Counseling, Advising and Retention Services will hold testing workshops for anxious students on Dec. 6 and 7, just in time for finals week.

Counselor Diane Passero said the main causes for test anxiety are pressure, uncertainty, competition and lack of preparation.

“People experience anxiety in so many different ways,” Passero said. “People don’t even realize that it is a problem or that it is something they can fix and focus on.”

During workshops in October and November, students learned to start studying early, to get a good night’s sleep before test day, to drink lots of water before and during exams and to visualize their success.

“Spread [your studying] out over several days and weeks; don’t wait until the last minute,” Passero said. “You cannot get it in your long-term memory in a short period of time if you want to have access to the information” during a test.

Passero stressed that confidence and staying calm when going into a test are important to success.
Still, students said it’s hard to stay calm when their grades are on the line.

“[Testing] makes me not sleep at night,” Allison Rose, a freshman computer science major, said. “I think some people aren’t good test takers and it isn’t fair. Some people can do perfectly fine and others psych themselves out on a test, causing them to fail a class.”

Others said Passero’s tips are on point and very resourceful.

“I do believe [her advice] help[s] because it puts you in a good mind-set and if you don’t drink water and get good sleep you won’t feel well or be able to concentrate,” said Emmett Brown, a Slavic studies and foreign affairs major.

Finals week runs from Dec. 12 to Dec. 18 for 15-week classes.