Tutoring For All Ages

Test anxiety, whether it relates to a standardized test or an open-ended, in-class test, is real. Some students who ask their doctors about test anxiety find that their anxiety stems from an undiagnosed medical or learning issue. In some ways (though certainly not all), they’re the lucky ones: they have a certified expert telling them that their troubles aren’t their fault, with test results to back up their findings and referrals to specialists to help them solve, or at least learn to work around, their issues.

Even if your doctor can’t find anything medically wrong, though, that doesn’t mean it’s your fault — at least, not exactly. In these situations, your mind controls your body, and your body controls your mind. Anxiety and panic from your mind produces adrenaline in your body, and adrenaline actually impairs your ability to think rationally. It’s no wonder you can’t think when you’re anxious during a test — your body thinks it’s in a fight-or-flight situation! So your brain borrows processing power from your cognitive abilities in order to increase abilities that your ancestors might have needed to survive, like strength and speed. Too bad it doesn’t know that what you really need right then is the ability to think on your feet so that you can take a test!

So, you have to teach your mind the right thing to do. The process of mind-body control goes both ways. You can use specific tools to either reverse this process and bring your mind back to its relaxed and rational state, or prevent the adrenaline from flowing in the first place:

• Be positive. Each of us has an internal monologue in our head, that little voice commenting on every aspect of our lives that sometimes tells us to reach for the stars, and other times, tells us to hit the snooze on the alarm. Professionals in the field of mental health sometimes call that little voice Self-talk, and it comes in many flavors. When the voice says, “why did you bother studying? You’ll never pass this test,” that’s called negative self-talk. Negative self-talk is something that most people with test anxiety are intimately familiar with.
  
  What you may not be as familiar with is the fact that your self-talk is within your control. With practice, it is possible to change the voice in your head to be a source of positive messages and encouragement. Spend enough time deliberately correcting the above to “It’s great that you studied so hard, because now you’re going to do really well on this test,” and eventually you won’t have to correct yourself anymore. It takes effort, and it feels a bit contrived at first, but learning the art of positive self-talk will pay dividends for the rest of your life.
• Visualize. Sit down in a quiet place, close your eyes, and picture this: You are arriving at your test. You feel great because you’ve worked hard to prepare for the test, and you’re well-rested and had a nutritious meal before you arrived. You smile, because the only nerves you feel are those of anticipation — you can’t wait to prove how much you’ve learned. You walk into the classroom and get the best seat in the house: away from the door, the clock visible but not in your face, with plenty of light. You receive your test and find that you have no problem focusing on the material. As you turn to the first page, you aren’t even aware of other people in the room. It’s just you and this test, with plenty of time and plenty of space to work.
  
  You read the first problem, and smile again, because you know exactly how to do it. You do the problem and go to the next, congratulating yourself because it’s a question on something you studied just the other day, so your efforts are paying off. As you work through the test, even problems that seem challenging at first don’t bother you, because you can eventually work out how to do them, or you can just skip them and move on without worrying about them. You finish the test just as time is called, and smile a huge smile this time, because you know for sure that you got your best possible score on your test.
  
  This may seem like a long scene to visualize, but it only takes a few minutes to do it. Visualization is a way of training your mind, of practicing situations that are normally difficult to practice. You can visualize your perfect test day, or you can visualize small pieces of a test. If you’re afraid you won’t know the first question, visualize just the part where you open the test and find you know the first question. Letting your mind repeatedly experience the best-case scenario in advance will likely significantly improve your attitude on the test day itself.
  
  And, you can also visualize a best-case reaction to your worst-case scenario. Picture yourself opening the test booklet and not knowing the answer to question 1, but seeing that you know the answer to question 2 instead. Visualize not letting anything bother you because you’re so confident in your abilities.

If you feel a little weird about trying either of these methods, that’s okay. It’s perfectly normal if it seems unnatural the first few times you do it. But keep doing it, because it works, plain and simple. Positive self-talk and visualization are some of the most powerful mental tools available for any application, and getting in the habit of using them now can only help you later on.