Transcript for How to prepare for an exam

I'm Stacy Testia for Howdini.com

Do you know the most effective ways to study for an test?

Do you have to cram, or is it better to have a system?

Here to help students and parents of students everywhere

Dr Cynthia Green, psychologist and author of Total Memory Workout.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Now what are some of the reasons that we have so much trouble

remembering things for tests even after we studied?

One of the things that happens is that we just simply get nervous.

Secondly, we don't often give ourselves enough time to prepare for tests.

Now what are some of the things we can do to reduce anxiety

during testing?

Well, one of the things is to just pratice some, what I call emergency techniques to reduce our anxiety.

Please share!

Some things like training yourself to take deep breaths,

to count backwards from twenty,

or even to have a visualization where you can, you know, pratice beforehand

imagining something that makes you feel peaceful and calm

so that you can have that image, something that you find relaxing.

And you can go to that place to help yourself calm down.

So, what are some of the steps that people can do

if they're, you know, in the test situation, they realize that they're having one of these meltdowns and anxiety attacks

or not having that recall, what do you suggest people do in that moment?

If you are faced, for exemple, with a multiple-choice question and you're not really sure how to answer it;

then to really work your way around the question,

to figure out what you do remember about the question, to try to eliminate

alternatives, so that you can help narrow your focus,

try to remind yourself of what the main point is around the question

and to organize the information in that way to work your way back to the answer.

Are there specific things that parents can do to help their children when it comes to getting prepared for tests?

One of the best things I think we can do as parents

to help our kids is to teach them good test-taking habits:

learning how to take a test is also learning how to be prepared

in terms of getting adequat sleep,

eating well, dealing with stress effectively

and finally organizing ahead of time.

So, for exemple, one of the things I've used with my kids throughout their life

is to tell them when they know they have a test

to build into their schedule when, you know, they know that test is coming up,

about fifteen minutes a night, every night, to work on preparing for that test

and to work with the study guide also for that test

so they're breaking their study guide down and learning a piece of it every night

and then using a last couple of nights before the test to rehearse all the information.

When I think back to college and high school, I remember craming

for those exams. Craming that information, I think I actually thought, you know, if it's right up there on top,

newly in my brain, it would be right there.

Talk to us about craming.

The problem with craming is that we can overwhelm our brains

that, sometimes, it's just too much information

to really effectively keep track of.

What I would suggest if someone really has to cram

is that they try to distill down their craming to what they really gonna need to know for that test

so that they at least place some limits on what they're trying to retain.

Great advice, Dr Cynthia Green, as psychologist and author of Total Memory Workout,

thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

I'm Stacy Testia for Howdini.com.