Ot: I have never been so nervous in my life

[Perk]

Hello all
I haven't been posting much because I have actualy been doing my student teaching.  However next Saturday (june 12) I will be taking my licensing exam.  I can honestly say that I have never been so scared in my whole life.  I have heard  people in my classes asying how hard it was and crying about how they had to take it twice or even three times.  I, being the procrastinator that i am, decided to wait until this time to take the test (actually I as trying to take it two months ago but I didn't have the 200 dollars necessary to take it that day.)  So now I'm scurrying around trying to study and all I can think about is what if I fail. There are many things riding on this test and if I fail i'm SOL.  So any advice

Jason

[daveblackeye15]

Let me see now...well on the day of the test try eating a big healthy delicious breakfast, not that marshmellow ceral or McDonalds crap. I mean eggs,sasauge, hashbrowns, juice you know stuff that doesn't make itself in the microwave. And if your nervous try thinking of something funny and laugh about it. When somebody gets nervous blood flow to the brain decreases and that's what makes somebody not think clearly when they're nervous but if you laugh and get unervous then blood will flow to your brain and you'll think a lot clearer. And try and be well rested on the day you take the final. Trust me on all these I hope others can give you more advice and I hope you pass. Good luck Perk.

[raj]

Treat studying for the exam like a job.  Only do it for a certain number of hours a day (not more than eight), take at least one day a week off entirely.  And get some exercise everyday, even if it's just a long walk. That's what I did for the bar exam, and I passed

You are in control of how you approach the test.
And good luck

[ulthar]

raj wrote:

> Treat studying for the exam like a job.  Only do it for a
> certain number of hours a day (not more than eight), take at
> least one day a week off entirely.  


This is VERY, VERY good advice.  Don't try to 'cram;'  If you've completed your formal education and field training, you probably already know what you need to know.  Try to think of the study time as "review."

I used to tell my student this sort of thing all the time.  Sometimes, trying to put TOO MUCH time into something hurts you.

When studying for my Oral Exam in grad school, I took the opposite approach as a friend of mine. He tried to learn a BUNCH of minutia, and specific problem solutions.  He passed his exam, but he was a nervous wreck and did not enjoy it at all; he thought of it as one of the worst experiences of his life (except for the passing part).

OTOH, I tried to focus on the big picture.  I only took three weeks between scheduling my exam and taking it, and in that time, I read every book (on the subject) that I had, cover to cover.  True, I worked I few problems and went through the mechanics of some stuff, but generally took a much more laid back (but still serious) approach.  As a result, I actually enjoyed my exam, and had some fun while doing it.  I was extremely nervous going into it, of course, but once I got started, it was sorta fun.

[odinn7]

My wife was scared sh*tless when she was getting ready for her nursing exam. She had heard all different people talk about how hard it was and many of them had failed. I told her that she would do fine as she had gone to all the schooling and gotten good grades all along. I explained that being nervous about it wouldn't help at all but more than likely make things worse. Almost as if you are programming yourself to fail is the way I see it. She finished the test an hour early and passed with no problem at all. Turns out the people that were saying how hard it was either were stupid or just didn't comprehend what they were supposed to be learning. I believe that if you are familiar with the material and relax a little bit, you'll do fine. Don't listen to what everyone else is saying and has or has not done, believe in yourself, your knowledge, and your abilities and that will make a world of difference.

[Nathan Shumate]

I know this won't help at all, but wait until you're watching your child be born.  (And then one of the medical personnel on hand says, "Oh."  In that tone of voice that you really didn't want to hear.)  You'll wish you were doing something relaxing like taking an exam.

[Perk]

Nathan
If my child was being born right now I'd have a lot of other things to worry about like a sudden case of death due to strangulation by my parents and my girlfriends.

lol

Thanks everyone for the advice

[Perk]

Hello again

I am happy to say that I received my results in the mail today and I wound up passing the tests with flying colors.  Thanks to all who gave me ideas and advice.

[odinn7]

Congrats, we knew you could do it.

[raj]

Cool, and congrats.

[daveblackeye15]

Hell yeah! I forgot all about this ! Good job!



Yeah, I know that feeling. You did eat a good breakfast that morning, right? Did you think of something funny to get the blood flowin' in the brain?

[ED]

That is pretty stressful... You know, once I had a job interview and I was VERY nervous.   My buddy sent me an MP3 of a Frank Zappa song, it was silly enough and "hooky" enough to get  stuck in my head .   Whenever the nerves kicked in, a riff from that song would show up and distract me.  
I am an educator, I have found that in the case of these "big" exams, if you don't know it now cramming the night before will not save you.  You are better off having a nice dinner and a good night's sleep.  Go into the exam as relaxed as possible.  Also remember, most of your PE coaches managed to survive the exam, and you are definitely smarter than THEM!
Good luck.
-Ed
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