Students' Successful Journey Of Conquering Test Anxiety

By Daniel Barlow


If you want to overcome test anxiety and bombing on important tests like the ACT test, you have to first realize what causes test anxiety in the first place. There are three main causes of test anxiety. Understanding them will help you do much better on the any test.Psychological causes are the first problem leading to test anxiety. Whether it is being unprepared or past bad experiences, students go into the test defeated before they start. One key to defeating the tendency to bomb on tests is to understand that even if you guess on every single question, you'd still get a score of 14. Further understanding the key to having enough time to answer every single question, even with a guess, also goes a long way to defeat the psychological causes of test anxiety.

What Are Bad Anxiety Habits?Most people only think of bad habits as having to do only with small actions that we either do or don't do. Not brushing our teeth daily etc... Mental habits however are the thoughts that we continue to focus on over time. Just like a physical muscle, our brain is also plastic and malleable. Our habitual neuron signals are like sleds that follow the exact same snow tracks over and over. Pretty soon those sleds cling naturally to the same pathway, coasting fast with difficulty taking changing route.

Bad Habit #1 indulging in what if thinking.what if thinking consists of thoughts like "What if I don't pass the exam?.. What if I can't study well today?..What if I get a lot of questions wrong etc." Sometimes these thoughts are mostly subconscious.To cure this problem and avoid "negative what if thinking," begin to talk to yourself inside your head and coach yourself using "positive what if thinking". Ask yourself, "What if I was able to study well today? What if I found a way to work hard? What if I got my act together despite my stress?."Then speak to yourself and say "I can do this!.. I will do this!.. I am doing this!" This starts the "turn around!" The power of this talk cannot be underestimated!

Poor performance cannot be accounted to test anxiety. When you are nervous and anxious, your mind is focused on some other things other than the answers to your test. Emotional problems, like dealing with death of a loved one or going through heartaches caused by a breakup, are triggering factors for test anxiety. Such problems prevent them from concentrating well in the test thus stop them from giving out their best for it.

When we haven't ate, slept, had enough nutrition or drank enough water while stressed, our body will tense up. We then tend to hold our body in positions that only cause additional fatigue and panic, prohibiting us from focusing properly.To cure this, change your physiology to a peak state! You will feel the difference! When the body changes, the mind follows! Speak and move with power to turn around your state. Go for a brief walk, hold your shoulders back, focus your eyes like you would if you were in your perfect, crystal clear studying zone! Holding this physiology for 10 minutes will make a huge difference!Eliminating these three habits is a great starting place for you to begin to cure testing panic.road to adulthood. But unlike other tests, this one requires you to perform like a trained monkey in front of a complete stranger while they critique your performance. It's enough to give anybody a bad case of nerves!

Preparation Makes Test Anxiety Go Away.Coming to class every day is not enough for you to learn and perform well in tests. Beyond attending your class is the preparation perfected through developing suitable study habits. Cramming is never a good idea and always has negative as well as disappointing results. Regular study reduces test anxiety. As you study daily, you will have a better grasp of your lessons, making you more confident when the test comes.

Positive stress - is there such thing? Stress warns you about the need to prepare for an important situation that will happen in the near future. This is a very good way to make stress an advantage instead of allowing it to ruin your day and even your life. As stress oftentimes leads you to fear of taking the test, why not make it as a reminder for you to be ahead of the game by studying in advance? Taking stress positively will certainly help you get rid of test anxiety.

If the usual suggestions for dealing with anxiety aren't relieving it know that you are not alone. Often these suggestions cannot overcome the source of the problem because the source lies within the subconscious mind.If you have had any previous negative experiences in your past with respect to "performing", perhaps during a recital, sports event, or public speaking, it is probably affecting you today. Your subconscious mind "remembers" events that caused you concern. From that moment forward it has been constantly scanning the environment looking for the same "clues" in order to protect you from experiencing this pain again. When it finds one you know it because you experience it as "worry".

These experiences also cause us to have limiting beliefs such as: "I'm not a good test taker" or "I just know I'm not going to do well". Chances are theses beliefs are residing in your subconscious mind and no amount of positive affirmations or talking yourself out of them is going to help. Unlike our conscious mind, the subconscious mind cannot be talked "to".

The Power of the Mind.Do not entertain negative ideas in your mind. Moreover, you should not think ahead of people. Sometimes, you tend to assume that people think negatively about you when in fact they are not. Focus more in your test and disregard what others think about you. You will find out that your test anxiety is relieved when you don't let yourself get affected by these thoughts.

One of these, EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, founded by a Stanford engineer, Gary Craig, utilizes meridians, the energy pathways within our bodies. You may know them if you have ever had acupuncture. Another technique, Psych-K, allows us to test for and change sabotaging beliefs residing in our subconscious mind to beliefs in support of our goals.If test anxiety remains an issue for you, I encourage you to explore and learn about these techniques. Wouldn't it feel great to go into the test feeling calm and confident? Wouldn't it be fabulous if you knew you were going to do well? As Henry Ford said, "If you think you can do a thing or you think you can't do a thing, you're right."




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