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Mayo Clinic offers tips for managing test anxiety

Do you struggle with anxiety before exams? Have you ever wondered if it is  possible to overcome test anxiety?

A little nervousness before a test is normal and can help sharpen your mind and focus your attention. But with test anxiety, feelings of worry and self-doubt can interfere with your test-taking performance and make you miserable. Test anxiety can affect anyone, whether you’re a primary or secondary school student, a college student, or an employee who has to take tests for career advancement or certification.

Craig N. Sawchuk, Ph.D., L.P. from the Mayo Clinic offers several strategies that may  reduce test anxiety and increase your performance on test day.

  • Learn how to study efficiently. Your school may offer study-skills classes or other resources that can help you learn study techniques and test-taking strategies. You’ll feel more relaxed if you systematically study and practice the material that will be on a test.
  • Study early and in similar places. It’s much better to study a little bit over time than cramming your studying all at once. Also, spending your time studying in the same or similar places that you take your test can help you recall the information you need at test time.
  • Establish a consistent pretest routine. Learn what works for you, and follow the same steps each time you get ready to take a test. This will ease your stress level and help ensure that you’re well-prepared.
  • Talk to your instructor. Make sure you understand what’s going to be on each test and know how to prepare. In addition, let your instructor know that you feel anxious when you take tests. He or she may have suggestions to help you succeed.
  • Learn relaxation techniques. To help you stay calm and confident right before and during the test, perform relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing, relaxing your muscles one at a time, or closing your eyes and imagining a positive outcome.
  • Don’t forget to eat and drink. Your brain needs fuel to function. Eat the day of the test and drink plenty of water. Avoid sugary drinks such as soda pop, which can cause your blood sugar to peak and then drop, or caffeinated beverages such as energy drinks or coffee, which can increase anxiety.
  • Get some exercise. Regular aerobic exercise, and exercising on exam day, can release tension.
  • Get plenty of sleep. Sleep is directly related to academic performance. Preteens and teenagers especially need to get regular, solid sleep. But adults need a good night’s sleep, too, for optimal work performance.
  • Don’t ignore a learning disability. Test anxiety may improve by addressing an underlying condition that interferes with the ability to learn, focus or concentrate — for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or dyslexia. In many cases, a student diagnosed with a learning disability is entitled to assistance with test taking, such as extra time to complete a test, testing in a less distracting room or having questions read aloud.
  • See a professional counselor, if necessary. Talk therapy (psychotherapy) with a psychologist or other mental health professional can help you work through feelings, thoughts and behaviors that cause or worsen anxiety.

Be My Eyes App

Be My Eyes goal is to make the world more accessible to people who are blind or have a low level of vision. It is a free app that connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers and company representatives for visual assistance through a live video call. The app is available for iOS and Android. Download at https://www.bemyeyes.com/. 

Using the app is easy. A user who has low vision, is an older adult with failing vision, or who is blind,  who runs across something they can’t see but need to see (e.g., a prescription label or expiration date, a graphic the users screen reader couldn’t identify, text in an improperly converted document, or even help in matching a pair of socks) can make a call on the app and be connected to the first available volunteer.

The user positions their phone so that the volunteer can see what it is that needs to be seen, and the volunteer can tell them what they  are looking at.  A volunteer does not  have to take the call if they are busy — the app will move on to call the next available person.

Be My Eyes is also available for business, improving customer support for people who are blind and low-vision. “Specialized Help” is a new and better way for companies or organizations to connect with blind and low-vision customers and provide them with improved, more accessible support.

Resources from the National Center for College Students with Disabilities

As part of its mission, the National Center for College Students with Disabilities (NCCSD) is to provide assistance to colleges and universities, including faculty and disability ​services providers. NCCSD is the only federally-funded national center in the U.S.for college and graduate students with any type of disability, chronic health condition, or mental or emotional illness.

At the NCCSD site you can:
– Find free information for students, parents, families, high school and college faculty and staff in our  NCCSD Clearinghouse.**  Though not exhaustive, the NCCSD has collected their favorite resources about disability and higher education in one place. https://www.nccsdclearinghouse.org/
The Center’s Coronavirus – Covid-19 and College Students with Disabilities, page is updated frequently and has general information about Covid-19 and information on different topics ranging from mental health, housing, food insecurity, online classes/online learning and much more.
**(Higher education faculty and staff with disabilities can use the NCCSD, too.)