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Re: [Phys-l] STUDY SUGGESTS NO CHILD LAW MAY BE DUMBING DOWNSTUDENTS



Hi all-
Curt, I've got news for you. Test anxiety has nothing to do with academic tests, per se. as I am finding out in my post-sixty years. Here's what I've learned aoout me:
I've been speaking in public ever since about 4th grade, when my teachers freed me from all reading assignments, but required me to give book reports to the class on each book that I finished. First year high school I was on the debate team, and by junior year I was appearing on stage. Similarly in college.
Meanwhile, I was an unenthusiastic piano students, but regularly required to play at rehearsals.
By my sixties I became deeply involved in community theater and have appeared in a number of plays at the Theatre of Western Springs which regularly plays to an audience of about 800 in the western suburbs of Chicago..
Bout 10 years ago, I started taking singing lessons, and my teacher includes me in her rehearsals - about 3 per year. At the first rehearsal, I could barely sing because my kness were shaking so hard. My teacher and I figured out that the shaking -which has never totally gone away - is greatly accentuated if I have the least uncertainty about my mastery of the words and music. The shaking has hit me during auditions, especially if I have the least discomfort with the auditioning environment.
My first voice teacher - who sings on stage professionally, warned me about the shaking knees syndrome, it apparently affect many - ifnot al -performers.
So test anxiety is not an excuse for anything. I won't say, "get over it", you won't, but you might as well learn to enjoy it because it probably ain't gonna go away.
Regards,
Jack


On Tue, 4 Nov 2008, curtis osterhoudt wrote:

I'm very much of the "get over it!" school, too, but ... I'm also not.

I *never* had test anxiety until about my sophomore year of college, in a differential equations class. I loved that class, loved the subject, loved the professor, knew the material extremely well, and so on. There should have been no reason for me to be anxious. Yet I did get extremely anxious before and during the test, and the mere fact that I was anxious launched into a nasty feedback loop. (I did fine on the test, but not without a struggle.)
Since then, I've had mild anxiety during tests (perhaps, if such things can be quantified, at the same level as most people). I wish I knew what changed, and how I could stop it. It might be somewhat of a "what if I get nervous?" thing, which leads to nervousness itself. Before that diffeq test, I'd never experienced that ridiculous, unreasonable nerviness.

My girlfriend has quite bad test anxiety, and I know people who have it even worse than she. They're all bright, competent, normally calm people, with firm understandings of the subject matters. They often do extremely well under what should be *more* stressful situations (job interviews, medical emergencies, strandings due to getting lost during hikes or car troubles), and so on -- those "real life" situations where one can be tested.

I hate to be an apologist (and normally am extremely skeptical of psychologists' woo) but having experienced a mild testing anxiety myself, and having witnessed my girlfriend's struggles, I believe there is some credence to the phenomenon.

/************************************
Down with categorical imperative!
flutzpah@yahoo.com
************************************/




________________________________
From: Rick Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>
To: Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 7:49:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] STUDY SUGGESTS NO CHILD LAW MAY BE DUMBING DOWNSTUDENTS

I don't see the value of shielding students from high stakes testing--they
will encounter it sooner or later driving test, SAT, GRE, college exams,
job interviews, performance evaluations, etc. There can always be a
mechanism for students who have performed very well in classes but tested
very poorly to be retested, but testing is part of life. Get over it!

Rick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mariam Dittmann" <mariam.dittmann@bainbridge.edu>

He had extreme test anxiety. We had high stakes testing starting at
late elementary. He was always convinced that he wouldn't be allowed to
move on. We once spent a week getting him over a skills testing session
(ITBS) that he was sure was going to keep him out of the next grade.
This was simply because he had heard that a high stakes test was being
developed and so he decided that this must have been it. He also
worried himself sick about the graduation test. I am not a fan of high
stakes testing for this reason. When we expressed concern about this to
the county during the development of high stakes testing for our
county/state, we were told that students like my son were in the
minority and so weren't considered a problem. Generally, I have found
that the students who need to worry about whether they will pass don't
worry enough for the most part while the ones who do worry shouldn't.



_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l




_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


--
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley