Final Helpful Hints for Tests

If you’re a stressed out test taker, keep in mind that the body puts out chemicals such as cortisol when it’s under stress.

This can cause sweaty palms, a racing heart, a knot on the pit of your stomach. But interestingly, research finds, it’s how you interpret these symptoms.

The story you tell yourself about why you’re stressed makes all the difference.

If you shift your thinking from, this test has made me afraid, to this test has got me excited to do my best. It can really improve your performance.

Another good tip for panicky test takers is to momentarily turn your attention to your breathing. Relax your stomach, place your hand on it, and slowly draw a deep breath.

Your hand should move out, even as your whole chest is expanding outward like a barrel. By doing this type of deep breathing, you’re counteracting the fight or flight response that fuels anxiety.

This calms you down. But don’t just start this breathing on the day of the test. If you practice this breathing technique in the weeks before, just a minute or two here or there is all it takes.

You’ll slide more easily into the breathing pattern during the test. Remember, practice makes permanent.

It’s especially helpful deliberately moving to a deep breathing pattern in those final anxious moments before a test is handed out.

I’ve gotten great tips on test taking from top professors from around the world.

And here are some of the best.

Susan Sajna-Hebert, a professor of psychology at Lakehead University, advises her students to cover up the answers to multiple choice questions and to try to recall the information. So they can answer the question on their own first.

If her students might complain that the practice test was way easier than the real one, she asks, what makes the two situations different? When you took the practice test, were you at home relaxing with toons on? Taking it with a fellow student? No time limit? Did you have the answer key and class materials at hand?

These circumstances are not exactly like a crowded classroom with a clock ticking away and no way to access the answers. Tracy Magrann, a professor of biological sciences at Saddleback College, tells her students to face your fears.

Often, your worst fear is not to get the grade you need for your chosen career. How can you handle this? Simple. Have a Plan B for the alternative career.

Once you have a plan for the worst possible contingency, you’ll be surprised that the fear will begin to subside. Professor Magrann notes, study hard up until the day of the test and then let it go.

Tell yourself, oh well, let me just see how many questions I can get right. I can always pursue my other career choice.

That helps release stress, so you can actually do better and get closer to your first career choice. And Bob Bradshaw, a professor of math at Ohlone College, tells his students about good worry and bad worry. Good worry helps provide motivation and focus, while bad worry simply wastes energy. Here are a few final thoughts.

The day before a test, or tests, have a quick, final look over the materials to brush up on them.

You’ll need both your focus mode and diffuse mode muscles, so to speak, the next day.

So you don’t want to push your brain too hard. You wouldn’t run a ten mile race the day before running a marathon. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t seem to get yourself to work too hard the day before a big examination.

If you prepared properly, this seems to be a natural reaction, almost as if you’re subconsciously pulling back to conserve mental energy.

While taking a test, you should also remember how your mind can trick you into thinking that what you’ve done is correct, even if it isn’t.

This means whenever possible, you should blink, shift your attention, and then double check your answers using a, a big picture prospective asking yourself, does this really makes sense.

There’s often more than one way to answer a question and checking your answers from different perspectives provides a golden opportunity for verifying what you’ve done.

If there’s no other way to check, except to step back through your logic, keep in mind that simple issues have tripped up even the most advanced students. Just do your best.

In science classes, having your units of measurement match on each side of the equation can provide an important clue about whether what you’ve done is correct. The order in which you work tests is also important. Students generally work tests from front to back.

When you’re checking your work if you start more towards the back and work towards the front, it sometimes seems to give your brain a fresher perspective that can allow you to more easily catch errors. Nothing’s ever certain.

Occasionally you can study hard and the test gods simply don’t cooperate, but if you prepare well by practicing and building a strong mental library, and you approach test taking wisely, you’ll find that luck will increasingly be on your side.

I’m Barbara Oakley.

Thanks for learning how to learn.