Test Anxiety???

[cad4296]

Hi everyone! Does anyone else deal with test anxiety? I have major major test anxiety to the point where I have panic attacks and can't breathe! I have tried everything and I just don't know how to get rid of it! Just hearing the word "test" and my chest starts to tighten to the point I can't breathe. It's so frustrating, I study my bum off, I KNOW this stuff frontwards, backwards, sideways, yet I can't perform on tests! I've tried everything, been to counseling, I chew gum during tests, I drink milk before tests (don't ask, I heard it works and I'm desperate! ) I try to visualize my "happy place", nothing works! I'm still in pre-reqs but I want to get rid of this before and *IF* I ever make it into nursing school because I know that NCLEX will be looming in the end! It's incredibly frustrating. I feel like I will never get into nursing school because of this problem. I did awesome in high school and graduated top of the class and all, but in hs there is lots of busy work. College is all tests so I'm at a major disadvantage this way. I mean I make some A's but mostly B's (GPA is 3.4 ) How am I ever going to make it into nursing school if I can't get all A's? Any new ideas?

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

here are two web links that i have where test anxiety is discussed. perhaps you'll find something useful there. my own two cents on this (after taking many tests over my lifetime) is that if you can change your own attitude toward tests you can conquer the anxiety. at some point i think i mentally threw up my hands and said to myself, "what will be, will be" and developed a cavalier, "i could care less" attitude toward tests. that seemed to help me a lot. i started looking at tests from the instructor's point of view and how they must have sat down and constructed the questions. it made the instructors seem more human and less like they might be deliberately trying to trick me or trip me up. that also seemed to de-mystify things for me, since it's not easy to write test questions. this brings up something that i learned from being in study groups. that is, to try to anticipate the questions you are going to be asked on an exam. there's no anxiety when those questions do show up and you know the answers to them.

http://www.ulc.psu.edu/studyskills/test_taking.html - test taking and anxiety from penn state university learning centers. there are also links here to note taking, reading comprehension, and time management.

http://www.how-to-study.com/index.html - how to study.com: a study skills resource. has a variety of study skills on the website, plus a section on how to read your textbooks. topics addressed on this site include: taking notes, listening, solving math word problems, using references sources, spelling long words, essay tests, test anxiety, using abbreviations, study groups, test taking strategies, reading comprehension, remembering information, vocabulary building, writing a research paper, making oral presentations, managing time, writing techniques, multiple-choice tests and more.