Understanding and Helping to Overcome Exam Anxiety: What Is It, Why Is It Important and Where Does It Come From?

This important book considers what we know about test and exam anxiety, including how it is defined, its characteristics, how it can be identified, why and how it develops, and what can be done to support test-anxious students.

Addressing the pressures of preparing for and taking high-stakes tests and exams in many educational systems throughout the world, the book offers additional steps that schools, policymakers, and parents can take to further reduce test anxiety. Looking at the science and providing readers with an accessible framework of facts and no-nonsense details, the book addresses the most frequently asked questions and topics, including the difference between exam stress and exam anxiety, the signs and indicators of exam anxiety, and the consequences of exam anxiety on educational achievement. Former teacher and current Professor and leading authority on exam anxiety, David Putwain includes a chapter explaining psychological interventions for test anxiety, specifically STEPS, an intervention designed to help professionals identify and support highly test-anxious students.

Putwain’s book is essential reading for teachers, school leaders, parents, and professionals involved in school welfare. It may also be of interest to counsellors, government education departments, and examining bodies.

David Putwain is Professor of Education at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. His research interests focus on the motivations and emotions that arise in achievement settings and how these impact, and are in turn impacted by, achievement, well-being, and mental health. David has been researching test and exam anxiety for over twenty years.