Test Taking Advice
So now is the time. You are in the class room, ready to take that big chemistry midterm you have been studying for for weeks, but you just cannot concentrate. The stress of the exam is just so overwhelming. You did well on the homework but will you be able to handel the exam.
This is an example of what many students suffer from...test taking anxiety. Often test taking anxiety is one of the largest obstacle to doing well on an exam. The following information will teach you how to approach an exam so that this does not happen to you, and some strategies for taking exams which can greatly improve your scores.
Combating test taking anxiety
One of the best ways to combat test taking anxiety is to make sure you arrive early to an exam (at least 5-10 minutes prior to the start of your exam). Find a seat, sit down, and take out all of your supplies you will need for the test. DO NOT STUDY. Last minute studying will only increase your anxiety, especially if you find something you don’t think you know well. At this point you know what you know and you don’t know what you don’t know so don’t sweat it. Stressing out will only decrease your performance on the test and have you saying afterwards, “I knew that, why did I miss that question.” Relax, take deep breaths, look around the room, think about what you will do after the test is over or on the weekend once exams are over. The more relaxed you are the better you will do. Physiological things such as taking deep slow breaths alone can reduce the amount of stress hormones in your blood and make you feel calmer.
Getting plenty of sleep the night before the exam is also important. I am a strong opponent of the stay up all night and cram the night before the exam. This will decrease your ability to think the next day and increase your test anxiety. The night before the exam study until you start getting tired and it approaches your normal bed time. At this point take at least half hour before falling asleep to think about something else. If you study up to the moment of going to sleep I find it increases the chances of having test and test anxiety dreams which will only increase your chances of having anxiety while taking the test. Watch TV, or read a book….essentially do something completely unrelated to the exam for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes prior to sleep to make sure you don’t dream about the exam.
These are all techniques I found helped me do well as a student at UCSD. I believe they are as important or more important than the studying you do the day prior to the exam. Being in the right psychological state has been shown to be key to doing well on exam even in psychological studies (put link here). If you are stressed and tired you WILL make more stupid mistakes. Therefore at a certain point it makes logical sense to go to sleep rather than continuing to study. While this may seem obvious I have seen many, many students do poorly in classes because they don’t follow this advice.
