Intended topic: I want to write about test anxiety.
Intended focus: I want to focus on the causes of test anxiety, the effects, and how you can prevent it.

Do you feel like you can’t breathe before the big English test in an hour? Does your heart start to pound at the thought of the grade on the History final next week? Most college students have experienced the same feelings of fear and anxiety as you. This experience is called test anxiety. “The American Test Anxiety Association estimates that about twenty percent of individuals experience acute test anxiety and that another eighteen percent may experience test anxiety moderately”, states Magic Affiliate. I am going to tell you what test anxiety is, its cause, what it can do to the body, and how you can prevent it. I want to write about this topic of test anxiety because it is such a common experience that I feel others should be aware of the experience itself. I have felt test anxiety myself. Let’s start with what test anxiety is and what causes this horrible experience. Test anxiety is anxiety about a test. But, anxiety is a fear or nervousness about what might happen or a feeling of wanting to do something very much according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Researchers George Mandler and Seymour Sarason began studying test anxiety in fifties. Irwin G. Sarason, Seymour’s brother, investigated this type of anxiety and found what it related to. Test anxiety is caused by numerous reasons. Fear of failing is one of the most leading causes of test anxiety. If you didn’t prepare for the test well, you start to feel anxious also. Then there are some people who aren’t good at test taking so that causes test anxiety, too. Now that you know a little bit about test anxiety, let’s move on to the effect on the average person it can cause. There are numerous ways it affects people but what I’m going to focus on is physical, emotional, and behavioral effects. For physical there is many out there. Most people usually experience the headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, shortness of breath and the dizziness that test anxiety can bring. Panic attacks, tightness of the chest, and feelings of a heart attack are also experienced. The most common effect is sleep deprivation or insomnia. The emotional effects from test anxiety are common emotions like anger, sadness, but also not so common like disappointment. For most, though, the emotional effect is fear. Behavioral effects are the effects that people experience but aren’t aware what they’re doing is test anxiety. These include not being able to concentrate, negative feelings about self, the mind going “blank”, and procrastinating about studying. Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dig in to how to prevent test anxiety. Starting with weeks before the test you will want to study for a few hours a week. To help you in that aspect, set a timer. Take your notes, go over the main points,