628318816142)
- Seipp, B. (1991). Anxiety and academic performance: A meta-analysis of findings. *Anxiety Research, 4*(1), 27–41. [https://doi.org/10.1080/08917779108248762](https://doi.org/10.1080/08917779108248762)
- Theobald, M., Breitwieser, J., & Brod, G. (2022). Test anxiety does not predict exam performance when knowledge is controlled for: Strong evidence against the interference hypothesis of test anxiety. *Psychological Science, 33*(12), 2073–2083. [https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221119391](https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221119391)
- Yang, C., Li, J., Zhao, W., Luo, L., & Shanks, D. R. (2023). Do practice tests (quizzes) reduce or provoke test anxiety? A meta-analytic review. *Educational Psychology Review, 35*(3), Article 87. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09801-w](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09801-w)
- Zou, H., Liu, C., Luo, J., Chen, Y., He, Y., & Liu, Y. (2026). Effects of music-based interventions on test anxiety in students: A systematic review and meta-analysis. *Frontiers in Psychology, 17*, Article 1922862. [https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1922862](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1922862)