Boosting Your Test Taking Skills
Even when they attend class, do their homework and study, students with mental health issues can experience anxiety when taking tests. Various simple actions and practical strategies can improve their performance on academic assessments and reduce stress, however.
It is important to learn as much as possible about the format of the exam. For example, will there be multiple choice questions or essays? If there is a test review session with the teacher or professor, be sure to attend it. Students also should consider forming a study group before midterms, finals and other major assessments.
There are many effective ways to study including Concept Mapping (a diagram that depicts relationships between concepts), Mnemonics (for example, King Henry Died Drinking Chocolate Milk to remember the metric system prefixes Kilo, Hecta, Deca, Deci, Centi and Milli in order of value), Hide-Write-Compare (cover up your notes, try to write important information from memory and then compare the two) and Repetition (condensing and rewriting your notes). Because individuals recall information better when they write it out by hand rather than by typing and since it takes reviewing something seven times to remember it, creating Flash Cards is one of the best ways to prepare for a test. Place the cards you miss in Stack A and the ones you get correct in Stack B. Review Stack A daily, moving cards to Stack B as you learn them. Continue to look over Stack B at least once a week.
Keeping a positive attitude and pacing yourself are essential to doing well on assessments. Before starting the test or quiz, take a moment to skim it and read any directions carefully. Do the easy problems and/or the ones that are worth the greatest number of points first. Your gut instinct often is accurate. Only change answers if you are certain that they are wrong. Choices that include “always” or “never” typically are not the correct ones, especially for True/False questions. Similarly, if you are not sure of the answer and two choices are similar, pick one of the different options. Unless there is a guessing penalty, complete every question and/or attempt to solve each problem.
If you feel stressed during an exam, take several deep, slow breaths and consciously relax your muscles one at a time. Because your brain uses approximately a quarter of your body’s energy, be sure to eat nutritious foods, including those high in protein, fresh fruit and vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. Small amounts of caffeine, particularly in green tea or coffee, also can be beneficial when you study and before tests.
Finally, learn from your mistakes. Doing test corrections (even when they are not required) will help you to learn the material, which you likely will see again before the course ends. If you are allowed to keep them, save your tests to study for the midterm and/or final. Establishing positive academic patterns will not only lead to success at school, it also will help to create stability and balance in your life outside of the classroom.