Tips to reduce test anxiety and boost confidence

To help ease test day anxiety, Sylvan Learning Center offers students the following essay question test-taking tips:

• Review the question thoroughly. How many parts are there to the question? Make sure you answer every aspect of the question.

• How much time do you have to complete the exam, and how many questions do you have to answer?

• Read the question twice, once to see what's wanted and then a second time to underline key words.

READ MORE: Click here for more tips on multiple choice tests

• If you have a choice of questions to answer - which ones are you most comfortable with? Do you have enough supporting material to answer the ones you want?

• Prepare an outline. Organize your thoughts. If this is one of the questions that you prepared for when studying, you're already halfway there! Keep your facts straight, and be sure to include supporting details.

• Be concise when expressing your thoughts. Don't ramble.

READ MORE: Click here for more tips on open-ended tests

• Pace yourself. Leave enough time to answer all questions, and time for reviewing and editing. In addition to answering the questions correctly, remember you'll likely be evaluated on spelling and grammar, too.

• Provide supporting details for major topic areas, an introductory and concluding statement, and restate your theme or thesis statement in your conclusion.