Testing times: When taking (and not taking) tests becomes a source of anxiety

Oct 23, 2026

Uploaded by Connor

Transcript for a webinar exploring test anxiety as a social and emotional wellbeing challenge during childhood and adolescence. It explains the emotional and physiological reactions, the role of appraising tests as highly threatening, and how failure can endanger self-esteem, aspirations, and perceived judgments by family, peers, teachers, and others. The discussion introduces a structured framework—the four Ws—and emphasizes that test anxiety is manageable through relatively light-touch interventions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Four Ws of test anxiety

What test anxiety is

Where test anxiety comes from

Why test anxiety is important

What can be done about it

Transcript – Testing times: When taking (and not taking) tests becomes a source of anxiety Paul Ellis Head of Teaching & Learning Strategy Cambridge Assessment International Education Professor David Putwain Faculty of Education Liverpool John Moores University Paul: Hello and welcome to this webinar. Our experience of working with young people, or of our own lives, has shown that childhood and adolescence is a particularly sensitive period for social and emotional health and wellbeing. Psychological and educational research tell us that this can be due to both nature and nurture. The development of our brains and environments in which we work have a combined impact on us. According to Ofqual, England's regulator of qualifications, examinations and tests, there is increasing evidence of depression and anxiety-like experiences among children and young people. This may be because we are now much more open to talk about such experiences and it may be because there is greater pressure on young people to perform, be qualified and ready for an increasingly competitive and uncertain workplace. In recent years, there has been greater and more considered discussion about the particular pressures brought by examinations or tests. Some people state that a bit of stress is good f or you but anxiety around taking assessments needs to be understood more deeply than that and managed appropriately. Stress in adolescence can result in consequences for the longer term. This webinar is about how taking, or not taking, tests can become a source of anxiety and what can be done about it. My name is Paul Ellis. I'm head of Teaching and Learning at Cambridge Assessment International Education. It's my pleasure to introduce our expert speaker for this webinar, Professor David Putwain from Liverpool John Moores University. Professor Putwain taught in various schools and sixth form colleges in the UK from 1994 to 2006. After completing a PhD in 2006, David joined Edge Hill University, working initially in the Department of Social and Psychological Sciences and subsequently in the Faculty of Education. David joined Liverpool John Moores University in May, 2016. His research interests focus on health psychological factors influence and in turn are influenced by learning and achievement. He has a long standing interest in test-anxiety among school-aged populations and the development of interventions to provide students with the tools they need to manage their test-anxiety. Welcome David. David Putwain: Thank you very much for the introduction, Paul and it's an absolute pleasure to be able to talk with you today and to record this webinar. So what I'd like to focus on are what I call the four Ws of test anxiety. That is what is test anxiety, where does it come from? Why is it important and finally what can be done about it? So let's start off with number one. What actually is test anxiety? Well, this is a fairly typical definition of test-anxiety. Emotional and physiological responses like panic, feeling dizzy and our heart beating very fast. And these are accompanied with thoughts dwelling on failure and the consequences of failure and resulting in what we call cognitive interference such as a sense of going blank, problems with concentration, problems with memory and so on. And these responses arise from appraising or judging the test as being highly threatening. And I'll explore a little bit on the next slide what that actually means. But just a couple of points to make about this definition of test-anxiety. Many people, this is not unusual might become anxious for one-off situations, one-off exams, one-off test and so on. When we're talking about these responses here we're talking about people who have an enduring response like this to not just one or two exams but typically all tests or exams. So we quite often refer to it as being an enduring or a trait-like experience. But this doesn't mean that it's irreversible though b

FAQs

What is test anxiety according to the webinar transcript?

Test anxiety includes emotional and physiological responses such as panic, feeling dizzy, and a very fast heartbeat. It also involves thoughts about failure, cognitive interference like going blank, and difficulties with concentration and memory.

Why do some students view tests as threatening?

The transcript links threat to potential damage to self-esteem or self-view, fears about failure affecting aspirations, and concerns about how important others (family, peers, teachers, etc.) might judge them.

Is test anxiety permanent, and can it be reduced?

The webinar states that test anxiety is an enduring or trait-like response but is not irreversible. Interventions can reduce it using relatively light-touch, short-term approaches.

Oct 23, 2026

Uploaded by Connor