Understanding and Preventing Test Anxiety

Understanding and Preventing Test Anxiety Free Online Research Papers Anxiety is a condition that plagues millions of Americans everyday, but how does it affect our children and students? Students suffer everyday from test anxiety which is a type of performance anxiety, a feeling someone might have in a situation were performance is important and there is pressure. Test anxiety is not the same as doing poorly on a test because of distraction or one’s mind being on something else. It is an actual condition. Like all forms of anxiety, test anxiety has many symptoms and signs. Physical signs of test anxiety include perspiration, sweaty palms, headache, upset stomach, rapid heart beat, difficulty breathing, and tense muscles. Students may experience any number of theses signs during a test or exam. All students suffer from some degree of test anxiety, however, when students experience signs like these there is a problem. (Hurley) As all anxiety comes from anticipation, test anxiety is no different; it comes from the anticipation of a test or exam. When the body is under stress it will release adrenaline to prepare it’s self. The adrenaline is what causes physical symptoms such as sweating, increased heart beat, and difficulty breathing. The stress comes from worrying about past performance, how others are doing, or the fear of failure. Focusing on such things fuels the anxiety and leaves no thoughts or mental space for thinking about the test questions. Test anxiety can also be caused by lack of preparation such as cramming, bad time management, not organizing test information, or poor study habits. (University of Buffalo) Test anxiety can become a vicious cycle; the more a student worries or focuses on the bad things the stronger the feeling of anxiety. The person will continue to feel worse and be filled with distracting thoughts and therefore not be able to perform well even though the student may have known the information necessary. There can be many effects of test anxiety such as nervousness or mental blocking University of Buffalo). Nervousness brings difficulty reading and understanding test questions, difficulty organizing thoughts, difficulty remembering key words or concepts for essay questions, and doing poorly on a test when the student knows the material. Mental blocking can be going blank on questions or remembering the correct answer right after the test ends. Sometimes students will study and know the material but because of the anxiety they suffer from they can not perform well, because of nervousness and mental blocking. There are many ways to reduce test anxiety being prepared or anticipating the on set of anxiety will really help as well as asking for help (Kids Health). The following is a collaborated list of preparation to reduce test anxiety. Approach the exam with confidence (Study Guides and Strategies) Learn material thoroughly so that you can still remember it under stress Self test as much as possible Avoid laziness and procrastination Use good time management Avoid cramming and the desire to do so Strive to stay relaxed and concentrate Avoid conversation or talking to those who are next to you or that will speak negatively. Have a healthy lifestyle: get enough sleep, eat well, exercise, and â€Å"down time† Sit in a well lit area of the room with the least distractions Be on time for the test Read test instructions and directions carefully Take slow deep breaths when the test is being passed out and when needed during testing Stay focused on only the exam Avoid day dreaming Make flash cards or outlines to study with Take good notes and review them after every class. The environment that the student studies in is very important to preparing and reducing test anxiety. The noise should be minimized and not distracting. Some students may need some noise while others may need silence. It may be a good idea to not answer the phone while studying to keep distraction done. Good lighting is a must. Seventy five watt bulbs are suggested to be best. It is better to keep the room cool rather then warm. Choose an area that has plenty of space and is not cramped. Your study time may also go smoother if the area is neat and tidy, so take a few minutes and clean up. Study at a desk with a straight back chair so you do not get to comfortable and want to sleep. Have everything you need to study with before you start so there are no distractions, this may include drinks and snacks. (University of Buffalo) Teachers also need to provide an environment that is appropriate for any kind of assessment that they are giving. It may also be necessary for students that suffer from test anxiety to be tested in a different room or be provided other resources and tools to be able to perform adequately. During the test a student can also use different strategies to reduce anxiety. Be sure to read the directions carefully and budget the test taking time. Change positions periodically throughout the test to help keep you relaxed. If you go blank or can not think of an answer skip the question and come back if there is time. When taking an essay test and you can not think of the answer on any of the questions just start writing and it may come to you. Most important do not panic even if other students are turning in their papers; you do not have to finish first. If you start to tense up or get anxious just relax and remember you are in control. Take slow deep breaths, stop and think about the next step and try to stay on task. Try to use positive reinforcement, look at what you have done. Expect some anxiety and use it to your benefit as a driving force. (Study Guides and Strategies) When someone comes aware that they may suffer from test anxiety that person should seek help. Tell your teacher and/or counselor so that special measures can be taken to assure that you can do your best. There are also local resources that may be able to help. Test anxiety is a real condition that needs to treated and addressed. Kubiszyn, Tom and Borich, Gary, Educational Testing and Measurement Classroom Application and Practice 8th Edition, pg. 50-51, 2007. Landsberger, Joe, Dealing with Test Anxiety, Study Guides and Strategies, www.studygs.net/tstprp8.htm, 4-12-07 University of Buffalo, Test Anxiety, http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/stresstestanxiety.shtml, 4-12-07 www.sdc.uwo.ca/learning/mcanx.html, Managing Test Anxiety, 4-12-07 Hurley, Ednalyn K., Understanding and Preventing Test Anxiety www.kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/school/test_anxiety.html, Test Anxiety, 4-12-07 Research Papers on Understanding and Preventing Test AnxietyStandardized TestingResearch Process Part OnePersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementThe Spring and AutumnOpen Architechture a white paperThree Concepts of PsychodynamicThe Project Managment Office SystemHip-Hop is Art

How Oprah Winfrey Overcame Failure

How Oprah Winfrey Overcame Failure Imagine being born in rural 1950s Mississippi to an impoverished teenage mother. Imagine suffering abuse from the age of 9, then running away from home at 13, only to become pregnant at 14 and lose your first child. Now imagine you’re Oprah. Sound implausible? It’s actually true. Oprah was able to turn the tables on this disastrous upbringing, but it took guts and grit. She moved to Tennessee to live with her father, and began to excel in school. She did well in speech and debate. She even won a state beauty pageant. All while working part-time reading news for a local radio station until she could earn a scholarship to college at Tennessee State.In college, this wounded girl became a powerhouse of a woman. She majored in communications, and landed her first post-graduation job at a Nashville station. That turned into a bigger gig with an ABC affiliate in Baltimore. Soon after that, she was hired as a primetime news co-anchor, an incredible feat considering she was a yo ung, black woman in an era where old, white men made and enforced all the rules.There was a publicity campaign before her debut. The network wanted to broaden their viewership. Suddenly, Oprah Winfrey was thrust into the spotlight with high expectations. She was set up for failure. When the show failed, she was blamed- and not her old, white, male co-host. She was demoted to a writing and reporting gig, but was a slow writer and too caring for the kind of hard-nosed reporting required. (On one notable occasion, she was so moved by the plight of a family who had lost their things in a fire, that she donated some of her blankets and supplies to them, drawing flack from her boss.)Even Oprah herself looks back on these years as a failure. But she did not give up. Instead, she took stock of the situation, realized that, while she loved television, she preferred human interest stories to hard news. And while she loved hosting, she had to have significant chemistry with a co-host to make t hat relationship worthwhile.Eventually, all of this soul-searching paid off. She took a job co-hosting a show called People are Talking with Richard Sher. To anyone else, this would have been considered a step down. But Oprah made lemonade. The show was successful enough to run for five years, after which Oprah was recruited to host a morning talk show in Chicago. That show became a household name. And Oprah became an international sensation.What Oprah had was a unique combination of empathy, determination, and the ability to keep moving forward when all else had fallen apart. Her ability to excel in business while not being business-oriented is a marvel. Moral of the story? Have passion, believe in your dreams, believe in yourself even when no one else does, and keep going when hope is lost. Don’t be afraid to fail.Oprah Winfrey: A Profile in Failure

The Legal Implication of Job Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Legal Implication of Job Analysis - Essay Example Task-oriented approach of job analysis states that the approach is concerned with the performance of the employees with regard to respective tasks assigned to them in order to measure their efficiency and accuracy for improvement (Siddique, 2004). Discuss the legal implication of job analysis The legal laws pertaining to employment in the United States are identified as title VII of the Civil Right Act, i.e. Equal Employment Opportunity Act (1972), Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) and American with Disabilities Act (1990). Civil Right Act states that the companies should frame its selection process in such a manner, so that there should not be any kind of cultural diversification and all the employees should enjoy equal rights and opportunities in a company. Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) reveals that the company should have a proper design and guidelines for their selection process so that every cultured individual can apply for the job available. American with Disabilities Act (1990) relates to the actuality that every company should reserve a certain number of vacancies or seats for the disabled individuals (Oregon State University, 2003). The case Wards Cove Packing Co. vs. Atonio, 490 U.S. 642 (1989), states that a few of the cannery workers belonging to the nonwhite community had filed a law suit in the District Court under Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964 against Wards Cove Packing Co for its ‘discriminatory hiring practices’. Furthermore, the court asked the company to â€Å"provide legitimate justification† for continuing the business process further. With regard to the referred case, it can be stated in relation to Johnson that the enterprise should not engage any form of favoritism in their recruiting process because such prejudices could lead to the collapse of the company (Scanlan, 2004). Discuss Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) and its impli cations on acceptable selection procedures According to the US legal law, Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) state certain principles which include the need for uniformity, purpose of guidelines and relation to prior guidelines. Furthermore, need for uniformity can be stated as the Federal government’s desire which is related to the unvarying principles considered in the selection procedure such as questions used in the tests and other selection criteria among others. The other principle, that is the purpose of the guidelines state that these principles have been formulated in order to serve every employer with the same principles. Moreover, the guidelines ensure that the principles are considered as a single set for assisting the employer, labour organisations and employment agencies along with certification boards to abide by the regulations laid down by the Federal government. Additionally, this principle helps to prohibit the practice of inequity i n the selection process such as race, religion, national origin and sex along with colour. Lastly, the aspect of relation to proper guidelines states that the guidelines of the selection procedure pertaining to the employees are based upon certain guiding principles (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999).

Intimate Partner Violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Intimate Partner Violence - Essay Example It occurs on a continuum, ranging from one hit that may or may not impact the victim to chronic, severe battering. Victims of domestic violence who are overwhelmingly women, are at high risk for mental problems (Intimate partner violence: Intervention in primary health settings by Carlson and McNutt, 1998). There are four main types of intimate partner violence (Intimate partner violence surveillance: uniform definitions and recommended data elements by Saltzman et al. 2002): Physical violence is the intentional use of physical force with the potential for causing death, disability, injury, or harm. Physical violence includes, but is not limited to, scratching; pushing; shoving; throwing; grabbing; biting; choking; shaking; slapping; punching; burning; use of a weapon; and use of restraints or one's body, size, or strength against another person. Sexual violence is divided into three categories: 1) use of physical force to compel a person to engage in a sexual act against his or her will, whether or not the act is completed; 2) attempted or completed sex act involving a person who is unable to understand the nature or condition of the act, to decline participation, or to communicate unwillingness to engage in the sexual act, e.g., because of illness, disability, or the influence of alcohol or other drugs, or because of intimidation or pressure; and 3) abusive sexual contact. Psychological and emotionalIntimate Partner Violence 2 emotional violence may involve trauma to the victim caused by acts, threats of acts, or other coercive tactics. Compared to White women, Latinas tend to be younger, to have lower socioeconomic backgrounds and lower educational levels, factors that are known to increase intimate partner violence. (Sociodemographic predictors and cultural barriers to help-seeking behavior by Latina and Anglo American battered women by West, Kantor and Jasinski, 1998).In the field of practice, intimate partner violence among Latino households had increased over the years. Krishnan etal. (1997) in Documenting domestic violence among ethnically diverse populations: Results from a preliminary study, noted that approximately 61% of Anglo Americans reported experiencing partner violence in the past compared with 36.5% of Latina women in the U.S. There is a need to address the specific requirements of the Latina situation.I would like to focus on the frequency and extent of IPV in terms of the ethnic and soci odemographic data. The socioeconomic data I will propose are the age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic factors (SES). An added data that I will use is the data on past physical abuse and present physical abuse. The theoretical framework that I will use is the Anderson and Umberson framework which characterizes gender as performance. They found that the men in their study "attempted to construct masculine identities through the practice of violence and the discourse about their violence that they provide" (GENDERING VIOLENCE: Masculinity and Power in Men's Accounts of Domestic Violence by Anderson and Umberson 2001; 359). They also contend that the subjective accounts provided by men about their viole

Waiting for Death in `A Rose for Emily` and `Old Ladies Home’ Essay Example for Free

Waiting for Death in `A Rose for Emily` and `Old Ladies Home’ Essay William Faulkner wrote, â€Å"A Rose for Emily† at a time when society was undergoing change. The South had lost the Civil War and the southern people were finding it hard to let go of the past. Emily is the symbolic representation of this resistance to change. She becomes numb emotionally simply carrying out the routine of life without any characteristic resistance while the people around her become onlookers. Similarly, Sylvia Plath’s poem â€Å"Old Ladies Home† relates the dehumanization of the inhabitants. The people in the Home have ceased to exist for the outside world. The women in the Home are existing like insects quiet and without character as the people around them move about, detached and cold. Analysis of the Theme and Symbolism In Faulkner’s short story, Emily, after her father’s death she became a recluse and stopped living. Her life became a part in history and it seemed she and the people around him simply waited for her death. She was described as, †¦a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye-sockets as imagine a lighthouse-keepers face ought to look (Kirszner, 58). Faulkner shows the concept of death and how death can become a release when life becomes status quo. The reader is told in great detail about the position of Emily and her father in the town and the manner in which their life has changed. In Plath’s poem we read about the ladies wearing black and being ‘sharded’ in it. The words used to describe these women are, â€Å"Sharded in black, like beetles, Frail as antique earthenwear One breath might shiver to bits†¦ Age wears the best black fabric Rust-red or green as lichens. † The decay of the fabric represents the decay of their life. The nurses call them ‘ghosts’ and the beds are said to resemble ‘coffins’. The nature of the Home and the change in their life from youthful to aged shows the contrast of life to death. The concept of death and decay is prevalent in the story by Faulkner as well for he describes the decaying house as an eyesore among eyesores (Kirszner, 55). The decay represents the decay of Emily’s family’s position in society. The decaying body of Homer found after Emily Greison’s death also represents how things can get corrupted when change is not accepted. Emily was so steeped in her life in the past that she could not function in the present. Her father’s death and the death of her fiance caused her to give up on life and start a slow wait for her own death. The words Faulkner used to describe Emily and her situation included the smell and people going to her slunk around while the actual reality of Emily’s life became a tableau for the people of the town shown through the words, â€Å"We had long thought of them as tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door (Kirszner, 57). † Both Plath and Faulkner used the symbols and imagery of decay to show the progress of death. As the story and poem progress, death becomes the ultimate goal. The words and imagery in both the texts shows the frailness of the women. Through a description of the house Faulkner showed the change in Emily’s life. Her house decayed from a mansion to one that became a representation of failure and death. The crumbling walls became a source of fascination for the people and Emily ceased to exist as a person to them, rather she became a representation of the past [Allen, 1984]. The townspeople did not try to reach out or help her, they just focused on her life in fascination. Plath too, created a picture of the old women as decaying objects rather than human beings. They are described as insects and their progression towards death becomes inevitable. The words, ‘The old women creep out here†¦Ã¢â‚¬  are used to describe them and the word ‘creep’ is similar to Faulkner’s use of ‘slink’ to show the dehumanization of Emily and the others view of her as a symbol rather than a human. We see Plath go on to write, ‘Needles knit in a bird-beaked Counterpoint to their voices: Sons, daughters, daughters and sons, Distant and cold as photos†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The relationship between the women and their relatives is similar to the one Emily had with the townspeople. There was no warmth or love between them and the only connection was one of the past. The women’s relatives came out of a sense of obligation and duty and the visits were like looking at old photographs with no feelings. Like Faulkner writes, â€Å"Thus she passed from generation to generation dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse (Faulkner, 5), Emily’s life stood still. Her relationship with the world at large became stagnant and there was nothing to associate her life with being alive. Similarly, Plath [2009] uses the words, Age wears the best black fabric, to show how the women have stopped living and are in a constant state of mourning. They cling to every morsel of life and their very fragility shows the fragile threads of life and death. Conclusion: As we have seen Plath and Faulkner both wrote about the decay of life and the approach of death. They focused on the slow decomposition of human life physically and emotionally and how people become a ghost of their old selves as death approaches. However, while conceptually the similarities in the two texts may seem extraordinary there is a basic difference between these two narrations. Faulkner, wrote more of the decay and destruction of life figuratively, and how through the resistance to change humans become corrupted in their life. He wrote more of the death of a way of life, creating Emily and her life as a symbol of societal change. Plath, on the other hand discussed death in the physical concept. She presented the decomposition of human life and the loss of individuality as the progress of old age becomes eminent. The ladies in the poem were waiting for their death and had become mere shells of their former body. This stark contrast between the two texts creates a broader theme which suggests that without change human life ceases to exist and with the decay of the human body, life is but a wait for death. References: Allen, Dennis W. Horror and Perverse Delight: Faulkners A Rose for Emily. Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4, Winter 1984, pp. 685-96. Plath, Sylvia Old Ladies Home accessed April 20, 2009 http://www. angelfire. com/tn/plath/home. html Kirszner, Laurie G. , and Stephen R. Mandell. A Rose for Emily. Fort Worth. Harcourt, 1997.

Prosopagnosia: Seeing the World through Fog-Colored Glasses :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Prosopagnosia: Seeing the World through Fog-Colored Glasses With impressive consistency, the visual system, along with each accompanying component that in sum total constitutes a person, develops without error. Patterns of input impinge on complex layers of cells, with the resulting neural interpretation allowing us to negotiate the spatial world around us such that we may avoid causing harm to ourselves or to others. Various devices and techniques have been devised to allow those who are not equipped with a similarly functioning visual system to escape natural selection's discerning grasp. However, various gradations of dysfunction exist between perfect and no vision, which complicate the life of the person suffering from these disorders no less. The disorder prosopagnosia, in particular, otherwise known as "face blindness," causes a crippling deficit in a person's ability to recognize faces (1, 2, 3, 6, 7). It is a somewhat ill understood and deceiving phenomenon. Those individuals suffering from prosopagnosia are able to see perfectly well , to the extent that their perception of visual stimuli is not impaired. However, when presented with a person's face, they are utterly unable to recall having seen that face or having interacted with the person attached to it. Some people would make the distinction between prosopagnosia and facial agnosia (4, 8), with the former applying only to familiar faces while the latter applies more generally to prevent the recognition of any faces. While this might suggest memory impairment as a possible cause, evidence for perceptual deficits has been consistent (4), thereby refuting the notion that these individuals are simply not able to remember people they have encountered. Specifically, the locus of damage that results in prosopagnosia appears to be the medial occipitotemporal cortex (4), though the disorder may be congenital or acquired (2). Lesions in this somewhat posterior and deeply embedded region of the brain, suggested by some researchers to be bilateral in the instance of this disorder, would be consistent with the presented deficits in perception. However there are certain elements of the research and the disorder which seem counterintuitive. For instance, that these "face blind" individuals only ci te difficulty in recognizing familiar faces suggests that the problem may be more than just perceptual. Furthermore, there is separate evidence suggesting that visual processing occurs on a unilateral level (4), and that stimuli are perceived contralaterally. This orientation does not preclude a bilateral lesioning being at the root of prosopagnosia, however it does offer some complicating factors.

Literacy Essay Essay

For as long as I can remember literature has always played an important role in my life. As a young child, I can remember how excited I’d be at story time each night before bed. My interest in literature carried on throughout my school years†¦ from kindergarten†¦ when I was placed in the red bird group, which was the group of strongest readers†¦. to high school†¦when I had the benefit of being taught by one of the best English teachers ever, Ms. Irena King. Now as an adult and professional, I am very appreciative of the literary foundation that was laid for me by my family and my teachers. I understand how important literacy is in everyday life. First, as a young child, literacy played a very important role in my life even before I could read. I was always fond of books of all kinds. Coloring books, magazines, and picture books†¦I loved them all. I remember each trip to the grocery store; I would always get a new â€Å"Little Golden Book†. I absolutely had to have the entire collection and would want them read to me each night before bed. My favorite of this collection was â€Å"The Gingerbread Man†. I would sit for hours and look at the pictures. My mother would often encourage me to keep an interest in books. She always kept a subscription of â€Å"Highlights Magazine† for me and I would watch the mail each day in hopes that a new issue had arrived. As I grew older, my love for books did not change, but the type of books I wanted did. I had the largest collection of â€Å"Sweet Valley High† books and was a faithful subscriber to â€Å"Fresh Magazine†. I think that these are some of my fondest memories from my childhood, and I am so appreciative of my family’s support of my passion for reading. Next, my interest for literature carried on from my early years to my school years. This was very evident when I started kindergarten. I vividly remember there were different groups within our kindergarten class.