Anyone Else Freeze During Math Tests?

[CarolinaGal]

I am a first-year nursing student and making straight A's in Pharmacology and Fundamentals. However, during a math test we had this week I froze solid as soon as I sat down to the test. It was terrible! I couldn't think and my heart was pounding so hard I thought I might faint! I have never had test anxiety before, but I have always been scared of math. Does anyone else have this problem or have any suggestions how to "slay this dragon" of mine? Thanks for any help!!

[May_baby]

So what is anxiety?

Its your body thinking: "Ohhhhh nooo, there's a tiger over there!"

(Fight or flight)

Nobody's brain works when there is a tiger in the room.

The trick is convincing yourself and your body that math won't bite you.

You can either create a cascade of calming techniques (deep breathing, progressive relaxation, etc.) More useful in the classroom.

Or you get get miffed to discharge adrenaline. (Punch a pillow at home, run up and down the stairs, etc.) More useful when your take home work is a bear.

Recognize your anxiety, address it, rinse, and repeat.

I can't gurantee it will work perfectly, but it gives you something to do rather than feel paralyzed.

[ShockerGirl]

i get anxiety on EVERY test i take, i sit down and no matter how hard i studied my mind goes blank. usually ill go through some and find the ones that are the "duh" ones or in math the really easy ones, and do those first to build confidence, then sometimes on written exams if you read through all the questions, another question can answer a previous one! and breathe!! just remember you know the material

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

I usually write my equivlent triangles and general equations, then go from there.

[81ke83]

take a deep breath and try to relax. You know your formulas and conversions so take your time and go back and recheck your answers. Remember the rounding rules and label. It is frustrating, we took our last dosage math test last week. The papers were turned over, we were waiting to start the test, the instructor said " if you don't pass this, you have one more chance and your out." I can't tell you how many times a week we here that. Turn my paper over and my mind went blank, so I skipped that problem and went on to an easy one without conversions. Once I started to do the problems, I was fine.