The month is now May. For Pleasant Valley High School students, that means a lot of fun things such as prom or the fair. But it also means more stressful things, like all the tests and extracurricular meetings. Tests easily pile on top of each other, especially for upperclassmen. State and AP tests often feel like a dark shadow looming throughout the whole second semester, waiting to pounce on innocents. To try to avoid such stress, the local community was asked about their ways to ensure success. One of the school councilors, Mr. Valdez, gave some important feedback on the matter.
“Managing stress during testing season and test taking doesn’t always require complicated solutions“ says Mr. Valdez. “Everyone is different so comparing your study habits to others often adds unwanted stress,” he adds that using positive self-talk and breathing steadily can calm one down. What this shows is the uniqueness of studying per individual. Make sure to not stress out about your studying compared to another, and make sure to balance life and schoolwork. Everyone deserves a break, so be sure to take it; just eventually come back to what was being done. Psychology teacher, Ms. Allen, adds to this by recommending to “start out with the basics, such as vocab or whatever the basic skills are, and then continue to work your way up,” such as with practice tests or making your own test questions. Another thing she recommends is when taking a practice test of some sort beforehand, note the answers that are incorrect, that way you can use the process of elimination in the future.
Of course, this relies on planning beforehand to work towards. Sometimes, that’s not always there. When in a rush, and when needing to make sure tests are passed, a local junior gives some advice. Abby Powers says that she just tries to “stay calm and review with friends beforehand”. While it’s hard to stay calm during a stressful night before a test, taking care of personal health can alleviate some stress. Don’t stay up too late, get a good sleep, eat a healthy breakfast, and know that you can ask friends for help.
But, with the start of AP testing week, staying calm can be difficult. Multiple tests are often in the same week, especially seen with AP scheduling, sometimes lasting up to 4 hours per test. To try and not unnecessarily stress out for tests, doing comforting activities in gradual breaks may help for some. For example, listening to unit reviews while doing hobbies might help for some. What matters is what works for the individual, and that might be something to discover now. However one’s brain works, roll with it, everyone is an individual.
In short, tests can often feel unpredictable. They’re difficult to do in the moment and often pose a lot of stress to students. When available, try not to study the night before. Prepare that whole unit long by spending a bit of time per day working on it, nothing much. And when the time of the test comes, while study your trouble subjects, be realistic. Nobody should pull an all-nighter, especially at the cost to one’s health. While practice doesn’t make perfect, it certainly does make tests a lot less stressful. And when tests are taken with plenty of practice, there’s the pleasure of knowing that there is nothing to be afraid of.
