Crippling Test Anxiety-Need Help

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techn0teen
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08 Dec 2011, 4:36 pm

Ever since I could remember, I have had horrible testing anxiety. However, university makes it worse. Especially midterms and finals. No matter how much I prepare, I get so anxious I can't recall any info. This had really hurt my grades.

I loose lots of weight before a test, have bile in my throat, cry, feel like I will throw up, loss of appetite, my heart beats so fast I feel it will jump out of my chest, hands shake/sweaty, etc.

I actually don't want to go to grad school because I would have to take the GRE. I am finding it is limiting my goals in life.

Is there any professional help I can get? It is that bad. And I keep failing my classes because I fail the midterms and final exams (but I do extremely well on something that is not a test).



Kail
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08 Dec 2011, 4:43 pm

oxyracetam, or Provigil or Inderal



mar00
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08 Dec 2011, 5:23 pm

Oxi didn't do much for me, quite the opposite. Actually most substance I take just escalates anxiety for me. Or maybe not, maybe I'm just all around messed up person. Actually stuff does increase concentration etc and worth the try but when dealing with anxiety it's always tricky.
I really know what you mean I've screwed up so many exams I took. Good for me nowadays I don't have to take them, kinda. Anyhow I compensated it with excessive work in studying not that much of the actual thing but more like how to pass an exam - various logic behind it, structure and strategies. Taking past papers in a crowded library under time every now and then. Just try to imitate test conditions, expose yourself to them and get used to it. I used to do everything in perfectionist precission which of course would exhaust me but the result was there, more or less. Well no it was not but it's something if executed.
I don't have much advice with time I just ceased to care and when I got my dx I decided to take my life to the other direction. What I can say is that you may ask for an empty room for yourself and some extra time. I think any uni should provide you with that if you have AS dx and if not you can and should demand it. As well as some kind of shrink kindly called counselor, if you don't have social anxiety (for me it makes it worse). Also I cannot stress enough how important the overall wellbeing is. Steady disciplined work all year round is what calms the mind (and I think my anxiety mostly stems from this, also not understanding the way I think and other odd stuff). So might sound cliche-ish but reducing and learning to cope with anxiety as such in other areas, friendly discipline and finding the meaning behind this anxiety might be a key.
As said my *anxiety motivation* was related to perfectionism, outlandish standarts for understanding, fear of failure, paranoid being watched thing, not understanding what is asked etc etc.
I wish I could sort this out for myself as well. It is crippling :?



Chronos
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08 Dec 2011, 7:01 pm

techn0teen wrote:
Ever since I could remember, I have had horrible testing anxiety. However, university makes it worse. Especially midterms and finals. No matter how much I prepare, I get so anxious I can't recall any info. This had really hurt my grades.

I loose lots of weight before a test, have bile in my throat, cry, feel like I will throw up, loss of appetite, my heart beats so fast I feel it will jump out of my chest, hands shake/sweaty, etc.

I actually don't want to go to grad school because I would have to take the GRE. I am finding it is limiting my goals in life.

Is there any professional help I can get? It is that bad. And I keep failing my classes because I fail the midterms and final exams (but I do extremely well on something that is not a test).


When I first began college I enjoyed taking tests and this diminished as I moved into upper division courses and my grades became more relevant to my funding and future (and instructors inevitably became worse at teaching).

One day, while pondering the cause of the shift in my perspectives on tests, something occurred to me. I used to enjoy taking tests because I wagered I knew the answers, I started to dread taking tests because I felt I didn't know the answers

There is some truth to the later as I've had exams in upper division courses which seemed to have nothing to do with the course material. Instructors who stressed one thing and then tested on another thing. Instructors who made text books optional because none were really applicable to the way they taught the course. I came to the conclusion that an instructor's trustworthyness actually played a large part in how well students do on exams. If student feels they can trust the instructor is properly guiding them and the information being taught to them is the same information they will be tested on, I feel they are more able to commit the information to memory and feel confident when they walk into an exam, and trust me, some instructors, either intentionally or not, are not academically trustworthy.



kirayng
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08 Dec 2011, 7:11 pm

I have a practical tomorrow at culinary school... this involves sort of competing against 5 other students for equipment and ingredients, plus requiring instructing one other student helper to aid me in preparation of my salad and main dish. So, after careful planning of every detail from garnish to mise en place to notes to remember for sanitation, I have repeatedly visualized doing very well and impressing my instructor. This has worked before for job interviews and other stressful social/exam situations. I still rush through exams because of the pressure but the more I've visualized the positive outcome the more confident I was during the trial.

This may seem like something too simple in the face of anxiety but once you get a good memory of your good performance, ie, remembering everything, writing complete sentences, etc. you will imprint that for the next time. Then the visualization part for the subsequent trial is half memory and half desire for the future outcome. It's a way of training the mind to focus on the result you want -- acing your exam. This focus, which we have to a great degree will obliterate your anxiety!

let me know how it goes if you use this method!