For everyone, probably the wisest way to be calm is to be as prepared as possible to take the test.
This means that you have studied enough to be completely confident of your ability to answer any question that is given to you. Look over your warm-ups. Read the question and re-work the whole warm-up without looking at the work you did or at the answer.
This is actually the only real way to build self-esteem. It doesn't come from people telling you you're great, it doesn't come from false hope, it only comes from succeeding and reaping the benefit of that success. The good news is that you can always build your self-esteem by practicing, correcting your errors and practicing some more until you get something right.
What does it take for you to feel relaxed, calm and in control?
2. When taking any test, first do the questions about which you are most confident. This will help you to feel more capable of doing well on those questions you have left unanswered. Sometimes students tell me that they "completely blanked out" on a test. If this is the case, working on the problems that you do know will most likely help you realize that you remember more than you thought you did.
3. If you are taking a scantron test, some helpful hints:
1) keep your answer sheet close to the questions; students tend to get "lost" when they have to move a
great distance to bubble in an answer
2) keep a piece of scratch paper to cover your scantron sheet to "underline" the problem you are working
on; this will help keep you on the right problem number and will help you avoid marking the wrong
problem number
3) keep a piece of scratch paper to cover the test questions; this will also help keep you on track
4) go with your first guess; it is most often correct--DON'T CHANGE YOUR ANSWER UNLESS YOU
ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE OF THE NEW ANSWER (Ever watch "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
Ever notice how the people on the show often think of the right answer first, then talk themselves out
of the correct answer? It's human nature; try to resist)
5) try to eliminate as many of the choices as you can (NOT MARKING ON THE TEST, OF COURSE)
Again with the "Millionaire" show--this is like your 50-50 choice; if you can rule out two of the four
choices, you are twice as likely to end up with a correct answer
4. If you are taking a test which requires you to work out problems:
1) always begin by writing down the given information; write the variable, the units, etcetera
2) write the chemical or mathematical equation, then fill in the information you have been given
3) show all the steps needed to get the final answer
4) if you get stuck on a step and can't complete the problem, write me a note about that, make up some
information to allow you to get beyond that step and finish the problem
Example: How many glargs are in 15.25 snoofles plus 11.8 plits?
"I don't remember how to change from snoofles to blups, but I know that once I do that, I take that answer and divide it by plits to get glargs. So, (here's where you make up information to allow you to continue) if I had 9.12 blups, I would divide that by 11.8 to get .773 glargs.