Tips:
Focus on the PRESENT, not the past or future
Try not to focus on what occurred previously ("I did poorly on the last quiz")
Try not to focus on what you predict will happen ("I'm going to fail this quiz")
Instead--Focus on what you can do NOW.
So what can you do now? The test is happening, and you don't feel prepared, causing your breathing to become more shallow and rapid, your heart beating faster, muscles tensing, and adrenaline flowing throughout your body, your skin becoming sweaty...
BUT STOP.
This is the same reaction your body has in an actual physically threatening situation, but this is the OPPOSITE response you want to have when about to take a test, causing loss of focus and concentration.
A few simple techniques:
- Mental Imagery
- Think of an event in your past that evokes a feeling of personal contentment, joy, or satisfaction, use all of your senses to reconstruct a realistic version of the event and imagine yourself in that situation:
- What are you doing?
- What do you hear?
- What are you saying?
- Can you smell or taste anything?
- What are you feeling?
- Deep Muscle Relaxation
- Monitor your breathing, taking slow, even, full breaths originating from deep in your abdomen
- Focus on relaxing your muscles, one muscle group at a time
- Picture your muscles becoming heavy, like a wet mop, calming your body by loosening them
- Desensitize yourself (while in a state of deep muscle relaxation!!!)
- This refers to gradual, steady exposure to the anxiety-producing event AKA: test taking
- Break the event into small and specific anxiety-producing situations from LEAST to MOST anxiety producing:
- SOME ANXIOUSNESS: hearing the instructor announce the date of the test
- WORRY EVERY TIME: see the word test in your planner
- ANXIETY REALLY INCREASES: few days prior to the test when studying more
- TROUBLE SLEEPING: night before the test
- PEAK ANXIETY: entering the classroom the day of the test
Imagine the professor announcing the date and rehearse thought patterns that counter anxiety, "I'll prepare for this test the best I can"
REPEAT for each increased-anxiety scenario
Some other tips:
- STOP CRAMMING
- When taking the test, first write down all of the scattered thoughts in your head that you are afraid to forget, scribbling them in the margins or on the back of the test packet, clearing your head and helping you to focus!
- Have confidence!!! You can do it!!
Source: Lipsky, Sally A. College Study: The Essential Ingredients. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.
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