Test anxiety lessened by writing about it

Test Preparation
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<p>"Your entire future depends on this exam. Score high, and you’ll get into the college of your dreams. Score low, and . . . well, it’s best not to think about that right now. And yet it’s all you can think about. Your mind goes blank. You’re choking.</p>

<p>You might have been better off writing down your feelings first, according to research by psychologists Gerardo Ramirez and Sian Beilock of the University of Chicago. Their study, published online this month in Science, shows that students who spend just 10 minutes writing about their worries before a test score higher than those who write about something else or who write nothing."</p>

<p>[Students</a> who wrote about anxiety over math test did better than others in study](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012406300.html]Students”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012406300.html)</p>

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<p>Great article. I’ve worked with hundreds of students, and believe the best way to limit anxiety is to practice sufficiently. I’ve watched so many students blindly take either the SAT or ACT, to take a face plant. Some students can bounce right back, but many students don’t. Just practice.</p>

<p>“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first hour sharpening the ax.”
-Abraham Lincoln</p>