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Subscribe to RSSCari Nierenberg writes: Students who are the biggest worrywarts before taking a test might calm their nerves -- and improve their results -- by writing about their fears for 10 minutes before the exam, a new study suggests.
Researchers looked at students who seemed to choke under pressure and didn't perform as well as expected in stress-filled situations, in the study published in the Jan. 14 issue of the journal Science.
They asked a group of 20 college students to do a series of math problems, telling them that the highest scorers on the test would be rewarded with money. To really turn up the heat, students were also told they would be videotaped during the exam and both their teachers and peers would be watching.
One group of students was asked to sit quietly for 10 minutes before the test; the rest spent the time writing down their thoughts and feelings about the upcoming exam. Those who put pen to paper outperformed the others, enjoying a 5 percent boost on their test scores.
"Writing down these negative thoughts helps students to see them on paper and rethink their negativity. Then those thoughts are less likely to pop in your head during the test and distract you," says Sian Beilock, the study’s senior author and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. "It's almost as if you've emptied your mind so you have the cognitive horsepower to perform at your best."
Beilock and her colleague Gerardo Ramirez repeated similar tests with more than 50 ninth-graders taking a final exam in biology.
Freshman with the most pretest jitters who wrote about their worries before the final earned a B+ on the exam, while students who wrote about something else got a B-.
"The benefits are the most robust for students who are habitually anxious about taking tests," points out Beilock, author of "Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have to."
The scientists suspected that expressive writing could help anxious students because other research has found that writing regularly in a journal was an effective mood-booster for depressed patients.
And the benefits may extend beyond the classroom.
"Taking the time to jot down your thoughts before you enter a do-or-die situation," whether it's a job interview, public speaking or an athletic event, "may do a lot to help you excel or shine in that setting," says Beilock.
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Living with the life long disability of cerebral palsy, I can relate to these students. Eating has never been easy for me, but when I am more nervous than usual, I begin to choke. I become embarassed and that makes matters worse. It's an on going issue for me.
Awesome thats cool got to try that!
I like this type of research!
"Regular meditation not only restores our inner harmony and vital energy, but provides us with an actual experience of the peace we seek."
Sadly, the kiddos in WY take so many tests----regular class tests, DIBELS, MAP, PAWS they are so used to taking tests that the one thing they don't have is test anxiety.
The down side is DIBELS are done several times in the school year as are MAP tests and PAWS are the "No Child" tests. This means teachers get to teach to tests by order of the government.
They aren't necessarily comparing apples to apples here. One would have to assume each student had equal intelligence in order to really mean anything. We all know that clearly is not possible. The group that was asked to write about their anxiety could have been comprised of smarter students to begin with.
Sounds simple enough, and a study that makes sense. Wish I had known this 40 years ago.
Hmmm, in my experience, a B- isn't "choking."
There needs to be more research of this type. Most good students have learned about how they learn while doing just that. Little snippets of wisdom like this one, which cost nothing, can make a huge difference.