Test Prep Books/Effective Study Skills for Test Taking Anxiety

I came across an article about a successful program designed for at-risk students and dropouts working toward their GED.  It’s an 18 month program in which students learn academic, personal, leadership and vocational skills through hands-on-activities.

Karen Bryant, who mentors students even after graduation, said she credits the success of the program to a relationship built on trust and respect with her students. Many of the students have remained friends of Bryant over the years.

In the ‘confidence’ leg of my 3-legged stool performance model I explore into the relationship between ‘trust’ and ‘confidence.’

The word confidence is made up of two Latin roots: con, meaning ‘with,’ and fidelis, which means ‘faith’ or ‘trust.’ A confident person has faith in herself and trusts that she can accomplish the task.

Fidelis has an additional meaning, and that is loyalty. We can interpret this to mean that a confident person is also loyal to herself. When she’s taking a test and the questions are hard she doesn’t jump ship. She believes she can work it out and stays with the process right to the end.

If you struggle with self-confidence, you probably have the opposite feeling when you take tests. When the going gets rough you feel like you want to bolt. I can’t do this, I’m out of here.

Wanting to bolt creates a problem because it means your attention isn’t fully present. It’s on its way out the door, you might say. Your mind, like your body and your spirit, is a key player on your “Team of Three.” You mind has to play its part so that you can win. You need your mind to stand by you, to support and encourage you through thick and thin, not turn against you and undermine the process. When your mind is yelling, “Let me out of here!” it is a way of abandoning you which we can certainly call a form of disloyalty. You have to train it to be loyal, to have faith in your ability and to trust that you can do the job well.

In other words, you have to know you can count on your mind.

Here’s a helpful tip to train your mind.

Your self-evaluating, talk-radio mind has two sides, positive and negative. On the positive side you are broadcasting approving and encouraging messages about yourself: I can do it. I’ve got what it takes. I am smart enough. The negative side sends out disapproving, discouraging, self-defeating noises: I can’t possibly succeed. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not going to make it.

Now, how do you tune into this positive side?  Start with this: what are your initials? Mine are BBB. I live in California. If I put K in front of BBB, I get KBBB. If I lived east of the Mississippi I would put a W in front of my initials and get WBBB.  Now you do it.  What do you get?  What does that sound like?  You got it: a radio station.  Your radio station.

Your mind has a 24/7 personal talk radio that is sending positive messages to you. You can count on it. Just don’t flip the dial. And if you hear noises, chatter and static, fine tune the receiving frequency. The voice of your spirit is always there to guide you.  Always.

Let me know how your personal talk-radio is working.