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Pen down negative thoughts to excel in exams
by Priyanka - January 14, 2011 - comments
When the test ended, researchers noted that students who were made to sit quietly performed 12 percent worst on their second test as compared to first one. Also, those who wrote about their feelings improved their grades by 5 percent.
Many students suffer from pre-test blues, which in turn sometimes severely affects grades. According to a new study, these anxiety-blues can be easily dealt with. All one needs to do is to spend 10 minutes writing down his/her fears/worries/negative thoughts related to exams.
Study researchers added that the students who penned down their negative thoughts about the test before its started did better than those who either wrote about something else or did nothing at all.
While commenting on the study findings, lead researcher Professor Sian Beilock (who conducted the research with a graduate student Gerardo Ramirez) from the University of Chicago, stated, “People are in this stressful situation and they worry about it and the consequences.
“These worries are taking up resources that should be dedicated to the task. Putting pen to paper appears to offload these worries."
Research findings
To arrive at study findings, researchers carried out series of experiments, in which they tested whether the idea of writing down one’s worst fears before an important test worked or not.
For this, researchers recruited 20 college students, who were made to take two math tests. In the first test, students were asked to perform as best as they can.
But in second test, researchers added some pressure and students were told that whoever scored well will be awarded monetary reward and also that they were being monitored.
Medical community has welcomed the new study findings, but there are some who believe that penning down fears just before the exam might not be such a good idea.
Half of the students were then asked to pen down their feelings about the test, while the other half was made to sit quietly till the test began.
When the test ended, researchers noted that students who were made to sit quietly performed 12 percent worst on their second test as compared to first one. Also, those who wrote about their feelings improved their grades by 5 percent.
Researchers carried two more such experiment and concluded that students who write about their fears before beginning of a test do better than those who do not.
Pitfalls of writing down anxiety before test
Medical community has welcomed the new study findings, but there are some who believe that penning down fears just before the exam might not be such a good idea.
"It's possible someone might start thinking about those negative thoughts over and over, so that might be another issue to be examined,” said Akira Miyake, a psychologist not involved in the aforementioned study, from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The study findings appeared online on Thursday in the journal ‘Science.’