Dealing with Test Anxiety: Part 1

As a teacher I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from parents how nervous and anxious their child gets when they are about to take a high stakes test. This is usually the same student who has done all their work and behaves in class.  Yet when it comes to taking a test they are usually quite ready to freak out and psych themselves out of a good grade before they even sit down for the high stakes test. Test anxiety is a real problem today in schools because of what it is doing to our kids and what it is doing to their grades.  Thankfully there are a few ways in which it can be dealt with.  In almost every instance, especially in the early grades at middle school and high school, it starts with parents being knowledgeable about what their children can do to relax and succeed on high stakes tests and quizzes.  In this article I have outlined several actionable tips that can be used to help your child deal with test anxiety. Obviously there are a large number of factors that play into why a student experiences certain test anxiety before any type of test or quiz they may be facing.  Throughout the course of these articles I will try to hit on the major issues that can lead to this test anxiety and what can be done to combat each of them.

This first part will focus on what, in many cases, can be a quick and easy fix for test anxiety that many students live with today.  The idea behind this concept is simple:

When students understand the material they will have confidence in themselves and feel far less anxious about the test they are taking or studying for.

Obviously it isn’t an end all be all quick answer or solution but this first topic we will cover can go a very, very long way to alleviating many of the anxious and stressed feelings students experience before, during, and after a test.  It is something that is practiced by the top students in every class on a daily or weekly basis whether they realize it or not.  It is the reason I have students come in feeling ready to go for a test, feeling completely confident in their ability to succeed on it.  Though not the sole reason for test anxiety I have seen this solution be a major help to many of my students who struggle with mild to severe cases of test anxiety.

The fix to which I am referring is simply the art of test preparation, better known as studying.  When students study correctly they understand the material.  When students understand the material they will have confidence in themselves and feel far less anxious about the test they are taking or studying for.

I know it sounds so obvious as to be laughable yet simply studying and preparing for a test can make all the difference in the world for a huge number of students.  However, this simple answer requires far more explanation than you may think it does.

In short, I would say (and obviously there are exceptions to this) the vast majority of students who suffer from test anxiety do not prepare well enough.  While not always the cause of the anxiety, it greatly contributes to it in almost every case I have ever dealt with.  In short, if your son or daughter suffers from test anxiety I would be willing to argue that they are more than likely not preparing properly for tests.  Again, that doesn’t apply to everyone but it is more than likely an issue.  I know you will say they study hard and work tirelessly so they can do well but I have to say from experience that most times the students don’t know how to study properly.  In many cases also, the parents seem to not be aware of what exactly their child considers “studying”.  If you’ve never thought about it before now, please think and consider, what exactly does your son or daughter do while studying?  How do they study? What do they study?  Where do they study?  How long do they study?  With whom do they study?  In my experience as a teacher I must be honest; I have rarely met a parent who can answer even 2 or 3 of those questions, let alone all of them.

The first step in truly helping your student prepare for a test in hopes of beating test anxiety involves being able to answer the questions asked above.  Now, since I know most parents haven’t exactly been students in high school for quite some time I realize that proper study habits might be something forgotten or perhaps never truly known before.  So, with that in mind, I’m going to give you a brief rundown of what constitutes “bad” studying first and then what is “good” studying.

First, let’s talk about what is “bad” studying for a test by looking at time spent, study environment, distractions present, and several other factors.

• Cramming is bad –  A major problem with students studying today is that they simply do not understand the time required to study and fully master material they will be tested on.  It takes time to learn things, cramming is almost always going to lead to anxiety and poor understanding.

• Studying with distractions is bad – Studying while watching TV, texting with friends socially, randomly hanging out on Facebook or twitter, listening to music (sometimes, this depends a great deal with the individual child), or even simply studying in a busy part of the house all constitute serious distractions.  If your son or daughter is studying in one of these environments, put a stop to it.

• Hanging out with friends and calling it studying is bad – Going over to a friend’s house, meeting at the coffee shop, or meeting after school somewhere to study often leads to a whole lot of “not studying” going on.  Obviously study groups can be a great tool for students to learn from however in most cases today study groups end of being at best a poor use of unfocused study time to at worst simply being an excuse for kids to hang out together with no studying at all.

• Looking at the review guide once and calling it good is bad – Simply looking at a test review guide one time or spending half an hour looking at the solutions to some sample problems or concepts doesn’t cut it in most classes past 8th grade.  Most classes these days require real preparation.  Simply looking at some answers for a few minutes doesn’t even come close.

Now let’s talk about what good studying is and how you can fix the “bad” studying:

• Not waiting until the last night is good- The first thing to do is not wait until the night before a test to study.  Slowly but surely reviewing material little by little every day will go a long way towards helping improve a student’s understanding of material.  As a reminder: When students understand the material they will have confidence in themselves and feel far less anxious about the test they are taking or studying for.

• Creating a study zone is good – Help your child create a study zone, a place where they are going to study and not do anything else.  Make sure they know, “this is where I go to study.”  It should have limited distractions and allow for total focus on material.  FOR A MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION OF HOW TO CREATE A GREAT STUDY ZONE CLICK HERE.

• Limit social interaction unless it truly is study time-  As stated above most times high school or middle school study groups end up being about social time rather than study time.  However, if you can get a group of hardworking and dedicated kids together who all want to succeed on a test and can resist the temptation to simply talk about whatever a study group can be hugely beneficial.  The challenge is simply finding the right group.

• Don’t do the minimum and think it is enough – Make sure your kids spend enough time studying to make it worthwhile.  Don’t let them off easily.  Ask them what they studied, what they looked at, and how much time they actually spent on it.  There is no easy path to understanding and learning.  It takes time and it takes hard work.  If it was easy, there wouldn’t be any test anxiety.  To see 7 great and specific ways to prepare for tests, check this out. 

• Pay attention in class more – Though obviously not a study tip specifically this basic idea can go a very long way in helping your children feel much better prepared and knowledge about the material.  It prevents that sticker shock that many of them feel when they go to start studying for a test having paid little attention in class for the past week.  It can make all the difference.

As a reminder one more time: When students understand the material they will have confidence in themselves and feel far less anxious about the test they are taking or studying for.

I hope these ideas will prove useful and meaningful to you in helping your child deal with test anxiety.  As you can see this article focused specifically on a quick fix that you as a parent can try to start helping with today in your child’s schooling.  However, test anxiety can sometimes be a bit more complicated than simple preparation and study habits.  The next part of this article will focus more on the non-school aspects of a student’s life that can contribute greatly to test anxiety and what can be done to combat them.

As always, I hope what you have read here helps you and your family.  If you think it does, please don’t hesitate to share it with others who you think it may help.

Parents and kids: Make a study spot in your house!

Studying can be hard.  Lets not pretend otherwise. Parents think back to when you were a kid and try to imagine how annoying it was to sit and study for even a little while.  Imagine now when there are way more distractions available than ever before.  It is a challenge to sit there and remain focused for several hours at a time without really doing much of anything except reading or working out some concept that you probably don’t like.  I’ve almost never heard a student, even the best students, say that studying is their favorite thing to do.  Quite the opposite in fact: Most people don’t like studying. Now that we’ve got that out of the way lets also be realistic about the fact: Studying is necessary to succeed in school today.  Whether it is enjoyable or not, if you want to do well in school you need to study.  It is as simple as that.  Work needs to be done and time needs to be spent to learn.

Homework also fits into the “It’s never a good time” category.  The teachers know this, parents know this, and students know this.  Yet homework is assigned a lot, collected, checked, and sometimes a big part of your grade in school.  Why is that the case if no one likes it?

The answer is simple, it is a necessary evil.  Something that helps kids learn what is being taught.  It allows kids to practice and hone their skills, whatever they are.  Without it, kids would struggle more.  They would learn less.  It is as simple as that.

So, we’ve established that studying stinks and homework is no fun but both happen to be necessary evils if you are going to get good grades in school.  So, what is there to do about this?  The best advice we can give here is to create a space in your house where kids can study without distraction.  This spot should be comfortable yet conducive to focusing.  We’ve put together several suggestions for such a study space that will hopefully lead to better grades, higher scores, and less stress.

Make studying comfortable – Make sure you are comfortable when you are studying.  There is nothing worse than sitting somewhere doing something you don’t like while also feeling terribly uncomfortable for hours.  Being uncomfortable generally leads to less time spent studying and doing homework.  This leads to lower grades.  Get a comfortable chair and a comfortable desk.

Don’t get too comfortable though – Comfort can get carried away when studying.  When it happens, its bad.  You lose focus, you drift off, and you end up doing something completely unrelated to your homework.  That is not what we’re going for.  Places to avoid studying: On a bed, a couch, or some sort of recliner like thing.  Keep it confined to a nice comfortable upright chair and desk.  There’s a reason those seem to be the standard now and have been for kind of a while.

Keep away from the hustle and bustle – Most houses today with school age kids can get kinda busy: they can be noisy, they can be loud, they can be distracting.  Your homework spot should be well off the beaten path in the house.  Basically, if people are going to be around to distract you, talk to you, or do their own things while you’re working it isn’t the place you want to be.  Find a nice quiet corner and make it your own!

Stock your spot! – This might sound kind of weird but have the necessary items that you will need at your study spot.  The worst thing you can run into is being on a roll, studying like mad, doing your homework like a champ, and then you realize “man I need a stapler, where is it?”  Things like that can kill your focus and momentum and lead to a 10 minute search around the house for a stapler or pen or whatever.  Don’t let that happen.  Stock your spot with all the essentials: Stapler, calculator, pencils, pens, paper, erasers, tape, paper clips, post its, index cards, 3 hole punch, Kleenex, and whatever else you can think of.  Keep it there and keep it ready so that when you need it you don’t waste time or get distracted.

No distractions – Keep the distractions away from your spot.  No TV around it anywhere, trust us, watching TV while doing homework or studying doesn’t help.  It just doesn’t.  A computer can be an interesting challenge to have in the homework spot.  Obviously computers can be really helpful when it comes to getting homework done or studying for a test.  They also pose a serious distraction though; especially when kids are only a click away from Facebook or whatever else is out there.  If you are going to have one in your spot, resist the distraction temptation!  The other biggie would be the kid’s phone.  Today the phone is way more than just a phone, it does it all!  The phone can be a huge study tool that provides immediate contact with friends who are doing the same homework the child is.  It can be used to look up answers and solutions too.  The problem though is that it can also be used to do one of 8 million different things that are distracting and have nothing to do with school.  It is another one of those tough calls that parents and kids will have to make about what works best for the individual kid.

Make it the place to be! – Make your study spot the place to be by incorporating some sort of personal design touch into it.  Put some posters up or some inspirational sayings; just do something to make whoever is studying there feel good and not hate having to be there.  Make it a place people like going to work.

Conclusion Having a spot in your own house where homework can be done without distractions is a huge help to most students.  In truth, most people haven’t even thought about this.  Kids just sit down somewhere and start working.  Parents, if you want your kids to study and do their homework more:  Make one of these spots in your house!  Make it look nice and fun, like a place a kid wouldn’t mind sitting for an hour or two.  Put up some cheesy inspirational quotes.  They might sound cliché to someone over the age of 20 but for a middle schooler or high schooler they actually have some meaning.  Get a nice looking desk and a comfortable chair for your kids so they think its not basically a spot to be punished by having to do work.  Keep the distractions away and you are good to go!

Hopefully this helps you out, if so please feel free to share it with anyone else you think it might help out.

Development of ParentEdge Finished, October 16, 2012

Dearborn, MI - October 16, 2012 - SchoolEdge Mobile is proud to announce the completion of the ParentEdge educational communication and messaging platform.

ParentEdge is a new and unique piece of educational technology designed to facilitate communication between teacher and parent through automated texting and emailing.  The ParentEdge can be used successfully and effectively in elementary and secondary schools.

At the elementary level ParentEdge provides parents with a daily update directly to their phone and email from their child’s elementary school teacher.  This message contains an update telling the parent what their child should do to prepare for the next day of school.  It can be used to inform parents about tests or quizzes that should be studied for, upcoming classroom events, things that need to be brought in to class the next day, projects that need to be worked on, and anything else the teacher wants to include in the short, automated message.

At the elementary level ParentEdge provides parents with accurate information in an easily accessible and hard to ignore format so parents can ensure their children are prepared for school the next day.  It allows parents to talk to their children about what is happening in class on a daily basis.  This helps children begin developing good academic habits at a young age by placing importance on academic achievement and personal responsibility.

At the secondary grade level ParentEdge provides parents with a daily/nightly update directly to their phone and email regarding their child’s responsibilities for each class the following day.   It informs the parent if their child has an upcoming test they should study for in 1^st hour, if they have homework that is due tomorrow in 2^nd hour, a project that needs to be worked on for 3^rd hour, reading that needs to be done for 4^th hour, a rough draft of an essay that is due in 5^th hour, a quiz in 6^th hour, and anything else that needs to be done for school tomorrow.

ParentEdge gives parents of children at the secondary level the information they need to ensure their children are meeting their responsibilities as students and succeeding academically.  ParentEdge provides a way for continuing academic excellence to become a daily point of conversation between parent and child.  At the higher grade levels parents have the option of their child receiving the daily assignment update directly to their own phone to help develop personal responsibility and to prepare the student for college and beyond.

SchoolEdge Mobile's Blog Introduction

We at SchoolEdge Mobile are proud to announce that we are beginning our blog.  The major function of this blog will be to convey pertinent news and information about our company and our flagship product, ParentEdge in a quick and reliable fashion.  In addition, from time to time we will be posting articles about text messaging and email communication in education.  We will also be providing resources that provide information for getting parents more involved in their children's education.

We hope you will find this to be useful and interesting.  For more information about ParentEdge, please go to our website at www.schooledgemobile.com