A safe space meant to reduce stress for exams may be creating a unique type of anxiety for students taking exams.
The Hammond Testing Center is a place where students can take proctored exams without the pressure of a class period. But some students say it is hardly stress-free.
“[It is] definitely more stressful sometimes than regular class testing or home testing,” said Citlali Lopez, a senior Applied Math and Statistics major.
Before an exam, students must lock their belongings in a locker to eliminate distractions.
“With the whole process of putting your stuff away in a locker where you have to hand in the key to them, then all the cameras,” she said. “It is a bit too much to handle sometimes… Especially since it just adds to the already [existing] anxiety of taking a hard exam.”
During exams, cameras are constantly watching, and proctors patrol the room, causing students to feel stressed out and under pressure.
“If they rearrange the layout to look more like a classroom than an office room with hyper vigilance, then I think that would make it less stressful,” Lopez said. The center, with around 100 testing cubicles, is busy.
“[We] tested over 26,000 students last fiscal year,” said Jan Gonzalez, the center’s director.
Gonzales acknowledges that some students feel anxious about taking their exams in the center.
“I think people might feel a little more anxious if they’ve not been here before,” he said.
Knowing that students tend to feel anxious when coming into the testing center, Gonzalez has introduced tactics to make the center as welcoming as possible.
“I want to be as open and transparent as possible,” he said. “Just so that students know what is happening.”
Many students who take exams at the center say they prefer it to classroom tests.
“I actually think it’s better to help students focus solely on the exam without distractions,” said Ariel Miller, a senior Psychology student. “I like how the testing center gives you your own cube and closes you off from others.”
That’s what Gonzalez wants to hear from students.
“We try to make it a welcoming environment and give students the information they need on the website so that they know what to expect. And then also we try to just have little fun things,” he said. “We try to decorate for seasons and make sure that at least in the waiting area, when you come in you feel like it’s a nicer environment.”
Gonzalez has worked hard to make the testing center an environment that students and faculty can benefit from.
“We really want to be as much of a service to students and faculty as possible,” he said. “I feel like our job is to make sure everybody is comfortable and that everybody tests how they’re supposed to test.”
