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Once you've registered to take your exam and you've decided
how you're going to study for it, you can turn your attention
to the actual test situation. Ask yourself three questions:
- How do I really feel about taking tests? Am I generally
relaxed and efficient?
- Am I nervous in a test situation, so nervous that I
waste time with instructions, get confused by questions,
or fixate on getting the answer to every one, unable to
move on until I do?
- What special skills will I need to work on in order
to improve my test performance?
Recently, a group of students spoke candidly with Peterson's
about their first reactions to standardized tests:
- "When it comes to tests, I'm the kind of person
who gets hypnotized by the clock. I watch the minutes
tick away and become more and more tense until I can't
work anymore. Consequently I never finish tests on time
and always leave them with a sense of deep frustration."
- "It's funny; I always worked hard and performed
pretty well in my high school classes and on the tests
we had every week in class. But I've never been able to
transfer that success over to standardized tests. I just
wish I didn't have to be judged by how well I do on tests,
and that people would just accept me for who I am."
- "In test situations I just can't focus on the test!
I keep thinking of how much fun I am going to have next
Saturday afternoon when I get together with my friends."
If you have a hard time focusing when you go into a test,
remember how you overcame other challenges in your life,
like your first dive into the local swimming pool. You talked
to yourself, right? Do this again, and persuade yourself
to look at the questions in a relaxed and thoughtful manner.
If the clock intimidates you, then practice with your software
or test-preparation book, using a kitchen timer. When the
timer rings, reset it and move on to the next question no
matter what. You will get used to thinking more efficiently
and quickly.
If difficult questions make you panic, then the appropriate
strategy would be to skip the difficult questions. On most
standardized tests, some of the responses will be more difficult
than others, and each response counts the same. Think of
the fact that if you correctly skip the few difficult questions
on the test and get all the others right, you are going
to do very well.
If you have difficulty with a question and pass it by, you
can always look at it again later if there is time. Faced
with four or five multiple-choice responses to a question
you understand, eliminate the one or two obvious wrong answers,
then select the response that best answers the question.
If you are still puzzled, do not respond to the question
at all. Remember not to read too much into a question. Take
the test questions at face value. The test makers are not
out to trick you, believe it or not.
A Group Approach to Test Anxiety
Sometimes counseling centers will offer group sessions devoted
to alleviating test anxiety. The first step requires that
all members of the group share their test-taking experiences,
and these experiences are condensed and put in the left-hand
column on a chalkboard. The group then brainstorms about
ways in which each anxiety might be reduced or eliminated.
These responses are recorded in a middle column on the board
beside the anxiety they are meant to cure.
Next, the group conducts a rehearsal of the test situation
itself. This exercise enables students to identify how they
react in a test situation. The counselor takes notes on
how each student acts as he or she is taking the test. For
example, he might write in his notebook: "Dave appeared
stone-faced and stared into outer space a lot." Or,
"Joan bit her nails and her pencil unmercifully."
Or, "Tom kept crossing and uncrossing his legs and
then scrunched up in the chair, and he kept looking at the
clock." When the exercise is over, the counselor reads
his comments as he writes them in the third column on the
board. The group discusses the chart they have produced
on the board and makes recommendations about the behavior
of each member. The counselor enters that recommendation
in the fourth and final column on the board.
For Dave, the conclusion might be, "Dave should relax
and not lift his head and be distracted from his paper.
He should focus on head and neck relaxation techniques."
For Joan, "She should keep her hands as still as possible
and chew gum so that she does not poison herself chewing
her lead-filled pencils." For Tom, the comment is,
"He should sit in a more relaxed and upright position
and look at the clock only when he has come to the end of
a section."
Simple Relaxation Exercises
Once students have identified their particular counterproductive
behavior in an exam situation, they will want to think seriously
about going through a brief relaxation exercise before taking
the test. John Emery of the Human Resources Institute in
California has suggested the following muscle-relaxing exercises
for people approaching anxious moments in their lives:
- Settle back in your chair and relax. Take a few deep
breaths and begin to let yourself go.
- Now extend both arms straight out and clench your fists
more and more tightly as you count slowly to five. Then
relax and let your arms drop. Concentrate on the differences
you perceive between the tension phase and the relaxation
phase.
- Focus on your forearms. Extend your arms as above, and
push out on a slow five count as before. Relax again.
Do the same for your biceps, flexing your arms toward
your body and then relaxing after 5 seconds.
- Concentrate on your forehead. Wrinkle your brow hard
on a five count. Relax.
- Close your eyes tightly as you count to five. Then relax
slowly.
- Do the same for your neck and shoulders, sitting up
rigidly, then relaxing. For each exercise, conclude by
contemplating the difference between the tense feeling
and the relaxed feeling that follows it.
- Do the same for your stomach muscles. Then let them
relax and try to spread this relaxation throughout your
entire body.
- Now move to your thighs. Straighten out your legs and
turn your toes up toward your face on a five count and
relax.
- Relax your calf muscles in a similar way, turning your
toes away and down as hard as you can as you count to
five. Then relax again. Repeat the exercise, turning your
toes up this time.
Finally, in a relaxed position, close your eyes and review
your exercises, trying to spread that relaxed feeling outward
from each particular muscle group throughout your whole
body.
Rewarding Yourself for "Good Behavior"
Test anxiety can also be handled by inventing a simple game
called "Rewarding Yourself for Good Behavior."
- Dave, who blanks out and stares into outer space during
tests, might promise himself a solid 10-minute break after
taking a mock test, if-and only if-he does not look up
and blank out while taking the practice test.
- Joan might reward herself by having something fun to
eat, like an ice cream sundae, if-and only if-she is able
to abstain from chewing her pencil while taking a practice
test.
- Tom could decide to limit his clock watching to two
time checks per test session and reinforce this behavior
by promising to buy himself a shirt he recently admired
in a shop downtown, if-and only if-he succeeds in controlling
his behavior on the practice test.
Whatever strategy you use, the important idea to bear in mind
is rewarding good behavior and punishing the undesirable behavior.
Make sure the reward and punishment system is reasonable for
you. The more it is, the better it will work to reduce your
anxiety.
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