Success Strategies for Test Anxiety
First – realize that it's appropriate to feel some anxiety around tests and quizzes. Nervous tension can motivate us and focus our attention, keeping our minds alert. Test anxiety becomes a problem if it interferes with the ability to prepare for and perform in exams – too much anxiety can block our ability to think clearly and recall information.
Dealing Effectively with Text Anxiety
In Advance of Exams:
Study to the best of your ability; review your study skills and identify/correct any deficiencies (would a tutor help? Consider finding a study partner or group)
Learn and practice effective relaxation techniques so that you can use them when you need them. Check out self-help books and CDs, search the internet, call The Student Counseling Center.
Change your attitude to tests and quizzes. Use visualization techniques to visualize yourself as a competent examinee and the exam as a chance for you to shine. Check out self-help books and CDs, search the internet, call The Student Counseling Center.
Take care of your physical health: eat well, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, see a health care practitioner when you're sick. (Call Student Health Services if you're sick.)
During Exams:
Make sure you are breathing slowly and steadily. Use calming self-talk to keep focused but relaxed (i.e., 'I am calm and am thinking clearly'). Read the instructions slowly and carefully. Whenever you feel tension rising , stop working, take a slow deep breath, tense your muscles on the inhale, and relax while exhaling. Use more calming self-talk. Assure yourself that you can 'have your anxiety later,' but now it is time to focus on the test. Don't give up; maintain a positive attitude. Visualize yourself as a competent test-taker, calm and focused, able to cope with any outcome.
Getting Support
As well as seeking support and guidance from your academic advisor, tutor, friends, family, self-help websites, books, and CDs, it may be useful to request a consultation at The Student Counseling Center (632-5069)
Examples of Positive Self-Talk
- I am calm, centered and relaxed when I take an exam
- I have done the best I can to be prepared
- I am not controlled by fear
- Breathing slowly and deeply calms me, energizes me and helps me focus
- This is not a life or death situation
- I will go in and do MY best
Using your own list of fears, worries, doubts, create your own list of positive self-talk, the words or phrases that resonate with you. Put these on flash cards and carry them around with you to practice and recondition your thinking.
The Student Counseling Center is located in Southold Hall, Lower Level phone: (631) 632-5069, fax: (631) 632-5121.