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Test Taking Anxiety & Stress Tips

beachykeenbeachykeen Alum Member
in General 15 karma

Hey all! Congrats to everyone improving your scores!
I was wondering if you guys had some advice on dealing with crippling anxiety and stress that prevent me from reaching my potential?
In timed, stimulated exams I scored my recent high 166..but blind review...170.
In fact, with blind review I am not taking much time over 35 minutes. Sometimes, I finish under time.
When I take the test with stimulated conditions, it's as if I am frozen & forgot everything I've ever learned.
I get so worked up and nervous that I fall well below my average in regular practice drills.
Anyone have any advice?

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Comments

  • goingfor99thgoingfor99th Free Trial Member
    edited April 2018 3072 karma

    Develop meditation as a life skill. Practice mindfulness. Hire a tutor who can talk some confidence into you if you can't do it yourself. Develop a checklist approach for your LR and LG sections.

  • Frank JaegerFrank Jaeger Alum Member
    144 karma

    @goingfor99th said:
    Develop meditation as a life skill. Practice mindfulness. Hire a tutor who can talk some confidence into you if you can't do it yourself. Develop a checklist approach for your LR and LG sections.

    Could you elaborate on your checklist approach for LG? I'm curious as to what your list looks like. Would really appreciate it.

  • BirdLaw818BirdLaw818 Free Trial Member
    553 karma

    Its all about being comfortable. Know the material well enough so that you're confident, and take a deep breath. On test day you WILL be nervous. Everyone gets nervous. You just need to learn to take control of it and keep your cool so that you can focus. it gets easier as you take more PTs.

  • btate87btate87 Alum Member
    782 karma

    I've learned that my accuracy goes down when I feel the time crunch even if I know I have enough time to finish. So I started getting super aggressive with skipping in LR/RC so I could be sure to finish the last question by the time 5 minutes remaining is called. Having time left over to go back is far less stressful than feeling like I'm racing the clock to get to everything. It may just be specific to my anxiety or not appropriate for where you are in prep, but it helped my scores stabilize in each section and start climbing in RC.

  • m.c lshopefulm.c lshopeful Alum Member
    edited April 2018 614 karma

    You are BR'ing too fast!!! Maybe you think too fast and work yourself up too much...

    Have you ever tried running too fast and accidentally lose control of your body and topple over? As you are approaching top speed it's important to accelerate ever so slowly, always maintaining control. Gotta find that balance when cranking up the RPM's in your mind as well.

    My challenge to you is this:

    After you take your next PT, dedicate 4 hours for a complete BR. If you think you're finished and there is still time left, READ IT ALL AGAIN. You do not get to stop until 4 hours have passed. If you still have time but think you are finished, draw out all conditional logic in LR / write out explanations for RC answers / solve for all worlds in LG.

    I'll bet you that you make a new BR record and gain new insights that will help on your next timed PT.

  • Seeking PerfectionSeeking Perfection Alum Member
    4423 karma

    Maybe practice taking sessions for a while that are timed in the sense that you look at your watch every so often and try to finish them in 35 minutes, but don't actually have the deadline. Once you are able to regularly finish them under 35 minutes then start taking them so they are actually timed and proctored again. This is basically what I did with logic games to get used to taking them timed although I don't think I was freezing up as badly as you are describing.

  • Hamaseh_SHamaseh_S Alum Member
    edited April 2018 436 karma

    Hi! This is what I use for test anxiety

    I do this before I study every day

    I do this before I PT (this is a short self hypnosis). Do it laying down or sitting really comfortably and have your headphones in. It helps me to stay calm... I still mess up under the clock bc of anxiety too but this brings my body down a lot.

    I listen to this when I'm not studying but I'm freaking out about not studying and I want to calm down
    https://open.spotify.com/track/5gF94lapNpSPSl6Sw6C9ve

    I have the same problem under time although my score difference is much bigger. Lmk if you find a good way to deal with it

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