Cause of Death: Absent Minded Professor
I do not get test anxiety. I don't. I do almost no studying the night before a final. I go to bed early, sleep soundly, have a nice, nutritious breakfast the next morning, and take my time getting to school. I listen to my mp3 player or watch tv in the lounge, talking to friends until it is time for the exam. I adopt the "If I don't know it now, I'm not going to. I'll do worse if I stress out and cram" attitude. For the most part it works for me.
Once the test is in front of me I enter a separate dimension from everyone else. I have to. Unless I completely tune everyone out my Attention Deficit pays attention to everything that goes on in the room and the last thing I want to do is divert attention away from my exam. I cross out solutions in multiple choice questions that don't fit, and distractors from the question itself. Highlight and circle things that come to my attention. Doodle occasionally. It's a relaxed and casual form of exam taking.
Now everyone has a point where they feel nervous about exams though. Even with my attitude to exams I am no exception. There is that five minutes when I am sitting in the classroom before the teacher hands out the exams when there is nothing more I can do to prepare and have no access to coping mechanism where I feel a bit nervous. Most of the time its very mild anxiety. It's that mild feeling of helplessness that gets to me.
Well now what would be the one way to reduce me to a nervous wreck right before I write a final. Have the teacher show up a half an hour late, that's how. It takes that 2-5 minute snippet and turns it into an agonizingly long period of wondering what I am going to do and trying to recall info for the test and not being able to. I ended up writing don't panic on the back of my left hand in nice friendly letters and drawing a cheery and decorative border around it in an attempt to distract myself. I felt so nauseous and when the teacher finally showed up I almost burst into tears.
I was fine once the test was in front of my though. Really, I think I did great. But I can't tell you how freaked I was by the whole experience. I just have one more final now, the day after tomorrow in Art History. I don't think I will do as well on that one as I have on the ones so far. But I'll be glad once it's out of the way.
Once the test is in front of me I enter a separate dimension from everyone else. I have to. Unless I completely tune everyone out my Attention Deficit pays attention to everything that goes on in the room and the last thing I want to do is divert attention away from my exam. I cross out solutions in multiple choice questions that don't fit, and distractors from the question itself. Highlight and circle things that come to my attention. Doodle occasionally. It's a relaxed and casual form of exam taking.
Now everyone has a point where they feel nervous about exams though. Even with my attitude to exams I am no exception. There is that five minutes when I am sitting in the classroom before the teacher hands out the exams when there is nothing more I can do to prepare and have no access to coping mechanism where I feel a bit nervous. Most of the time its very mild anxiety. It's that mild feeling of helplessness that gets to me.
Well now what would be the one way to reduce me to a nervous wreck right before I write a final. Have the teacher show up a half an hour late, that's how. It takes that 2-5 minute snippet and turns it into an agonizingly long period of wondering what I am going to do and trying to recall info for the test and not being able to. I ended up writing don't panic on the back of my left hand in nice friendly letters and drawing a cheery and decorative border around it in an attempt to distract myself. I felt so nauseous and when the teacher finally showed up I almost burst into tears.
I was fine once the test was in front of my though. Really, I think I did great. But I can't tell you how freaked I was by the whole experience. I just have one more final now, the day after tomorrow in Art History. I don't think I will do as well on that one as I have on the ones so far. But I'll be glad once it's out of the way.