Anxiety Reduction Improves Test Scores Presented by Richard Driscoll, Ph.D. American Test Anxieties Association (amtaa.org) cell 303 565-9222 dr.RichDriscoll@gmail.com drD@TestAnxietyControl.com www.TestAnxietyControl.com

Handicap Half a letter grade. Highly test-anxious students perform about half a letter grade below (12 percentile points) their low-anxiety peers, much of which is due to the anxiety impairment. "Kristin would tutor her friends in algebra at lunch time, and then fail the test the next hour while her friends went on to pass it."

Handicap Half a letter grade. Highly test-anxious students perform about half a letter grade below (12 percentile points) their low-anxiety peers, much of which is due to the anxiety impairment. "Kristin would tutor her friends in algebra at lunch time, and then fail the test the next hour while her friends went on to pass it."

Prevalence About 18% of students have high test anxiety and another 18% have "moderately high" anxiety. So about a fifth of our students are more afraid of school tests than they ever were of spooks or ghosts or goblins or anything else that creeps or leaps or flaps around in the dark of the night. The majority of students rate "schoolwork" and "exams" as the major sources of worry and stress in their lives. 60% of college students report being too stressed to complete their work on at least one occasion. Test anxiety appears to be our most prevalent academic handicap.

Benign Neglect Perhaps one percent of highly anxious students ever receive adequate treatment. Why? Few Students Volunteer. Oddly, anxiety seems normal too few students seek treatment. Too Few Counselors. Test anxiety treatment can take 4+ hours, placing an unmanageable load on limited resources. Boring. The protocols themselves are repetitious and are boring for counselors.

Suggestions Excellent suggestions are everywhere, but seem have little impact... Most popular is “Be Prepared”

Stronger, Faster, Cheaper We need a program that is stronger, faster, cheaper and more easily managed. The protocol is a conditioning program (similar to systematic desensitization but with stronger components.)

STARS Sequences (component I) Simple relaxation is fragile. Replace with Stretch-Tense-Air-Release~relax-Suggestions (STARS) sequences. Tensed muscles fatigue quickly, and relaxation follows naturally. The active physical involvement is markedly faster, stronger, and more reliable than the simple relaxation suggestions that anchor many anxiety treatment methods. [Participants: **Experience the stretch–tense–air–release~relax– suggestions sequence.]

Interest & Challenge (component II) In place of relaxation images… Students imagine an activity which they find interesting or challenging. The sense of mastery provides a much more adaptive outlook than does simple relaxation. [Participants: ** Imagine an interesting or challenging activity, and remember the feelings.]

Conditioning (component III) Students next review eight learning, review, and testing scenes… with instructions to find the activities interesting…. each followed by a STARS sequence. Ordinarily, it would be far-fetched to propose that highly test anxious students could take pleasure in anything remotely connected to a test. And yet, in the special sequencing here, students do imagine enjoying learning, organizing, and then showing their mastery on a test. [Participants: ** Imagine a stressful situation in your own life, see yourself doing well at it, remember the experience, and rate the outcome.]

On Size Fits All Rationale The STARS sequences counter even strong surges of anxiety and cannot be overwhelmed or inhibited by anxiety. Therefore, a uniform recorded protocol can be administered across students with high, medium, or low anxiety responses to the testing scenes. ** Note: All research presented here was conducted with recorded administration.

Anxiety Reduction Findings The best cognitive and desensitization protocols yield a 1.0–1.2 SD benefit. The anxiety control training produced an average 1.8 SD benefit in our first 5 studies Note: Links to research are at: TestAnxietyControl.com/research

Test Gains The anxiety control training has registered test gains in multiple studies with over 60 college students. The training appears to produce a ½ a letter grade benefit (or 12 percentile) among struggling college students, and almost ¼ grade benefit among younger students. .

Does Good Advice Help? In each of our studies, the control group was asked to read several pages of test anxiety advice from a highly regarded University website. The significantly higher scores in the treated groups suggests that the good advice had little impact, and that anxious students need something more.

Your School Program Q: What can you do with the program that you cannot do with something else? A: Treat your ridiculously high numbers of highly test anxious students without sinking your school resources.

Try It Out (step 1) Familiarize yourself with the program. Identify a few test anxious students. Have students review the Training “live”or following the CD. Talk to the students about their experience. Easy enough so far. You are now ready to administer a larger program.

Screen Students Reach out to to your anxious students. You might screen students at: your counseling center psychology and health classes freshmen orientation remedial assistance programs

Westside Scale (step 2) Use the Westside Test Anxiety scale, Identifies anxiety impairments It is brief, easy to score, and free to the public. Download at TestAnxietyControl.com/downloads/

Round Up Your Anxious Students Provide an introductory session for anxious students where attendance is expected. Inform students about test anxiety and treatment options, explain the training. Administer the training, encourage attendance. Encourage students to review at home.

Recorded Administration Substantial Advantages The protocol is available on a CD titled “Tame Test Anxiety” Recorded administration eliminates the tedious and repetitious aspects, so counselors are not required to withstand lethal boredom. A recorded intervention vastly reduces the professional resources required, making it possible for a few counselors to arrange treatment for the vast number of test anxious students.

“Live” vs. Recorded You are welcome to provide the training “live,” but be forewarned that it becomes increasingly monotonous. Few counselors use systematic desensitization for just this reason. The recorded version: frees counselors to relate to the anxious students; allows counselors to conduct a sophisticated technical intervention with a minimum of additional training.

CD's You receive a CD with the seminar CDs are inexpensive and can be purchased from: TestAnxietyControl.com Amazon.com

Did Your Intervention Work? Administrators want to know if a program is producing benefits. Informal assessments: After students review the CD and take a test, ask them if they felt calmer. Administer the Westside scale before and after students take a test, and compare the scores.

Formal Assessment Divide your highly test-anxious students into two similar groups, Treatment and Control. The Treatment group reviews the CD, the control group does not. Compare the test scores after your intervention. Warning: statistics ahead.

Correct for Prior Scores The post-intervention scores are the sum of the pre- scores and the treatment effect. Use multiple regression (or ANOCOVA) to correct for pre- differences between students. Consult with your statistician.

A Golden Opportunity Test anxiety is our most prevalent academic handicap, and its successful treatment should be a school objective. Confidence Training offers a rare opportunity to benefit some of our most tortured students, and to retain students who would otherwise wash out. Oct 2017