How To Stay Calm and Focused During a Test

we expect that in every situation there are going to be a little pregame jitters and going to maybe
feel a little excitement maybe even a little nervousness
your hands might be sweating when you get in there
you might be thinking
I wonder what I am going to do after school
or you might be thinking I hope I do really well on this test
whatever your thinking
it's always normal
to just feel how you feel
you know it's totally expected that before a person goes into a big game
they are going to feel a little nervous than when the game starts
then those jitters tend to go away
and then you are just doing the thing okay
so that's what we're going to do were going to expect first of all that it if there jitters
there jitters
one thing you can do about that i'll tell you right now
you can
stop
whatever you are doing
and just look around you a little bit
you can just look right even if you want to do right now
look around and see what's see what's around
are there other
of your friends around
teachers probably up there
you're seeing a video of me talking to you
what is around
take a second just check that out
you can do that during the test you know as long as you are not looking at somebody else's test
so look around take a little break when you need it
if you are
a little like activated if your thinking oh man I don't know what to do
and I stop
i look around for a second
when I do I see and I see out there I listen a little bit
an easier breath comes and then I start again
see it's not all one long thing
all of that test is broken down into little pieces there's one question
there's one paragraph
there's one word that there's one sentence
it's all just small moments
and we could take a break in the midst of it
that's one of your keys to being less nervous and continuing on to
finish the whole thing
for every game that you play
for every goal that you want to score
everybody practices a little bit here is something you can do at home to practice
this might sound a little funny it might sound a little weird but i'd try it and then
see what works
so I take a pencil at home
and I get a piece of paper
and I draw circles on it
maybe ten circles
and then I say
to myself go
and then I fill in the first circle and then as soon as I finished filling that circle I say
yeah I did it
and then they go to the next circle
I fill that in and I go yah I did it
you know what by the time you finish ten of those
you will have told yourself ten times
yeah I did it and you did
it's a way of really supporting yourself you can do that every time in the test if you want
every time the film a circle
yeah it did it
and by the time you get through
you will finished and you will have done it
I have been asked to say a little bit about
how to feel powerful in this kind of situation
so let's take the worst-case scenario
let's take the case of like getting into
the test
and being in your underwear
well no that's that's a really may be that's too bad let's think of a different a scenario let's
think of a scenario we go in there
and it's like oh
what's the answer
I don't know what's going on
I don't know what the answer is
I am going to just stop
and then when I stop I think
boy what i'd really like right now is too
have a piece of chewing gum
and so I imagine myself just for a moment
having a piece of chewing gum
it's pretty good grape my favorite kind
what I'm doing
is I am just imagining something different I am taking another break
so one of the things that you can do
to feel powerful
is to let yourself feel
not powerful at first
I have all these thoughts I have all of these ideas about how it's not gonna work
I do that
and then I say what do I want to do now
what I want to do now and it could be anything it could be like go for a walk and I just
in my mind
go for a second down
the stairs
of the Front of the school
or I say umm
what I wanted to know is that I want to go to the lunchroom
well maybe not the lunchroom
but in any case then I might want to go to my locker and I might want to go out to the soccer field
and for just a second if I'm feeling not powerful
and let myself freak out and then I go
where would I rather be
and then I go in my mind just for a second
to where that is
now what that does
for your body
is really different it actually changes the chemistry in the brain the chemistry in the body
and it gives you that shift
that can change everything in the moment and then
coming back
to my goal
i am going to fill out more of these bubbles and I am going to be more successful
and I am going to win at finishing this test
there's a lot of emphasis put on these tests
but you know what it's only a short amount of time it's only a small amount of time in
the day that you can spend on this
so when you get done with the thing
you've said all those times I've done it
I did it
I was successful
and then when it's done as soon as you walk out of the room
I would just forget completely about it and just go about your day you are free after that
and just
you can't just let it go at that point
and just enjoy your whatever there is to enjoy you're going to be going home you are going to be playing
your going to be seeing your friends
and I would
even try to forget
that another test may come up the next day
and when you walk in
then you are fresh
it is like it is starting over
cause really
every moment is another moment start over right
there's there's no present
like this present
and your job in a way
is just to let things happen in the moment right
so when the test comes you there for that when it's done it's done
and you're on to the next thing right
the reason that's so important is
because this is a small small part of your life right
we believe in you as a person
in who your dreams are and what your dreams are
and your
steps for taking that
are many many steps
so I hope you enjoy each of them
let go of the ones that haven't worked for you
and now just embrace the next one when you have the possibility
of competing winning
and being the person you are