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Shayna’s Suggestions: Dealing with Exam Anxiety

Some students get very nervous during tests. You may study hard and know all the information, but you get so anxious during the test that you forget what you studied. After this happens to you a few times, remembering the last test may make you even more anxious about the next one! Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help.

Be well-prepared.

• For regular (content) exams, start studying early. This means several days early. Even better, study each day’s class material every evening, and it won’t take you so long for the exam!
• Get a good night’s sleep. If you are tired during the exam, it will be harder to concentrate, and this can make you anxious.
• Get up a little early on the morning of the test. Rushing around in the morning will not help you stay calm. If you sometimes oversleep, set two alarms or have a family member or roommate check on you.
• Eat breakfast. This will also help you concentrate. (Protein and whole grains are better than sugar!)
• Before you leave your home, check your bag. Do you have everything you need? (Pencils and pens, eraser, homework, water, etc.)

Teach yourself to relax before the test.

• Try deep breathing. Sit somewhere comfortably, close your eyes, and breathe in slowly through your nose. Breathe deep. Hold it and count to three, then breathe out slowly through your mouth. Do five deep breaths (in and out) like this. If you still feel anxious, do some more.
• Visualize calm. While you are still, with your eyes closed, picture yourself during the test. You are NOT getting upset and overwhelmed. You are relaxed. You are taking one question at a time. You are reading everything carefully and calmly remembering the things you learned.
• Listen to some music or watch a funny video to help take your mind off of the test.
• Write your feelings. If you have time, take five or ten minutes before the test, go somewhere quiet, and write about how you feel. You may be anxious when you start writing. Keep writing (if possible) until you feel calmer and more positive.
• If you have a small object that can symbolize peace and confidence, bring it and keep it in your pocket. You can hold it in your hand or put it on your desk during the test. When you look at it or feel it, it will remind you to feel calm. (It could be a small stone, bracelet, toy, religious object or even a coin or photo of someone you love.)

Stay calm and confident during the test.

• If you find yourself getting anxious, it’s okay. Politely say hello to your fear, then picture yourself folding it up and putting it into a box and closing the box.
• Take some more deep breaths if you need to.
• At the beginning, skim the test. Find the sections or questions you can do easily and finish those first. Then go to the harder sections or questions.
• Only do one thing at a time. Then go to the next thing. If you are thinking about the whole test for the whole time, you will get overwhelmed.
• Pay attention to the clock. If one question is taking you a very long time, you may want to leave it and finish the other questions.

Evaluate yourself after the test.

• Write down any problems you had.
• Why do you think you had the problems?
• What can you do better next time?

Shayna’s Suggestions for Self-Study (all levels)

Many students come to me and ask for advice about how to improve their English faster. Sometimes they ask for extra work. Doing more homework might help a student understand some individual things a little bit better. However, to improve the most important overall skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), I have some different suggestions. These are ways you can add to what you learned in class, and practice more.

Summary:

• Read something you enjoy every day for a few minutes.
• Write in a journal every day for a few minutes.
• Watch a movie in English every week.
• Listen to one or two radio stories in English every week, and write about what you heard.
• Get together with friends and have conversations in English.

Reading

• Read! Read as much as you can. Read for pleasure.
• Choose something you enjoy! It should be a subject you are interested in. It should not be too difficult. (It’s okay if it’s a little difficult, but it shouldn’t be stressful.)
• Your reading material could be a magazine, some news articles, a short story, a novel, a nonfiction book or a children’s book. It could be about sports, science, music, animals, art, video games, or anything you like!
• Read for 10-15 minutes a day, or 30 minutes three times a week. Choose a time when you are relaxed. It should not be your homework assignment, unless you really enjoy the homework!
• As much as possible don’t use a dictionary. Dictionaries are good for class, homework and writing, but when you are just practicing reading for pleasure, using the dictionary will slow you down. (See Vocabulary below.)

Vocabulary

• Read! Read as much as you can.
• Reading a lot will help your vocabulary more than making lists of words and trying to memorize them. When you read, you see new words in context. When you see the same word in context several times, you will start to understand it and how it is used.
• As above, try not to use a dictionary too much. If you see an unknown word many times, and you think it’s important, write it down. Then when you finish reading, look up the word. Then read the passage again and see if you understand it better.

Writing

• Read! Read as much as you can. (Really! The more you read, the more familiar you will be with vocabulary, sentence structure, and the “feel” of the language. This helps your writing!)
• Keep a special notebook and write something in it every day. Write for yourself, not for homework. Write for 5 minutes.
• Your daily writing could be a journal. Just write down (in English!) the things that happened to you that day. Or write down an interesting experience or a thought you had.
• Or your daily writing could be an email to a friend or family member (in English!)
• Don’t write in your language and then translate into English!
• Don’t worry about your grammar or spelling. This is just for you.
• Your goal is just to get more comfortable thinking in English and writing down your thoughts.

Listening

• Watch one or two movies each week in English. Use subtitles if you want. Eventually, try to choose movies where there is a lot of speaking. Often, action movies have less speaking. Romantic comedies and dramas have more speaking and the words are important to understand the story. Children’s movies are great! And often their language is simpler.
• Instead of a movie, watch a documentary. Documentaries often have clear, easy-to-understand narration (speaking) and they have a lot of images to show you what the narration is about.
• Go to a website with radio stories or podcasts. Every week, choose a story that looks interesting.
  1. Listen to the story once.
  2. After that, if there is a transcript or article, read the article.
  3. Listen to the story again. Did you understand it better the second time?
  4. Write down one or two sentences (or a paragraph!) telling the main ideas of the article. It can be informal. You can pretend you are telling a friend about what you heard.
  5. Instead of writing about the story, you could actually tell a friend about the story.
  6. A day or two later, listen to the story again. Was it even easier this time?
  7. If you have time, you can do this two times a week.

Good websites for listening material about many topics:

• National Public Radio (NPR – US English) http://www.npr.org/
• BBC Radio (UK English) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/#categories
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS – US English) http://www.pbs.org/ – education and entertainment videos

Speaking

• Listen as much as you can! This helps with your vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation and rhythm in speaking.
• Try to find situations where you can have fun, relaxed conversations in English. When you speak in class, you may be nervous. But if you are speaking to friends, it’s easier to practice.
• You could also video chat with an English-speaking friend!

 

 

Intermediate: Lab 12 (home culture presentation)

For this lab, think about your country and your culture. Is there something you would especially like to teach us about your country? It should be ONE THING about your culture: something about clothing, traditions, holidays, food, music, art, or customs.

On Thursday (Nov 29), please send Shayna an email.

• In the subject of the email, write …
  • your name
  • Culture Topic
• Inside the email, write
  • the title of your presentation
  • one paragraph about what you will talk about
  • Be as thorough as you can so I will know what you are going to say.

Next Monday (Dec 3), you will do a presentation about your topic.

• You may use a Powerpoint or not.
• You should show us something to illustrate your topic: photos, clothing, food, objects or music.
• If you are talking about something you love, it will help you give an interesting speech!

Pre-University: Lab 12 (Listening – Masai)

For this week’s lab, you should listen to this NPR story and answer the questions in the handout. This is good practice for your final listening exam.

Lesson on Living Well from the Masai

Pre-University: Listening (Animal Odd Couples)

This is the program to watch for your Project Day listening exercise:

Animal Odd Couples 

If you are interested in watching more programs like this, explore PBS.org. There are many videos about history, nature, science, current events, music and culture.

Intermediate: Listening (This I Believe)

In class, we did a listening activity which you might like to practice some more at home. Here is the link:

This I Believe: “Do Talk to Strangers”

Intermediate: Lab 10 (topic research)

This week you will be doing research about an unusual animal. Because this is our first research assignment, I will help you by finding some reliable websites on your topics. You should use these websites (or other sources) to find good information on your topic.

These are the animals the class is researching:

• okapi
• brush-tailed possum
• platypus
• bush dog
• armadillo
• pygmy marmoset
• narwhal
• naked mole-rat

Websites for information

• Ultimate Ungulate – okapi
• San Diego Zoo: Mammals – armadillo, pygmy marmoset, okapi, naked mole-rat
• Animal Diversity Web  – search for any animal, including narwhal 
• Bristol Zoo Gardens: Mammals – naked mole-rat, okapi
• Save America’s Forests – bush dog 
• New South Wales Environment & Heritage: Native animals – brush tailed possum, platypus

 

 

Pre-University: Lab 9 (folk objects and popular culture)

For this lab, following instructions is as important as answering the questions. Shayna will not explain this lab to you in class. You must read it carefully by yourself. If you don’t understand something, you may ask specific questions.

1. Think about what we have discussed in class about folk objects.

• What does folk mean?
• What is an object?
• What is popular culture?

2. Do you see any folk objects around you every day? What objects are common, not mass-produced (made in a factory), and show something about the local culture?

Maybe you see some objects that are mass-produced, but they are popular in the local area and express something that people in this culture value.

3. Take a photograph of one of these objects.

4. Write a description of the object. Include name, size, shape, color, material, age and purpose.

Now explain why you think it is a folk object. Is it common with regular people? What does it say about the values of the culture? (This could be American culture, Southern culture, Arkansas culture or Little Rock culture.)

5. Type your answers to questions #1 and #4 in IELP format and save it as a Word document (.doc or .docx).

6. Attach the Word document and your photo (#3) to an email and send it to Shayna. This lab will be late after 10a.m. Friday, November 9.

 

Intermediate: Lab 9 (family & neighborhood issues)

Watch the following short videos and answer the questions about what  you see and hear.

Video 1: The Cosby Show – Babysitting (“The Juicer”)

“Babysitting” – minding or taking care of a child or other person for a short time. A babysitter is responsible while the parents are gone.

The Huxtable Family:

• Vanessa – older sister
• Rudy – younger sister
• Peter – Rudy’s friend
• Cliff – father
• Clair – mother

1. Polite request: Vanessa is babysitting her sister and her sister’s friend. Mother (Clair) asked her to do this. Write what Clair might have said to make the request. Use “Would you mind….?” (p 39 in your textbook)

“Vanessa, I have to go out. ______________________________________________________”

2. Vanessa and Rudy both do some things that are wrong. What family rules or guidelines did they break? (Example: In class, a student who does not bring a pen or pencil has broken the class guideline “Always bring a pen or pencil to class.”)

Vanessa:
Rudy:

3. What was Vanessa’s excuse for not watching Rudy and Peter? (p 40 in your textbook)

 

Video 2: The Cosby Show – “Where did this cake come from?”

4. Cliff (the father) gives Olivia (the little girl) some cake. Then he acts guilty. He tries to “cover up” his action. How does he do this?

5. Clair (the mother) comes in. She knows something is wrong. Write her reaction. Circle the word she stresses.

Olivia: “He did it!”

Clair: “______________________________________________________”

6. Imagine what happened before this scene. What did Clair probably tell Cliff about the cake?
Video 3: The Cosby Show – Clean Your Plate

7. Rudy is not following a family rule. What is the rule?
Video 4: Local news – Neighborhood Feud

8. What is the problem in this neighborhood?

9. One neighbor is being stubborn. How?

10. Imagine that you live in this neighborhood. What will you do to help solve the problem?