Many of my clients tell me immediately that what they need, more than anything in
the world, is to be calm on the big day.
So many people tell me that they’ve always had trouble taking tests, all through
school, and now, when the stakes are so much higher, they are petrified that they
will “lose it” on one of the most important days of their life. They
can imagine their nervousness and anxiety getting so bad on the morning of the test
that they become paralyzed, “go blank,” and find themselves unable to
remember any of what they studied! Some clients panic over the possibility that
the very first questions will zero in on just those topics where they are the weakest—and
if that happens they’ll be knocked off balance, and won't be able to recover.
Often there is a fear of having a full “meltdown” and not being able
to complete the exam.
Other clients tell me that they don't really get “test jitters” on the
day of the test—but they need help right now, with getting focused and studying.
It's a few weeks, or a month or two before the test, and they're having a hard time
getting going, they're not sticking to a study schedule, they‘re stalling,
procrastinating, avoiding, evading, and finding every excuse in the world not to
study.
Some students are taking the test after having failed it last time, and it is psychologically/emotionally
difficult to jump back into test preparation all over again.
Some test candidates are trying to study but they find themselves easily distracted—by
the phone, computer, television, pets, children, by just about anything!
Others are not so bothered by external distractions, but they are plagued by internal
distractions: too much chatter or “internal dialogue” going on in their
minds when they‘re trying to concentrate. They really need to quiet down their
mind so that every hour spent studying really pays off! They need a deeper level
of mental focus so that they will really retain the information they are studying
and then be able to recall that information when the pressure is on.
These are the specific areas that the Test Anxiety Guru program addresses.