Learning to Keep Your Cool During Tests

Have you ever felt so anxious during an examination that you couldn't even put down the answers you knew? If so, you were suffering from what is known as test anxiety.

According to psychologist Ralph Trimble, test anxiety is a very real problem for many people. When you're worried over your performance on an exam, your heart beats faster and your pulse speeds up. These reactions start others: You may sweat more than normal or suffer from a stomachache or headache. Your field of vision narrows and becomes tunnel-like. Before you know it, you're having difficulty focusing.

"What I hear students say over and over again," says Dr. Trimble, who is working at the Psychological and Counseling Center at the University of Illinois, "is, 'My mind went blank.'"

For a number of years, Dr. Trimble helped many students learn how to perform better during exams and to bring up their grades. Some of these students were interested in sharing what they learned and, with Trimble's help, began holding workshops on overcoming test anxiety. For many students, just being in a workshop with other sufferers made them feel better. They realized that they were not the only ones who had done poorly on tests because of tension.

The workshops were so successful that they are still given.

In the workshops, students are taught that anxiety is normal. You just have to prevent it from getting the best of you. The first step is to learn to relax. If before or during an examination you start to panic, stretch as hard as you can, tensing the muscles in your arms and legs; then suddenly relax all of them.

This will help relieve tension. But keep in mind that you don't want to be too relaxed. Being completely relaxed is no better than being too tense. "If you are so calm you don't care how you do on an examination, you won't do well," Trimble says. "There is an optimum level of concern when you perform at your best. Some stress helps. There are people who can't take even slight stress. They have to learn that in a challenging situation, being anxiously excited is good and will help them to do better. But if they call it anxiety and say, 'It's going to hit me again,' that will make them nervous and worried."

As a student you must also realize that if you leave too much studying until a day or two before the examination, you can't do the impossible and learn it all. Instead, concentrate on what you can do and try to think what questions are likely to be asked and what you can do in the time left for studying.

When you sit down to study, set a moderate pace and vary it by reading, writing notes, and going over any papers you have already written for the course, as well as the textbooks and notes you took in class. Review what you know. Take breaks and go to sleep early enough to get a good night's rest before the exam. You should also eat a moderate breakfast or lunch, avoiding drinks like coffee and stay away from fellow students who get tense. Panic spreads easily.

Get to the exam room a few minutes early so that you will have a chance to familiarize yourself with the surroundings and get out your supplies. When the examination is handed out, read the directions twice and underline the significant instructions, making sure you understand them. Ask the teacher to explain if you don't. First answer the easiest questions, then go back to the more difficult.

On essay questions, instead of starting right away, take a few minutes to organize your thoughts, make a brief outline, and then start off with a summary sentence. Keep working steadily, and even when time starts to run out, don't speed up.