How To Help Your Child Overcome Test Day Anxiety

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It’s exam time. Your child says he can’t remember anything. His palms are sweaty. He says he feels sick; he'd like to believe he really is sick. More likely, it’s a case of "test anxiety."

Even the brightest students can freeze up or feel like running from an exam. Everyone gets nervous about tests, but true test anxiety is most common in eighth and ninth grades when scores start to affect your child’s chances of getting into college.

Maybe your child seems a little more nervous than usual, feels overwhelmed or unprepared, or completely panicked. If your child studies but can’t remember anything, it’s because test anxiety can raise the adrenaline level, causing a blackout of information.

Why so much anxiety? Maybe your child is not feeling very sure of himself lately. Maybe he didn’t do well on other tests and is afraid it will happen again. Maybe he feels pressure to perform from you or competitive classmates. Or maybe he just didn’t study.

No matter what the reason, there are things several things your child can do to overcome test anxiety:

• Give the brain a workout. Study, study, study. An athlete wouldn’t compete without training, so a student shouldn’t take a test without studying.
  


• Conceptualize, don’t memorize. Memorizing answers will only get you so far. Understanding the concepts or basic skills that lead to answers will help a student much more. Memorization leads to nervousness; knowledge leads to confidence.
  


• Don’t be overwhelmed. A big studying project is made up of a lot of smaller steps. Taking one step at a time makes the project more manageable.
  


• Zone in. Talk to your child about goals and the steps to achieve them. Outline the steps and use this outline to help track your child’s progress.
  


• Focus on the future. Previous failures teach us all something, but it does no good to dwell on them. Help your child understand that the past shouldn’t interfere with the present, nor get in the way of the future.
  


• Attack the test. Go on the offensive. Encourage your child to go for it. Advise him or her to do the easier questions first, to save the scary ones for last, and not to rush. A test is not a race.
  


• Don’t cheat. A cheater hurts only himself. Let your child know that hard work yields rewards.

Find out how Sylvan can help reduce the stress of test day! Email your local center or call 1-888-EDUCATE.

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