In order to be able to cope with test anxiety it is best to understand what is happening.
According to the American Test Anxieties Associaton "The majority of students report being more stressed by tests and by schoolwork than by anything else in their lives. About 16--20% of students have high test anxiety, making this the most prevalent scholastic impairment in our schools today. Another 18% are troubled by moderately-high test anxiety."-http://www.amtaa.org/

Take a few minutes and think about your last days at college, when you where packing up and getting ready for the next stage in your life. There are many boxes around. Each of these boxes are labeled. but instead of labels like clothes, dishes, and the like I want you to picture these boxes having labels that represent things you learned had learned up to that point. Notice that some of the boxes are filled with things that you learned before school. There is a box that contains things you know about the brain. There is another box that contains what you know about stress. Another box contains things you know about relaxing.

Remember there is good stress and bad stress.
It is something is experienced by everyone at some point. But in terms of test anxiety stress is “a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.” - See more at: http://www.stress.org/what-is-stress/#sthash.F3dZbeDC.dpuf

Some people might say that anxiety is all in your head. It might be also said that stress is all about the feelings your body is producing. In fact it is a mind and body reaction. It is in fact artificial to make a distinction because they both work together as a system. Each one affects the other, and do create a "feedback loop"

When faced with a threat our first reaction might be to fight.

In other cases the most appropriate response is to run away!

When uncertain how to react to a threat, our last choice is to freeze up. The Possum Lodge motto: "Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"

What happens when you can't act on your instincts?
How does a tiger react in a cage, knowing that food is on the outside, but it can't get to it?

People that study the brain have different ways to categorize and divide up the brain.
Focusing on an inner/outer brain division is useful when thinking about test anxiety

The outer brain is our rational mind. With this we do many of the tasks that are part of cognitive performance.

The inner part of our brain is the emotional or reactive mind. These are the more primitive centers that we have in common with animals. This is also generally considered the region responsible for intuition, gut reactions, hunches, and habitual responses.

Both parts of the brain are necessary. Both are valid in certain situations. We need them both to function, but they need to perform as a proper team, in the right balance.

This part of the brain controls the signals that we process, and decides which part of the brain we need for a task. In those that have anxiety, it is highly and possibly over active. If we sense a threat, our amygdala directs traffic in the brain to the parts that have learned how to respond to threats. If it senses a calm situation, it directs traffic in our brain to the higher cognitive centers.

"When we experience an amygdala hijack, the emotional part of the brain – the amygdala – overrides the thinking part of the brain – the neocortex – in response to a perceived threat. Depending on the degree of hijack, your ability to reason and think logically is compromised. Your working memory will become less efficient and your blood pressure, adrenaline and hormone levels rise. It can take 3 to 4 hours for it to clear your system…

While an overactive amygdala serves a useful purpose when faced with a genuine physical threat (when emotions and reactions are crucial), it can cause problems when faced with an emotional threat."
http://northofneutral.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/beware-of-amygdala-hijacks/

Memories are dependent on the mood that they are stored under.
This is called mood state dependent retrieval

When we are afraid our brain pulls upon memories of other frightening experiences

When we are mad, we remember other times that we were mad.


Note: This is why we are reminded of every time someone has made us angry!

To get the brain to work in optimum performance: we need to be calm like we were when we studied the material.

Form a picture in your mind of a relaxing spot (A happy place)

http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/treatment/visualization

Exercise is a good stress reliever.
People that exercise also have a better tolerance for stress.
Good exercises for anxiety:
http://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/managing-anxiety/exercise-stress-an...