Using the Five Rs for Conquering Your Test Anxiety

1. Using the Five Rs for Conquering Your Test Anxiety Recognize Rethink Refocus Relax Refine

2. Using the Five Rs . . . The first three Guides of this series have provided a foundation for you to use in understanding test anxiety. That knowledge sets the stage for treatment: you know what test anxiety is and now you are ready to learn what you can do to overcome it. Let’s get to it. The Five Rs for conquering test anxiety are drawn from many research studies and our own experience with what is effective for test-anxious students.

3. Using the Five Rs . . . We selected words that begin with the letter “R” for two reasons: Each “R” word captures or summarizes a vital step in the treatment of test anxiety, and Taken together, they serve as a memory device. When you can quickly recall the Five Rs and what they stand for you can more easily remember what you must do to handle your test anxiety.

4. Using the Five Rs . . . Each R is introduced in a step-by-step manner. Once you understand the principles behind each R and complete the exercises and/or activities that go with it, the next R is presented. We will outline the Five Rs in this Guide and go into detail in following Guides. As you work through these Guides we will use Victor, a test anxious student, to help you understand how the Five Rs work and are applied to an individual.

5. Using the Five Rs . . . Victoris a 19-year-old sophomore at the university. He had attended a small high school in a rural community. Although he “didn’t work too hard in high school” Victor managed to finish in the upper 25% of his graduating class. His mother attended two years of college and an older brother graduated with a degree in engineering. Victor took general education courses his freshman year, earning Bs and some Cs. He was referred to the counseling center by his history instructor who noted that Victor was struggling after two exams in the course. Victor had acceptable student habits and reasonably good study skills. He kept up with his reading assignments and generally understood the material.

6. Using the Five Rs . . . Something seemed to “go wrong”, however, when he took his history tests. He was worried about his grades and said that he was afraid that he might flunk not only history but one other course as well. Victor reported that just before his exams he would start to sweat, feel queasy to his stomach, and sometimes become a little “light-headed”. He had “blanked out” during one test. One thing Victor noticed after each test was that he could remember the correct answers to questions. He was frustrated by this fact and thought he had “test anxiety” but he didn’t know what to do about it. In his words, “Nothing I have tried has worked so far”.

7. Recognize The core of test anxiety lies in negative thoughts. Because of this, the very first step in beginning to conquer test anxiety is to identify or Recognize the specific thoughts that result in your being anxious. We want you to be able to answer the question, “What am I thinking when I am anxious about a test?” You will discover that a rather small number of thoughts contribute to your anxiety. Victor learned to recognize his thoughts through a series of exercises and by reading a list of common test-anxious thoughts and observations and picking out those that he had. Two, in particular, were troublesome: “I don’t know all the material” and “I’m stupid”. A third had occurred during his most recent exam: “Oh no, my mind is blank!”

8. Rethink The second step requires you to do something with the negative thoughts and observations after you recognize them. Just saying to yourself, “Stop thinking like that!” is usually not sufficient. To change your negative thoughts you must Rethink them. Actively challenging or disputing those thoughts, in a very rational and logical way, is necessary for you to alter them. Then, as an added measure, you can substitute other thoughts that are realistic and directly related to the task of test-taking.

9. Rethink . . . Victor learned that there are common thinking errors that all of us may engage in from time-to-time. The error of overgeneralization, for example, pertained to his thought that “I don’t know all the material.” We took each one of Victor’s test-anxious thoughts and subjected them to close examination. As a. result, when Victor was convinced that his negative thoughts weren’t entirely accurate, he started to think differently. He accepted as true that to succeed on a test he didn’t have to know all the material (even though he might wish he could).

10. Refocus To do your best on an exam you must concentrate on preparation and then keeping your attention on answering the test questions. After you have changed your negative thoughts, each of which was distracting you from the tasks of either test preparation or test-taking, you are ready for the third step: Refocus. When you refocus, you direct your attention back where it belongs: on the exam.

11. Refocus . . . Victor learned some strategies to help him refocus: Instead of spending time daydreaming, worrying, or avoiding the job of test preparation or test taking he found he could concentrate on giving his best effort. Even though others in the classroom might finish a test before he did -- an observation that he learned to put into a new perspective -- Victor was able to keep his mind on his test.

12. Relax Victor, like many test-anxious individuals, easily recognized the physical signs of his anxiety. Telling himself to “relax, relax” without having an effective way to do it did not work. To handle the physical component --emotionality -- of test anxiety, we introduce the fourth R: Relax. Victor, like many individuals, did not want to spend hours and hours learning and practicing some complicated relaxation procedure. He also realized that he wouldn’t have much time during an exam to be getting into deep muscle relaxation. We taught Victor a fundamental breathing exercise. He found this not only helped him to feel calm before and during an exam but the relaxation contributed to him feeling better in general.

13. Refine Everyone has some test-taking skills. Victor had taken many tests and had survived them all. There were, however, some strategies and techniques that he didn’t know and others that he hadn’t fully or properly applied. Enter the fifth and final R: Refine. Victor learned the importance of not arriving too early at the test site and getting caught up in others’ anxiety, how to respond to essay questions, and taking the test one item at a time. The refining of test-taking skills is the final step in our program to reduce test anxiety. With the completion of this step, Victor had a thorough and comprehensive approach to use in managing his anxiety. The results in Victor’s case were impressive: he improved his test scores in history.

14. Success with the Five Rs What Victor achieved, you can accomplish, too. It is important to proceed through the Five Rs in a persistent, constant manner. Work on this program, step-by-step, every day. To insure success, start small at first. You can pick up the pace later. Be realistic and don’t try to overcome your anxiety in a day or a week. Tell yourself, “This will take some effort and I am going to do it”. actio A common rento anxiety is to avoid the unpleasant stimuli associated with it. You might find yourself not completing the exercises or “forgetting” to do them. You might even misplace these Guides, have trouble finding them, or simply not opening them. Work towards overcoming these potential avoidance-type responses. We suggest you remember this formula: Remind + Reward = Best Results

15. Success with the Five Rs . . . Remind yourself to practice what you are learning every day. Put a note card with the word “Practice” in an obvious place like a refrigerator or a mirror. Reward yourself after you complete an exercise. At first, reward big (you can reduce the size of the reward as you progress). Reward yourself with self-praise and by doing something you like to do: take a walk, listen to a CD, turn on the radio, pet your dog, read a poem...whatever you believe will increase the chances that you’ll do the exercises again tomorrow. Keep track of your progress--this can be rewarding in itself. Commitment is the key to completing this program. Victor made that commitment and you can, too. When you do, you are on your way to conquering test anxiety. Let the Five Rs be your guide: Recognize, Rethink, Refocus, Relax, and Refine.

16. Using the Five Rs for Conquering Your Test Anxiety Using the Five Rs . . . Is the fourth in a series of Resource Guides Devoted to helping students conquer their test anxiety. The series is made available by the Enhanced Learning Center of the University of Arkansas Adapted with Permission-9/07: Bihm, E. and Ness, E., University of Central Arkansas.. “Take Charge of Your Test Anxiety: The Five Rs Approach.” Unpublished Manuscript. Arkansas Photographs Used with Permission-11/07: Steve Twaddle, www.arkansasphotographed.com