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

[curtis osterhoudt <flutzpah@yahoo.com>]

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.


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