Controlling Your Test Anxiety

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Controlling Your Test Anxiety

• Barbara Eckenfels, MS - F240 [phone]
• Juan Lebron, Ed.S - F250 [phone]
• TEAM Division Counselors
• Montgomery College

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Why Do I Have Math Test Anxiety?

• Past failures come to haunt you!
• Lowered self-confidence
• Attitude need adjusting?
• Lack of preparation?

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What Comes First!

• You need an attitude adjustment! You can do math
  and you must believe it!
• You must commit to doing what it takes to pass
  math! (More lab and study time! Control Test
  Anxiety). Math is required in all BS/BA programs!
• If you follow the How to be Successful in Math
  tips, you WILL Succeed.

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Disarm the Power of Tests!

• Grades are NOT
• A measure of intelligence
• A measure of creativity
• An indication of how you will contribute to
  society
• A measure of what you have accomplished
• A MEASURE OF YOUR SELF-WORTH!

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Grades Are

• A measure of what you scored on a particular day
  or days.
• An Indication of what your professor feels is
  important.
• Powerful enough to cause a delay or adjustment in
  reaching your goals, but not powerful enough to
  stop you forever!

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What is Test Anxiety?

• It is the worry caused by having to take a test.
• You may experience
• butterflies in your stomach
• Anxiety
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Loss of concentration or blanking out
• Lower grades on tests than daily work

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The Flight or Fight Response

• The automatic stress response dates back to
  prehistoric times for survival.
• We cannot differentiate between a perceived
  physical threat and a psychological threat.

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Physiological Response to a Physical or Emotional
Threat

• Hormones are elevated during the stress response
  cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine are
  released into the bloodstream.
• Anxiety or stress response occurs!

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What are Other Causes of Test Anxiety?

• Pressure to succeed
• Fear of failure
• Need to make all As
• Irrational and/or negative
• thinking

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Who is Affected by Test Anxiety?

• Everyone experiences some test anxiety, but there
  are generally two types of students
• Those who see testing as a challenge and a chance
  to show the instructor what they know.
• Those who view testing as a threat. They may
  have experienced past failures.
• 
  

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• How can you eliminate
• Test Anxiety?

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Tips for ReducingTest Anxiety

• Be prepared! Study, study, study..
• Get plenty of rest the night before
• Eat properly the day of the exam
• Do not arrive early or late to the exam
• Avoid last minute studying
• Avoid listening or discussing the test while you
  are waiting to take the test.
• Dont forget to breathe!

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Tips continued

• Replace negative thoughts, with positive thoughts
  while taking deep breaths and doing relaxation
  exerciseswe will practice this!
• Dont worry and get bogged down with questions
  you dont know.
• REMEMBER WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED FROM THIS SEMINAR
  AND USE IT!!!

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Three Factors to SuccessfulTest Taking
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Preparation

• Your knowledge and preparation are basic to doing
  well. You may panic in the test due to
  incomplete knowledge or from not having studied
  enough.
• This is not TRUE test anxiety

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Test Taking Skills

• Familiarity with test taking formats and the
  development of good test taking strategies are
  essential to your academic success!

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Emotional State

• Your emotional state affects your ability to test
  well.
• It takes a calm and controlled emotional state
  for your memory and judgment to work most
  effectively.

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Conquering Test Anxiety by Learning Relaxation
Techniques

• You cannot be relaxed and anxious at the same
  time! Control the Flight or Fight Response
• Deep Breathing
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation (Practice)
• Choose a word to link to the relaxation
  exercises.
• Mental Imagery
• Systematic Desensitization
• 
  

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Progressive Relaxation Exercises Breathe!

• Take a deep breath, hold for 5 seconds. At the
  same time, tense the muscles in your face and
  neck. Now slowly exhale and relax these muscles.
• Take another deep breath, hold for 5 seconds and
  at the same time tense the muscles in your
  shoulders and arms. Slowly exhale, relaxing
  these muscles
• Continue through the following muscle groups
• Chest and lungs
• Stomach area
• Hips, legs feet
• Pay attention to how you feel while doing this
  exercise. You should begin to feel your body
  relax

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Control Negative Thinking

• You can control what you think!!
• Control negative thinking self-defeating
  statements can become
• self-fulfilling prophecies.
• Awareness Identify your own pattern of negative
  statements
• Consequences Note the consequences. Take the
  statement
• If I blow this test, its my whole career,
  my whole life. NOT!!
• CHANGE TO
• If I continue to think about my life right
  now, I wont have time to concentrate on this
  test.
• Rebuttal Now, challenge your original statement.
  These statements are NOT absolute, predictable
  truths!

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Reverse Negative ThinkingBegin to Develop
positive self-statementsI CAN do well on this
test.I studied hard and Know this
material.Im smart and will succeed no matter
what!
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Progressive Muscle RelaxationPractice

• Close your eyes and listen as I talk you through
  the sequence of tensing and relaxing your
  different muscle groups.
• Choose a Relaxation Word to use as you relax your
  muscles and exhale
• Get comfortable, close your eyes.

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Mental Imagery Practice

• Relax, take several deep breaths and listen..

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Systematic Desensitization

• Work mentally through a hierarchy of least
  anxiety producing situations to the worse anxiety
  situations.
• Use your relaxation techniques while vividly
  imaging the least anxiety producing situation on
  your hierarchy list.
• Keep practicing until you are relaxed.
• Go to the next level. (See handout)

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PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

• The skills you need to conquer Test Anxiety will
  not be acquired overnight!
• If you believe you CAN do it, then you CAN!
  

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Life is too short to sweat the small stuff!