by Gail Marsh

Created on: December 12, 2008

Maybe I have a learning disability. That is what I told myself as I sat in an undergrad course during a final exam for Business Law II. I couldn't share the feeling and get past the thought of failing the course because all I had worked toward the entire semester was staying alert, absorbing the intense information, and passing just to not return to the subject. During this time my focus was on an intense feeling of uneasiness, light headed, heart pounding, and cold sweats. I was indeed experiencing test anxiety.

Today I hold a GPA of 3.7 in a second graduate program, soon to graduate and move on to a PhD program. I have many encounters of psyching myself out during the deliverance of a test, however this anxiety is not limited to tests, this also occurs during speaking publically.

The first time I recall the uncontrollable urge of panic was during a writing proficiency exam as a requirement for my first two higher education associate degrees. I had to take the test twice. Which seemed obscured considering I was a straight A student. I took a course on getting passed test anxiety which included stretching before the test, learning the proper times to study, and knowing that there is no luck with the test, only skill. Today I still hold the same thought and a prayer:

Now I lay me down to study, I pray the lord I don't go nutty, if I die before I wake...that's one less test I have to take.

This little poem continues on. I hold this thought tight when I am going to test. It was given to me during my first year of college. At the time there was a tremendous amount of cases of suicide with college students. The initiative was getting the word out that finals are in fact only tests that can be taken again. Tests are not lifelines, they will not keep you from all worldly harm, and the only big deal about taking one again is only as big as you make it.

I learned some tricks, after realizing I do not have a learning disability, do not need any development drugs prescribed, and have the opportunity to try again if at first I don't succeed. Determination has been my biggest strength in being academically successful.

Methods in understanding information while learning it helps based on an individual's best learning practices. I learn at a higher level when I can see examples, listen to a lecture, participate in labs, and perform the activity on my own. Then I have seen, heard, felt, and practiced the activity and information. I have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes,

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