Once a beautiful princess sat by an ornate pool in her palace grounds. As she peered down, admiring her beautiful reflection in the surface of the clear pool, her priceless crown suddenly slipped from her head and into the waters with a splash.
She screamed for her attendants to retrieve her precious crown and they leapt into the waters, frantically searching, scrabbling around, a flurry of activity. But all this effort merely brought up mud and debris from the bottom of the pool, making it even harder to find the missing crown.
Eventually, a sage arrived on the scene. He began to tell such a riveting tale of times gone past that, despite themselves, all the princess’s aides stopped searching and relaxed. Even the princess momentarily forgot about the missing crown and listened to the man’s sweet words. By the time he’d finished telling his tale, not only had everyone calmed down, but the mud from the pool had settled and the waters were again clear.
At that point, the sage reached down into the water and retrieved the princess’s crown, which could now clearly be seen.
Test nerves ‘muddy the water’ of the mind just when it needs clarity.
The more emotional we become, the more ‘stupid’ we become. Fear stops us thinking because it wants us to move–to run or to fight. On the contrary, too much thinking in a real emergency might slow down action too! The trouble is that sitting and taking a test isn’t actually a life or death situation.
Vividly imagining yourself doing something calmly and confidently before you do it enormously increases the likelihood of you being calm and confident in the situation when it happens for real.
First, grade the anxiety; perhaps 10 being the most nervous and 1 being the most relaxed. You really don’t want to be at 1 during your test.
Ask yourself: What number of nervousness am I on at the moment?
It might be, say, a 7 — a bit too high for a test. Slow your breathing and focus on breathing out a little longer than you breathe in, you’ll notice your body starting to relax; The body always relaxes when you extend your out-breath.
Now ‘watch’ in your mind as that 7 (or whatever the starting number) starts to drift down to a 6, then a 5, then a 4, and down to a 3, then 2.
Proper preparation is key to calming test nerves, because leaving it until the day of the test is too late.