 Physical symptoms  Cognitive symptoms › Going blank › Missing easy questions › Knowing info in hall but not in room › Remembering info again once out of test

 Anxious lifestyle  Poor test taking strategies  Negative thoughts  Bad tests!

 Yes!  Test anxiety is very treatable  You will learn strategies that will help you whenever it occurs

 Adopt a more relaxing and healthy lifestyle  Adopt more effective test taking strategies  Learn to recognize, refute and stop negative thoughts

 Exercise  Adequate sleep › For memory and for mood control  Adequate nutrition  Avoid alcohol and drugs  Practice relaxations techniques › Yoga and meditation › Deep breathing › 8 count breathing › visualization

 Relax prior to the exam  Do not study or discuss material immediately beforehand  Keep blood sugar up during test with snack  Answer the questions you know first  Give “gut response” on others  Do not change answers unless you get more information during exam

 Research at U Chicago—Anxious students who did so before an exam raised grade significantly  Worrying competes for resources in the brain’s “working memory”  Writing may shift working memory from focus on worrying to recall of learned information

 Count backwards by an odd number  Breathe!  8 count breathing  Give yourself 5

 Recognize them  Refute/dispute/argue them  Substitute more positive thoughts  Tell yourself to STOP

 I am an idiot!  I’ll never learn bw  Everyone else passed  I guess I should drop out now  The professor is judging me  Of course I’m not  I need more practice  I really don’t know this  I need to regroup and choose another strategy to learn  The professor will only judge me if I don’t get help

 Look at them later  Is there another way to see this? › Less negative and usually more accurate  Write the argument/refutation next to it  If that is hard—what would you say to a friend who made the negative comment to him/herself?

 Don’t assume professors are making the test extra hard or tricky › Tests are very hard to write › They may have left it till the last minute If you think it is tricky you will feel nervous and second guess even easy questions If you think it was written at midnight you will be less nervous and be more likely to read the question as it was intended

 Tests are an estimate of knowledge  You are not your test grade  Tests are points  Celebrate your victories by putting them on your fridge!

 Ask for more help › From professors › From classmates › From tutors › From counselors  Test anxiety should never keep anyone from success!

 Attribute good performance to situations that are: › Permanent › Personally caused › Pervasive  Attribute poor performance to situations that are: › Temporary › Random › Localized