What do you know about anxiety related to
testing and
assessment? Did you experience anxiety when you were in college? Did
you find a way to overcome it and succeed? Have you thought to share
that with your students? The faculty who teach our College Success
Skills course (
CSSK 1023)
include material about test taking and how to deal with anxiety
and other issues that may arise when a student feels stress. Of course
we cannot go through our lives without experiencing stress but learning
how to manage it allows us to be successful. One of the ways you can
help your students to be fully prepared for assessment is to have them
think about the process itself. What is being assessed and why? Have
them think about the types of test questions you are likely to use. Have
them actually come up with questions that they think might be on the
test. In this way, they can be more productive when it comes to
preparing for assessments. Another method you might want to introduce is
using
music to set a calm
and distraction free environment in your classroom. Using music can
help students to focus on the task at hand and block out whatever else
is going on in their lives at least for the hour or more that they are
testing. I suggest using music like Japanese ambient selections. You can
use songs like
Still Space by Satoshi Ashikawa or
Glass Chattering by Yoshio Ojima.
Playing this for 3-5 minutes as your student enter the class on the day
of testing will help them to be more mindful of what they have learned
and allow them to share this with you. Let me know if you try it or if
you have other suggestions of music that will help students perform
their best.
