A child may know that a test is approaching and suddenly become restless, tearful, irritable, avoidant or convinced that everything has been forgotten. Adults need to take distress seriously without assuming that every difficult pre-test feeling has the same cause. Sometimes the learner is underprepared. Sometimes preparation exists but performance pressure disrupts access to it. Often both layers interact.

Signs to compare

• The child performs accurately during ordinary practice but deteriorates when work is labelled a test.
• Revision becomes increasingly frantic as the assessment approaches.
• The learner repeatedly checks notes because they no longer trust what they know.
• Sleep or ordinary routines are disrupted around assessment periods.
• The child avoids practice tests because the score feels threatening.
• Distress falls sharply once the test has ended, regardless of the eventual result.

First establish what is actually prepared

Reassurance cannot substitute for missing knowledge. Use a small independent sample under calm, untimed conditions. Can the child retrieve the important material, explain it and solve representative questions without prompts? If not, identify the preparation gap. A vague feeling of panic becomes easier to address when the learner knows exactly what remains unfinished.

Then compare ordinary and test-like conditions

If calm independent performance is strong, introduce realistic conditions gradually: a short timed set, mixed questions, then a longer section. Observe when performance changes. The aim is not to frighten the child into becoming accustomed to stress. It is to make examination procedures increasingly familiar and to identify which conditions destabilise performance.

Replace endless reassurance with evidence

“You’ll be fine” may help briefly, but concrete evidence is stronger. Keep track of topics the child can retrieve, error patterns that have been repaired and timed sections completed successfully. Confidence built from verified competence is more dependable than confidence demanded by an adult.

Protect the final preparation period

The night before an assessment is a poor time to discover an enormous new revision plan. Prioritise the highest-value remaining gaps, organise materials and preserve reasonable routines. More study is not automatically better if it substantially reduces sleep or produces frantic low-quality repetition.

Teach an examination start routine

A familiar sequence reduces unnecessary decisions: read the instructions, survey the section if appropriate, begin with the planned strategy, mark uncertainty, manage time and return to difficult items according to the paper’s demands. Procedures cannot eliminate distress, but they can reduce avoidable uncertainty.

Do not make the test a judgement of the child

Discuss performance in terms of evidence: what knowledge held, where retrieval failed, which decisions worked and what needs repair. When every assessment becomes a verdict on intelligence or worth, the emotional stakes become unnecessarily large.

Know when study advice is not enough

Significant or persistent distress around tests, especially when it affects sleep, eating, school attendance, physical wellbeing or everyday functioning, deserves discussion with the school and appropriate qualified health or mental-health professionals. Educational observation can identify a performance pattern; it cannot diagnose an anxiety disorder.

The useful question is not simply “How do I make my child stop panicking?” Ask what is unfinished in preparation, what changes under assessment conditions and what support is appropriate for each layer.