Tests: dreaded by most, feared by some and enjoyed by very few. It’s understandable that anxiety can easily set in, since our performance over the course of a few hours, hunched over, surrounded by strangers, clutching a dry erase marker or a pencil, staring into a computer screen or paper booklet, and mentally scrambling to correctly answer the questions can have serious consequences. How well we do is a major determinant of what school we’ll go to, who we’ll meet, what kind of job we’ll get, and other vital matters. It’s enough to make anyone anxious.
Test anxiety is a worry and dread about test performance, which can be triggered by “the big day.” Anxiety could indicate that you know you aren’t ready for the test—but it can also indicate that something about the test is scaring you. Is it a fear of being judged? A fear of not performing to your potential? Fear of repeating a lousy performance you had in the past? Or is it your mind confusing anxiety for excitement, mistaking anxiety for a good thing. Test anxiety is real and measurable and there are many ways to understand its main causes. For example, anxiety can be learned from a prior negative experience. If you have done poorly on tests in the past, you may be hesitant about taking a test in the future and you might even resist tests at all costs. Anxiety may also result from the conflict between your unconscious desires and the expectations others place on you—for example, anxiety could be felt by someone who doesn’t fully want to go to law or medical school, but feels the pressure and expectation to do so, by family, peers or colleagues.
At Test Prep New York (TPNY), we’ve seen our clients with test anxiety improve their scores up to thirty percent when they addressed their anxiety issues. This mirrors research which shows that a student’s score can be compromised anywhere from twelve to thirty five percent as a result of test anxiety—the difference between a high score and a disappointing one. How do we help students overcome this adversity? The answer is through de-stressing, holistic solutions that give our clients the ability to achieve a true sense of confidence—Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Hypnosis, Sound Therapy, Reiki, guided visualization, and a host of other methods, depending on the client’s needs. We coach our clients to transform any level of dread, regret, low self-esteem, worry, nervousness or feeling of diminished performance, into the best emotive mindsets, such as feelings of being optimistic, focused, and ready to tackle the test. This is in lieu of drugs and medications, which can cause a host of problems, including slowing down the recall process, a critical detriment to test taking.
One of our most effective methods of coaching test-takers is Visualization, which is used in conjunction with an NLP technique called Anchoring. An anchor is a triggering experience that reminds us of something. It happens in normal life all the time — for example, a tune might remind you of a place, person or event; a touch or smell can bring back a memory or a past state of being. These sensual experiences occur and you momentarily feel physiologically ‘right back there.’ These anchors work automatically and you might not even be aware of their triggers. With a client, we create an anchor by accessing and producing a stimulus that calls forth a desired state of mind, through thoughts, memory and emotions. For example, the client can remember a time when they felt calm and confident control. We can then imprint this feeling to a new anchor which will ‘fire off’ by a deliberate physical sensation, such as by touching of the middle finger to the thumb. Each time the client touches these fingers together, he or she elicit a feeling of calm and confdent control. Once this anchor is established, the client can activate the anchor so that the resourceful state occurs again and again.
Serious students who don’t suffer from anxiety come to TPNY to learn our methods and gain a competitive edge when taking their tests. Our expert tutors are trained to promote positive reinforcement and identify unhelpful and debilitating symptoms in students who need to work on their mindset beyond mastery of content and strategy. In the end, we are the only test prep company to fuse academic and test preparation training with mental enhancement techniques to optimize test-taking potential. We have an impressive track record of students exceeding their target scores because of our revolutionary, effective combination of techniques and resources.
Test Prep New York is the only educational company to fuse academic and test preparation training with mental enhancement techniques to optimize test-taking potential. TPNY’s potent and innovative products and programs ensure students score their best when taking high-stakes tests, yielding significant results even after students have taken big, commercial courses. Students primarily work one-on-one with GMAT experts, and receive a robust action plan customized to their needs. Among TPNY’s offerings are The Full Potential Audio series: a 5 hour audio GMAT prep accessory to help students enter the best mindset. For more information: testprepny.com
Read the full article: How to Overcome Test Anxiety, GMAT and Otherwise
