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‘Test Success!’ on Bay Sunday
Terrific interview with Frank Mallicoat on CBS Bay Sunday a popular Bay area
weekend news show. Frank was well informed and very easy to talk with. Thanks also to the producer and to the interns for making the whole experience so comfortable See the clip.
Had the great surprise to meet Alexia Martinique (see pic on the right) now a communications intern whom I knew years ago when she was a bright light of the Young Entrepreneurs at Haas program (Y.E.A.H). You go Alexia! And thanks Frank!
What slipped? A Super Bowl reflection
One of the best receivers in the NFL
On Super Bowl sunday the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story by reporter Ron Kroichick about the pressure athletes face in big events. Titled “Handling pressure lifts good athletes to greatness,” Kroichick’s interviewed me and others about what great athletes need to do in the clutch. What played out in the game couldn’t have been more to the point.
In the post-mortem, Patriots wide receiver, Wes Welker, commented on the pass he missed that could have won the Pats the game: ”It comes to the biggest moment of my life, and (I) don’t come up with it…most critical situation, and I let the team down.” What happened? Welker drew a blank. “It’s one of those plays I’ve made 1,000 times,” he said.
That’s the clue and here’s my two cents: no matter how many times you’ve done something successfully in the past, what matters is what you’re doing right now. This is as true on the ball field as it is on stage as it is when you take an test.
What slipped– besides the ball– for Welker? I would say it was likely his focus. Of the three legged stool– calm, confidence and focus– if his confidence was over-strong (“It’s one of those plays I’ve made 1,000 times”)– it could have thrown him off balance, causing him to lose focus at the critical moment. In other words: he wasn’t in the present. The consequence: missing the ball and losing the game.
It’s a hypothesis. But you can test it out yourself. When you do something you’ve done 1,000 times before, take note of how much (or how little) you are actually paying attention at that moment to what you are doing. Are you really in the present or are you on autopilot? You’ll be surprised. In fact, you might find that you actually have to turn up the focus juice just because you’ve done it so many times before. It’s not rocket science, but it easily could mean the difference between winning and losing.
P.S. Of course there were other mishaps for the Patriots, and Welker’s is only half the story. The other is how accurate (or not) Tom Brady’s pass was. Remember: he’s done that play 1,000 times too.
Lots of good suggestions
The web is offers an infinite number of valuable suggestion for students. The latest is from a blogger named Jannelle Martel who shares her thoughts on reducing test anxiety. She suggests three stages: strategize, plan and practice. Good and comprehensive. I’d add one more thing: learn how to keep yourself calm. Janelle is covering two of the “legs” in our three legged stool model: confidence and focus. To keep things balanced we need the third leg: calm. Staying calm during the study phase and calm on the test. You can get a thorough explanation and useful tools right on this website. Use the tools and let me know what has helped you and what questions you may have. Thank you Jannelle!
Test Prep and Fear of flying, part 2
Afraid? Again?
I’ve recently started coaching three very different people who have exactly the same issue with tests: they’re all afraid of failing. To be accurate, they’re all afraid of failing again.
Each of them (a high school, college and graduate student) had a bad experience in the past with a test—one didn’t finish in time, one didn’t get the score she wanted and one actually failed. I’m using the word “bad experience” instead of “failure.” While every one of us has had a bad experience with a test none of us is a failure because of it.
Following what I wrote in my last post: when you have a bad experience you have two choices with how you are going to hold that experience. Choice #1: You say to yourself, “Oh, no, it happened before and it’s going to happen again. For sure. No way I’m going to Continue reading
How’s this for a stressful job?
Richard Wyne and Nora
At the Apple store in Seattle I got into an interesting conversation with Richard Wyne, from Whistler, B.C., Canada. Richard is the head of a company called Polar Solutions, which is in the business of disaster management and emergency preparedness. They save people’s lives. Talk about stress and performance!. Locating and saving a person trapped in a building, or under an avalanche of snow requires the epitome of being calm, confident and focused. I met Richard with his trusted partner, Nora, a Senior Avalanche Rescue Dog (German Shepard, Border Collie X). I would love to see them in action. If your job requires you to keep stress at an optimal level let us know what it is. I’d love to see Richard and Nora in action (check out their website), and the necessity for them to remain calm,confident and focused. Richard was interested in The Workbook for Test Success, and I look forward to sharing ideas an experiences with him, and with you. Tell us about your stress-related work.
Staying focused and the power of the spirit.
Dr. Joy Magtanong-Madrid
Yesterday my wife and I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Commencement ceremonies for the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. One of the students who graduated, now Joy Magtanong-Madrid, DDS., was a student several years ago in a post-baccalaureate program in which I was the performance coach. There were 12 students, like Joy, who had all recently received their bachelor’s degree, and had wanted to go on to dental school, but didn’t get in anywhere they applied. They then applied for the post-bac program, which was a year to get their grades up and improve their scores on the DAT. What an amazing group of people! I loved coaching them. Why? Continue reading
Distracted by your own negative thinking?
One of the chief ways we become distracted is by our own thinking. We start thinking about the past or the future or about something else other than what’s going on now, in the present. When we’re distracted we lose focus and then it’s much harder to progress towards our goals. Our stress goes up and our performance is compromised – whether it’s on a test or when we’re facing any challenge in life. We literally fall off the path.
An example of this is when we become distracted by our own old fears. I can’t handle this, I’m not good enough, I can’t keep it together…and other negative thinking. “Negative” here means minus-ing, taking away from. But taking
The best tool for staying focused
Use a timer: you'll stay focused
Often people ask me “What’s the best way to stay focused?”
Here’s what I recommend: use a timer. Whether it’s on your digital watch, your i-pad, your cell phone, or one that you set up on your computer, I’ve found the timer to be my biggest aide to staying focused.
The procedure goes like this:
3 legged stool: a fresh look at test results
A well-respected instructor in a prestigious health care training program. stopped me in the stairwell. “I want to tell you how I used the 3 legged stool last week,” he said. He proceeded to tell me about a recent incident in which a competent student did poorly on a performance test. After the procedure the teacher found out that the student had just suffered a death in his family and was planning to leave immediately after the test for the funeral. But the student hadn’t told anyone about the tragic event or his plans. He was determined to barrel through and take off.
Things didn’t work out the way he planned. Uncharacteristically, his test performance was sub-par. He barely got through. This was a smart,
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