Believe Me, You’re Not Alone
Take heart—very few people look forward to a test; more of you
are afraid of tests than you’d think. But that doesn’t mean you have
to fear them.
Few people enter a testing site cool, calm, and ready for action. Most
of us have various butterflies gamboling in our stomachs, sweat glands
operating in overdrive, and a sincere desire to be somewhere else...
anywhereelse.
The more pressure you put on yourself—the larger you allow a
test (and, of course, your hoped-for good scores) to loom in your
own mind—the less you are helping yourself. (And the bigger the
test really is, the more likely you are to keep reminding yourself of
its importance.)
Let’s face it: Your scores on some tests canhave a major effect on
where you go to college, whether you go to graduate school, or
whether you get the job you want. But no matter how important
a test may be to your career, it is just as important to deemphasize
that test’s importance in your mind. This should have no effect on
your preparation—you should still study as if your life depended on a
superior score. It might!
Keeping the whole experience in perspective might also help: Twenty
years from now, nobody will remember, or care, what you scored
on anytest—no matter how life-determining you feel that test is
right now.
Of course, you canmake it easier to do all this by notgoing out of
your way—certainly before an especially big or important test—
to add morestress to an already stressful event. Two days before the
SAT is notthe time to dump a boyfriend, move, change jobs, take
out a big loan, or create any other waves in your normally placid river
of life.
Chapter 8 ■ How to Study for Tests 173