Page 212 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

it’s how you interpret those symptoms—the story you tell yourself about why
you are stressed—that makes all the difference. If you shift your thinking from
“this test has made me afraid” to “this test has got me excited to do my best!” it
can make a significant improvement in your performance. 4
Another good tip for panicky test takers is to momentarily turn your
attention to your breathing. Relax your stomach, place your hand on it, and
slowly draw a deep breath. Your hand should move out, even as your whole

chest is moving outward like an expanding barrel.
By doing this type of deep breathing, you are sending oxygen to critical
areas of your brain. This signals that all is well and helps calm you down. But
don’t just start this breathing on the day of the test. If you have practiced this
breathing technique in the weeks before—just a minute or two here and there is
all it takes—you will slide more easily into the breathing pattern during the test.

(Remember, practice makes permanent!) It’s particularly helpful to move into
the deeper breathing pattern in those final anxious moments before a test is
handed out. (And yes, if you’re interested, there are dozens of apps to help you.)
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Another technique involves mindfulness. In this technique, you learn to
distinguish between a naturally arising thought (I have a big test next week) and
an emotional projection that can tag along after that initial thought (If I flunk the
test, I will wash out of the program, and I’m not sure what I’ll do then!). These

tagalong thoughts, it seems, are projections that arise as glimmers from the
diffuse mode. Even a few weeks of simple practice in learning to reframe these
thoughts and feelings as simple mental tagalong projections seems to help ease
and quiet the mind. Reframing your reaction to such intrusive thoughts works
much better than simply trying to suppress them. Students who spent a few

weeks practicing with the mindfulness approach performed better on their tests,
experiencing fewer distracting thoughts.
Now you can see why waiting until the end of the test to work on the hardest
questions can lead to problems. Just when you are increasingly stressed out
because you are running out of time, you are also suddenly facing the toughest
problems! As your stress levels soar, you concentrate intently, thinking that
focused attention will solve your problems, but of course, your focus instead

prevents the diffuse mode from being able to go to work.
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The result? “Paralysis by analysis.” The “hard-start–jump-to-easy technique
helps prevent this.