Affirmations for students
The affirmations for students with the most research behind them aren't slogans. They're short pieces of writing, done before a hard class or exam, about something you value outside the grade. "I'm more than this grade" is the pocket version, and it's true on the worst exam day.
Choose the one that feels true today. You can save it as an image on your phone.
If saying an affirmation makes you feel worse, let it go. That's common, and a smaller, truer sentence may fit better. If you're thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US, or see crisis resources.
Six affirmations for students
- "I'm more than this grade." It keeps one test from standing in for all of you.
- "I studied, and I can show some of what I know." "Some" is the point. You don't have to show all of it.
- "Not knowing yet is part of learning." For the class where everyone else seems to get it first.
- "One question at a time." For the moment you flip through the exam and panic.
- "A bad test tells me what to study, not who I am." For the day the grade comes back.
- "I'm here because I care about where this leads." It reminds you why the class is worth the stress.
Write one on the inside cover of your notebook, or set it as your lock screen for exam week.
More lines for students
Fourteen more, for the exam room, the library, the day grades come back and the week you fall behind.
In the exam
- "I can skip a hard question and come back to it."
- "Read it twice. Then answer."
- "I'll start with a question I know."
- "A blank moment passes. I can breathe and reread."
While studying
- "I can test myself instead of rereading."
- "Being confused is part of learning something new."
- "I can ask the question other people are afraid to ask."
- "Office hours are for me too."
When grades come back
- "What I missed is my study list now."
- "One grade is one grade."
- "I can ask the teacher how to do better next time."
When you're behind
- "I can catch up one assignment at a time, starting with whatever's due soonest, even if I dread a different one more."
- "Other people find this hard too."
- "I can ask for help before it piles up."
What happened in the classroom studies
The values exercise is worth a few minutes before a big exam, as long as it doesn't replace studying, because it has worked in some classrooms and not in others and researchers don't yet know why.1
Some of the best-known affirmation research took place in real schools. Students picked values that mattered to them from a list, such as friends and family, music or religion, and wrote for a few minutes about why.
- Middle school. A brief writing exercise in class raised the grades of African American seventh graders and narrowed the racial gap in grades by 40%, across two field experiments.2
- College physics. In a course of 399 students, those who wrote about their most important values twice at the start of the 15-week term did better. The gap between men and women shrank, and women's most common grade rose from the C range to the B range.3
- The large replication. A well-powered repeat of the exercise in a district where it had worked before, using the same steps, found no effect. It was precise enough to rule out benefits larger than a small one.1
- Pick: Choose one or two values that matter to you outside school, like family, friends, faith or a sport.
- Write: Spend a few minutes on why they matter and when they showed up for you recently.
- Return: Walk into the exam or class carrying that, not only the grade.
Write the worries down before an exam
A different exercise targets the worry itself. Students who wrote openly about their worries for a few minutes right before a high-stakes test scored higher than students who didn't, especially those who were usually anxious about tests, in one set of experiments.4
That finding needs a caveat. A 2018 project repeated 21 well-known experiments from top journals with much larger samples, and this one did not replicate.5 If writing the worries down helps you feel clearer, keep it. Just don't count on it to raise a score.
"Ten minutes before the chemistry final, I write: I'm worried I'll blank on the equations and that I'll have to retake the class. Then I write the line at the bottom: one question at a time. I start with the question I know best."
Outside of school, what matters most to you right now? Write a few sentences about why, and when it last showed up in your week.
Answer this with JoyWhen school stress is more than stress
If worry about school keeps you from sleeping, eating or going to class for weeks, or you feel low most days, talk to someone. Many colleges have a counseling center, often free for students, and in high school a school counselor is a good first stop.
The affirmations for anxiety page has lines for worry that won't switch off.
Questions people ask about affirmations for students
What are good affirmations for students?
Short lines that separate you from the grade and point at one doable step. "I'm more than this grade" and "One question at a time" are two that fit most exam days.
What should I say to myself before an exam?
Something true and small. "I studied, and I can show some of what I know" is easier to believe than a promise of a perfect score. Then start with the question you're most sure of.
Do affirmations help with test anxiety?
The evidence is mixed. Values writing helped grades in some classroom studies and not in a large replication.1 Writing about test worries helped in the original experiments but failed a later repeat.5 Neither treats an anxiety disorder.
Related
- Positive affirmations: lines for life outside class, and how to write your own.
- Affirmations for confidence and affirmations for stress.
- Affirmations for kids, for younger students and the adults who talk with them.