VtheRe wrote:
Hello everyone,
I just did first GMAT practice test 1. And I analyzed the entire experience.
First, I was extremely nervous. I couldn’t read the questions, for majority of the questions, I didn’t even read them before I chose an answer. Some of the questions I read 3 times and didn’t even know what the questions ask about because I couldn’t focus and nothing get into my head. ( right, can’t believe I could be that nervous!!). I feel my biggest enemy is test anxiety, like when the test started and I saw the clock is ticking, i was blind.
Second, I started verbal first, The first question is RC, so I tried to write down the summary, main idea etc on scratch paper like what I did when I do practice questions. BUT it took so long to complete the first RC passage. After the first passage, I was already behind on time. That made me even more anxious. For the first few SC, I also tried to write down the reasons when I eliminated answer options. Again it took too long to answer one question. For the last long RC passage I didn’t even read the passage, just guess the answers. I feel this strategy is very distracted during test! But This strategy is helpful when doing practice question under no pressure to learn the content. I did a manhattan CAT before and I didn’t use this strategy (like write down summaries on scratch paper), I feel I could focus better on the questions. I was still very and unbelievable nervous. Sweating, couldn’t focus, couldn’t read the questions, rushing to finish. When I redo the questions I got wrong under no pressure after the CAT test, I got most of them correct.
Everyone use the same strategy ( write down on your scratch paper) during tests?
Anyone can share how to deal with test anxiety?
Thank you so much!!
Tests don't only measure what you know, they also measure how well you take tests.
No matter how much you know, or how long you study, if you enter the test without up-leveing your mental game - - you risk going through exactly what you describe, and your performance and score will be compromised.
I speak from experience. We are the pioneers in the GMAT coaching landscape who incorporate holistic and mindful tools into the GMAT and GRE test preparation/study process. We are the equivalent of what sports psychologists and trainers are for high-performance athletes.
Meditation - - mentioned -- is a great technique to improve focus - - if you have time to integrate the practice. While research shows that you'll see some results in about 10 days, to deal with what you described, you need to take out the big guns.
Same with visualization - - there are literally thousands of solutions to what your situation is - - and identifying the exact trigger is going to be the key to how you should proceed. The good news is that alleviating anxiety is the easiest and quickest thing to improve!
How do I know? Because we've spent the last 20+ years working with test takers on this. You can absolutely work on this yourself - - and I point you to the various techniques we work on with students, based on how the symptoms manifest. There is not a silver bullet or one size fits all for each test taker, however, as a comparison, we work with students 3 - 5 hours and they're good to go.
Check out hypnosis, NLP, EFT, EMDR for starters.
Questions I have for you:
- When is the first time you've felt nervous?
- What is your reading speed - - typically if you're reading around or lower than 250 words per minute, you're likely not focusing enough: you need to INCREASE your reading speed.
- What have you done about this nervousness in the past, assuming this isn't the first time you've felt it? What worked?
You can also check out out our sample audio (30 minutes) here, as well as our youtube channel -- we have various audios that may support your efforts.
Happy to give you some more direct input when I hear more about your experience.
Bara Sapir, MA, CHt, CNLP
Founder/CEO
City Test Prep
Maximize your Score, Minimize your Stress!
GMAT Badass and Test Anxiety Relief Expert
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12 Apr 2020, 06:22
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