3 Ways to Conquer Your Test Anxiety | The Princeton Review
Test anxiety is, for many students — maybe even for you — an all-too-familiar feeling.
Sweaty palms, racing heart, an inability to focus at the moment you need to the most.
Today we’re going to walk through a couple of test-anxiety exercises to help you get
through, and beyond, those feelings of worry.
First, let’s talk about what causes test anxiety.
Why do you get anxious before a big test?
Often, our anxieties are rooted in a fear — in this case, that could be a fear of
failing, or of not doing as well as you’d hoped.
You may also be running through the possibilities of what could happen if you don’t achieve
your goal.
That can lead to catastrophic thinking — where your brain leaps from one unpleasant — and
I should add, unlikely — scenario to another even more dire situation, and on and on.
“I won’t do well on this exam, and therefore I won’t get into college, and then I won’t
get a good job, and I won’t be able to support myself.”
You can find yourself spiraling.
But you can stop that process before it gains momentum, and you can keep your anxiety at
bay.
Let’s talk about a quick 3-step strategy that you can use to stay calm and focused
in a high-stakes situation.
For starters, never underestimate the power of breathing.
You know how when you’re relaxed, you tend to take nice, big breaths?
Well that can work the other way around, too.
When you take nice, big breaths, you can make yourself more relaxed.
If you feel your anxiety start to escalate, harness your focus and concentrate it entirely
on your breath.
[Deep breath in and out]
Even if you feel like you can’t, really try to take deep breaths in and out.
[Deep breath in and out]
After a few of these, you should start to feel your heart rate slowing down, and you
should be able to re-focus on the problem at hand.
And that leads me to part 2: Part of what can make all of us feel overwhelmed is focusing
on the totality of any task.
If you find yourself starting to do this, stop.
Don’t think about the mountain you’ve got to climb; think about where you’re putting
each foot next.
That standardized test-taking strategy is something we call BITE-SIZE PIECES.
You don’t try to solve the whole problem at once.
You work it one manageable piece at a time until you tackle the whole thing.
Say you get a question like this:
(5jk2 + 5j2 – 2j2k) – (jk2 + 2j2k + 5j2)
Which of the following is equivalent to the expression above?
A) 4jk2 B)
4jk2 – 4j2k C) 5j2k4 – 10j4k
D) 8j2k3 + 7j2k – 5j2
[Quantity five jay kay squared plus five jay squared minus two jay squared kay, quantity,
all minus quantity jay kay squared plus two jay squared kay plus five jay squared]
And you’re asked: Which of the following is equivalent to the expression above — and
ALL of the answer choices look like alphabet soup?
You might start to feel your heart beat faster.
So, take a deep breath.
[deep breath]
And another one.
[deep breath]
And then: work the problem in bite-size pieces.
Start with one tiny piece of this purposefully-intimidating-looking question.
The first set of parentheses starts with a term containing jk2.
Check in the second set of parentheses for the same combination of variables and exponents.
The first term there matches, so your first step is to do a simple subtraction problem:
5jk2 – jk2, which equals 4jk2 of course.
Now, you know that the correct answer MUST contain the term 4jk2.
You can eliminate choices C and D right off the bat.
And if you were running out of time, you could guess — REMEMBER, THERE IS NO PENALTY FOR
GUESSING ON THE SAT — and you’d have a 50–50 chance of getting it right.
If you’re not pressed for time, you could do the next bite-size piece.
Look at the difference between choices A and B, and you’ll quickly see that choice B
has a –4j2k term that choice A does not have.
So, focus on the terms in the expression that contain j2k.
In the first set of parentheses, you have –2j2k, and in the second set you subtract
2j2k, which will give you –4j2k, and you’ll see that the correct answer is choice B.
Now, let’s say that you’d been pressed for time from the beginning.
One of the strategies we encourage you to adopt is to complete each section according
to your Personal Order of Difficulty.
Take the easy test first, folks!
If you do all the questions you KNOW how to answer and rack up those points, and then
spend more time on the moderately challenging questions and rack up those points, then if
you run out of time on finishing those last few questions — just guess and call it a
day!
The funny thing is, ALL THE QUESTIONS ARE WORTH THE SAME POINT VALUE, so a few questions
guessed — in the interest of getting more of the easy questions right, not to mention
saving your sanity — is perfectly reasonable.
It’s more than reasonable: It’s strategic.
If something makes you nervous, skip it and guess.
You need to preserve your sense of calm and your focus for the rest of the test.
And guessing here and there is not a big deal.
Keep in mind that you may even guess correctly!
There are 2 lessons I hope you’ve gleaned from this video.
First, an extra moment to steady yourself is time well spent.
And second, knowledge is the antidote to anxiety.
If you have strategies for approaching even the most intimidating problems, you will be
well on your way to maximizing your scores — and more importantly, to feeling good
about what you’re doing.
Thanks for watching, my friends.
Subscribe to our channel to get more strategies for thriving through the pressure.
Take care.