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When I was un undergrad I had horrid test anxiety. I'd know the material frontways and back when I walked in the door. Then I'd sit down to take the test and my brain would lock up. I was lucky to be able to remember my own name at that point.
Since then I've found somethings that work for me. I would suggest you talk to your guidance/counseling center at your school. Most have tips for effective studying and reducing test anxiety.
ok, what worked for me...
As others said, learn the material in advance. I used to tape my classes, with the profs permission. That night or the next day I would listen to the tape as I reviewed my notes. If I'd missed something in the notes I added it as I listened.
Grad school entailed hours of reading. I would break it up and not try to cram everything into my brain at once. When my brain started to ache from reading I'd go do something completely unrelated to school work. Something physical was helpful.
I too listened to music while I studied. I would listen to the same music as I waited to take the test.
I absolutely did NOT cram the night before. My feeling was that if I didn't know it by then I wasn't going to learn it in the last few minutes/hours. While my classmates were freaking out and cramming right before the test I would sit quietly, listening to my music, some times I would meditate to help myself stay calm.
Trav had an excellent point about going straight through the test answering the questions you definitely know the answer to. Then go back to the beginning and go through again. Keep doing that until you finish the test. Answering the stuff you definitely know gives you a boost in confidence to tackle the harder stuff. For scantron type tests, the ones where you fill in bubbles I am almost complusive about making sure I bubbled the right answer on the sheet. I once discovered I'd skipped a line on the answer sheet so all my answers after that would have been wrong if I hadn't caught the mistake.
Something I had to work on was not paying any attention to how long it took me to take the test vs other people. You finish when you finish. Some folks are fast, some folks are slow. What matters is providing the correct answers, not being the first to turn in your test.
I also made flashcards for myself. I would put a question on one side about the material I was learning and the answer on the back. I would go through all the cards and answer the questions. Any I got wrong got set to the side. Then I went through those again. repeat, repeat, repeat until I go the all right.
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