Many students in secondary education experience feelings of stress and anxiety when taking tests and exams. This test anxiety can not only affect students' self-confidence, but also negatively influence their performance. Even in the context of secondary education, where weekly tests are scheduled to monitor students' progress in the learning process, test anxiety appears to be a widespread, frequent challenge.

While previous research has mainly focused at individual factors to address test anxiety, such as study methods and relaxation techniques, this study asks whether the way teachers communicate with their students about tests can also reduce test anxiety. Previous research based on self-determination theory has shown that students' feelings of competence play an important role in addressing test anxiety. Therefore, this study focuses on two competence-supportive strategies: (1) clarifying learning objectives and (2) providing sufficient, high-quality feedback during the students' learning process. 

Based on a questionnaire administered to 237 high school students a few days before the test and a second questionnaire immediately after the test, the study results demonstrated that both clarifying learning objectives and providing feedback during the learning process can reduce students' test anxiety. That is because both strategies better supported students’ three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) from self-determination theory. In addition, students had less test anxiety in classes where they generally perceived to receive more process feedback from the teacher.

This research demonstrates the important role of the teacher in reducing students' test anxiety and, at the same time, offers tools for clarifying learning objectives and providing high-quality process feedback.

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