are you a good secret keeper? - Girl Scouts Heart Of Central California

The holidays are here and with them come a
hodgepodge of ACTs, SATs and finals. In other
words, a huge hunk of testing stress is ready to
dampen even the sunniest of dispositions. Luckily,
combating test anxiety doesn’t have to be as
much of a hassle as you might have assumed.
Take it from a bona fide bookworm, tests are
important. They determine everything from your
semester grade to your college admissions.
In fact, sometimes the best way
to prepare is to have a bit of fun.
Nervous? Don’t be. Even though tests are important,
you don’t always have to keep your
nose to the grindstone to make the grade.
Study groups, for instance, are an effective
means of exposing and strengthening academic
weaknesses. More importantly, they
associate a positive atmosphere with the
potentially dreadful topic at hand. These
good vibes should help stave off the emotional
wreckage just around the corner. A study
group, however, isn’t necessary to bring some
excitement into the drab. It may be helpful, especially
to the visual learner and artistically
inclined, to illustrate the borders of class notes
in a fashion which comments or pokes fun at
material in order to provide a visual reference
to the lesson for a super quick review. For the
online kind, be sure to check out FreeRice.com
and m-w.com while surfing the net for fun and
addictive vocabulary-building quizzes.
Standardized testing in particular is all about
the timing. For timed tests, it’s important that
you have a feel for
Even with the
right answers,
testing can still
be a daunting
prospect.
passage of time.
Pacing, unfortunately,
comes only from
practice. Practice
tests are long and
tedious, to be sure.
They also serve to
familiarize the types
of questions being tested (which might spare
you from the wrath of that trick question) and
prepare you to maintain a good focus throughout.
Understandably, practice tests cannot
be your sole means of preparation. Between
homework, family, and friends, there simply
isn’t time and while we often make just “make
time”, getting a good nights sleep is just as
important as anything else. Like your sleeping
habits, other patterns within your life can prove
beneficial to the test taking process. Maybe
it’s as simple as practicing a sun salutation or
clearing off your desk area, but short routines
can help create a collected frame of mind
within any situation, including
the ever-so-evil test room. While
some patterns can be a quick
and easy fix (think arithmetic
sequences and root words),
these activities should be, to
some extent, custom made. What works for you,
may not work for the girl next door.
Look towards things you enjoy—listening to a
particular CD, reading a chapter from your favorite
book, going for a three mile jog, even doingsomething
as
silly as the
hokey pokey.
While you shouldn’t be afraid to dabble, be
sure to stay safe (delaying tests because
of hospital
visits re-
ally isn’t a fun
as you’d have
thought) and
don’t make
any drastic
changes too
soon before
the day of the
actual test.
Such changes
are usually detrimental
to the
unsteady peace
you’ve made
with the test, as
new habits are
a bit like new
shoes; nice but
unnatural and
at times painful.
Bad habits can
be just as undermining
to your efforts
to avoid anx-
homeroom
HOW TO DEAL WITH
Need some ideas?
iety. Being late or caught unprepared are two
of the easiest of these habits to break. Leave
a little early if you’re a notorious tardy and
pre-pack the
pencils and
calculator
so that you
won’t be
scrounging
around
for someone
else’s
Here’s some words you
might need help with:
Tests are stressful,
but when it comes
down to it, you’re
the one in control.
spare. With a little effort, you’ll avoid the frantic
last minutes that could lead you back into the
clutches of test stress.
To mimic my mother: Have you eaten a good
breakfast? Studied the materials? Did you get
enough sleep? All of it is important, no matter
how much we resist believing it. With the right
combination of preparation and knowledge,
anything is doable. So don’t let distressing tests
get you down.
Contributed by Teddi, 17
Be ne fi cial |ben-uh-fi sh-uhl| (adj.) producing a favorable
(good) result; advantageous
Bo na fi de |boh-nuh fahyd| (adj.) true; done without deception
Daun ting |dônt-ing| (adj.) discouraging
De tri men tal |de-truh-men-tl| (adj.) causing detriment;
damaging; harmful.
Dis po si tion |dis-puh-zish-uhn| (n.) personality; natural tendency toward
an emotional mood
Drab |drab| (adj.) boring, dull; without color
Dras tic |dras-tik| (adj.) extremely severe or extensive
In clined |in-klahynd| (adj.) disposed towards something; to have a
preference for
No to ri ous |noh-tawr-ee-uhs|(adj.) widely and unfavorably known
Scroun ging|skrounj| (v.) to gather together by foraging;
seek out
Un der mine |uhn-der-mahyn| (v.) to injure or destroy by insidious
activity or imperceptible stages, sometimes tending toward a sudden
dramatic effect.
-mined, -min·ing
Wrath |rahth| (n.) anger Source: www.dictionary.com