ACTS offers help with midterms
Many students experience test anxiety, but midterms and finals tend to send those feelings into overdrive. The ACTS office is available to help students experiencing many types of anxiety, including test anxiety.
Just hearing the word “midterm” is enough to strike fear into the hearts of students everywhere, but actually knowing that exam is coming can break some down into full-blown anxiety attacks.
Heather Bullock, clinical counselor and academic adviser with the Advising, Counseling and Testing Services office, said the symptoms are quite common among students at all levels.
“Test anxiety by definition is really related to your preparedness for your test,” she said.
“I think a lot of students, for their lack of preparing or procrastination or maybe not understanding the material, definitely experience some sort of test anxiety throughout their career at some point.”
Test anxiety isn’t exactly a new idea, but many don’t realize they may be suffering the symptoms.
“They can be several different things – sweaty palms, racing heart, maybe your sweaty brow if you’re just anxious or nervous,” she said.
“You could get sick to your stomach or things of that nature. Also mentally, thinking there’s no way I’m going to do it, I’m going to fail, things like that.”
Bullock says students in certain majors where tests are more heavily weighted tend to fall victim to test anxiety more often.
Students can avoid help themselves avoid that stress and anxiety by taking advantage of services offered through the ACTS office. Those services aren’t limited to counseling.
“We have the counseling services, but we do advising as well,” Bullock said.
“When you look at that, it’s about being prepared, so we help them get a plan of study together, you know, start looking at notes right after class rather than two days before the test or the day before the test or the hour before the test.”
Bulloch said that anxiety can almost be completely avoided by keeping a high level of preparedness.
She said a student’s preparedness is the single greatest factor affecting their stress and anxiety levels relating to tests.
Students interested obtaining help from Bulloch and the rest of the ACTS staff can stop by Hearnes Hall room 314 to make an appointment.
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