Show Test Anxiety 7 Steps to Follow to Reduce the Pain by Lanny Desmond w r. r Journalism If If you go into a test thinking that you are going to mess it it up your chances of doing so are re inc increased ased stated Craig Ramsey amsey Director of th the Assessment Asses Center X n xA- xA oj nv o tu ww r AA gave ave V this h K ast of negative approaches entering a testing situation This is one o of the results re- re re re- suits of text anxiety syndrome Ramsey showed the audience a graph based on variables such as desire to excel motivation and stress which results in the forgetting process of memory functions of the brain The more complex the task the more stress until the optimum level of achievement is passed thus leading to the forgetting forgetting forgetting forget forget- ting process He also stated that test anxiety syndrome is the best example of how stress c caused us-ed us drastic performance drop Most people enter a test situation already having surpassed the optimum level he showed on the the graph Psyched out is the way Ramsey termed the performance hinder 0 ing process Ramsey added that a anxiety can be reduced by some preparatory dures 1 Ask what material will be covered in the exam Most teachers want to help a certain amount with the test 2 Know the nature and style of the test by asking other students what kind of test isto is to be expected multiple choice or essay objective 3 Once the test has been issued place it in front of you and take a minute to survey the test after you have read the instructions The minute taken to do this can mean more in the final outcome that one minute lost of test 7 i time This will help you see what is is going to be the nature of the of-the the test i 4 If the test is multiple choice the usual system is that two answer choices will be absolutely wrong two could be correct and one will seem to be the obvious answer providing you take time to survey the test as already already al al- al ready mentioned 5 Going into the test you should already have made some some brief mental notes of the lecture style and content of the instructor their type of preference prefer prefer- ence of tests they have given in the pas past 6 When pushing for time students need to be sure to read the question carefully as one hidden is or is not can make a correct answer incorrect costing the student points 7 Learn that bad test scores are not an an accurate indication of intelligence intelli gence gence Other than not enough honest preparation low or high scores could be a problem h having ving nothing to do with ability of learning or knowledge re re- o. o Ramsey further mentioned mention d that psychologists determine that the results S of certain tests such as tl the e IQ LQ test have ave more of a social implication than t intellectual The film series done by Dan Rather of CBS News showed that after the test data is taken into consideration the IQ I.Q. test does more channeling chan chan- and segregation than graphing the ability of the student The intelligence intelli intelli- gen gence e tests were originally set up in processing people into the military during World War I. I There are too tot many social variables omitted for the results to be valid for an overall vera l cross section of f participants After studying studying study- study ing for a test for long periods of time i that going to sleep stops the forgetting forgettIng forget- forget forgetting ting that stress process may have begun c |