1 How to Take Tests 8 Test Anxiety

2 Getting Started on the Test  Believe it or not, most of you work better under pressure  The pressure of a testing environment usually produces your best effort

3 Getting Started on the Test  However, you have all either frozen or know someone who has during an important test  The most common example of this is stage fright The worst cases of stage fright produce a paralysis of thought and body which, if continued, can result in life-changing embarrassment

4 Getting Started on the Test Severe test anxiety is like stage fright and can limit your ability not only to pass the test, but even to attempt the subject again. There are some special classes which help people with severe anxiety. Here we will deal with anxiety that is not disabling.

5 Getting Started on the Test  It really helps if you come into the test prepared  Confidence is the best cure for anxiety

6 Test Strategies If you feel your heartbeat increasing and anxiety rising, try to take three deep, slow breaths. Remind yourself it is only a test, that there are more important things in life.

7 Test Strategies  Try to go to a different part of the test and start over  It helps to look over the entire test and start with the area you consider easy or known This builds confidence and reduces anxiety

8 Test Strategies Sometime during the test, stop and take a minute to relax and consider where you are and what time remains. Prepare a strategy to deal with the rest of the test.

9 Test Strategies If the test is divided into sections, use each break as your strategy session. Otherwise, create your own.

10 Test Strategies  Very few people can concentrate well for even a single hour sometime during the test you will find your thoughts wandering this reduces your test taking ability stop and deal with your wandering thoughts

11 Test Strategies One of the techniques is to speed the thoughts along to their normal end and then get back to the test.

12 Test Strategies For example, if you are thinking about a baseball game or a date or just what you have to do after school, take the thought through the entire process – hitting a home run, having a nice date or whatever.

13 Test Strategies Usually it is better to have a happy ending – why have a nightmare? It’s your daydream, after all!

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