Page 236 - Keys To Community College Success

HOW CAN YOU WORK
through test anxiety?

A moderate amount of stress can have a positive effect, making sure you are alert,
ready to act, and geared up to do your best. Some students, however, experience inca-
pacitating stress before and during exams, especially midterms and finals. Test anxiety
can cause sweating, nausea, dizziness, headaches, and fatigue. It can reduce concentra-
tion and cause you to forget everything you learned. Sufferers may get lower grades
because their performance does not reflect what they know or because their fear has
affected their ability to prepare effectively.

Two Sources of Test Anxiety

Test anxiety has two different sources, and students may experience one or both: 3
■ Lack of preparation: Not having put in the work to build knowledge of the material
■ Dislike of testing situations: Being nervous about a test because of its very nature

For anxiety that stems from being unprepared, the answer is straightforward: Get
prepared. All of the information in this chapter about creating and implementing a
study plan and schedule is designed to give you the best possible chance of doing well
on the test. If you are able to stay calm when you feel ready for a test, effective prepara-
tion is your key test anxiety strategy.
Unfortunately, being prepared doesn’t necessarily ensure confidence. For students
who dread the event no matter how prepared they are, having a test—any test—causes
anxiety. Because testing is unavoidable, this anxiety is more challenging to manage.
Such students need to shift their mindset and build a positive attitude that says: “I
know this material and I’m ready to show it,” although this is often easier said than
done. To gear up for the next life test, for example, Jay had to overcome the disappoint-
ment of failing to make it in the NFL.
Anxiety is defined as an emotional disturbance, meaning that it tends to be
based on an imagined risk rather than an actual one, and often leads you away from
4
your goals rather than toward them. If you experience test anxiety, analyze your
8 situation to build a more realistic view of your risk and get back on track toward
CHAPTER your goal of test success: ■ Reconceive the negative risk and costly result you

think you are facing, looking at the risk in a posi-
tive sense with a focus on the potential reward.
Downplay the negative by considering the possibil-
ity that you may be more prepared than you real-
ize, or that the test is not as important as it seems,
or not as difficult as you believe it to be.
■ Define your goal for this test. Identify the physical
and mental issues affecting your ability to reach
that goal, and see which of them you can attribute
to your anxiety.
■ Build a realistic, positive, and productive attitude
that says “I know this material and I’m ready to
show it.” Key 8.2 provides several ways to do this.
■ Assess your level of anxiety around test-taking sit-
uations. Use the test anxiety assessment on page
201 to determine if you have anxiety that prepara-
tion alone cannot eliminate.

198