John Crigler

Case Study
In an article from the Huffington Post written by Donna Gordon, she explains that haing
a writing exercise before a test can reliee students of test anxiety and may allow them to
get better scores than their less anxious classmates, according to a new study done by
Sian !" #eiloc$ %professor in psychology at the &niersity of Chicago'" (est anxiety is
belieed to be ery common in the classroom because of the &nited States and its
)increasingly test*obsessed culture"
+
, (he researchers in this study beliee that worrying
competes for computing power in the brain-s )wor$ing, or short*term memory, thus if
wor$ing memory is focused on worrying, it can-t help people recall all the information
their brain has stored in preparation for the test" .dditionally, worrying affects the
wor$ing memory-s ability to stay focused" (his idea started from the writing exercises
that people use to combat depression and it has found that students who are prone to test
anxiety hae improed their test grades by nearly one grade point"
I personally beliee that this method can help because when I ta$e a test that re/uires a
lot of memori0ation, specifically in math, I li$e to write down all the formulas that I can
remember first, before reading any /uestions" In this way I /uic$ly get down a lot of the
e/uations before I get distracted by a /uestion and forget eerything I 1ust studied2
because I am worried about soling it or flustered" (his happened a lot in my past and
through this method I beliee I ma$e tests easier for myself, my results are better, and I
stay more calm and relaxed while doing my test"
1
Gordon, Donna. Testing Anxiety: Researches Find Solution to Help Students Cope.
Hufngton Post. Retrieved July 20
th
,2014.
.side from this, I found a credible article from the Pasadena City College !ibrary written
by #ertram Cohler where he describes how stress is relieed through learning how to
respond to adersity through life" 3ore importantly, he beliees this is done effectiely
through understanding )the concept of the life story as an important means for
understanding continuity and change within our lies oer time, including means used to
ma$e sense of lied experiences, particularly adersity,
4
" He tal$s about how the life
story is a story that is continually reised oer time and with age, where you can loo$
bac$ at your history and ealuate it" .dditionally, he states that )some representaties
accounts of response to adersity are reiewed which are consistent with the life story
approach, focusing on means used in ma$ing sense and maintaining a life story that is
followable both to self and others
5
,
.ll in all, If I was 6atya I would see$ help in any form that I can get to help reliee
stress, and the answer could be professional help %counselor,etc"', howeer I hae neer
needed to see$ such serices and I do not personally $now if they wor$" I beliee that
6atya should prepare herself with plenty of time to study so that she feels confident about
her tests, this means using flashcards and constantly going oer things" .dditionally, this
method of writing your thoughts before the test and through learning how to control
adersity and adapt2 6atya would most li$ely reliee herself of stress pressures and
perform better on tests"
7or$s Cited
2
Cohler, Bertra. The Life Story and the study of Resilience and Response to
Adversity. !a"ren#e $rl%au &sso#iates, 'n#. Retrieved July 20
th
, 2014.
htt()**""".(asadena.edu*li%rary*reserves*t+,eeler*engl1#*Cohler!i+estory.(d+
-
'%id.
Cohler, B. (1991, January 1). The Life Story and the study of Resilience and Response to
Adversity.. . Retrieved July 20, 2014, from
http://www.pasadena.edu/library/reserves/tfkeeler/engl1c/CohlerLifestory.pdf
Liepmann, E. (2011, January 14). Testing Anxiety: Researchers Find Solution To Help
Students Cope. The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 21, 2014, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/testing-anxiety-
research_n_809221.html