Just need a little help...

[LupusDream]

hay i know a lot of people here have taken tests and i need help. i have 5 regents in June they are Math2/ trigonometry, English (which i am not so worried about because i took one and i passed with a 81 yay), Spanish (i can not speak a single word of it), Global History (i hate history), and chemistry ( which i barley understand, well i do understand but some of it just makes no sense).

i am stressing out already because i have very little time til the days of the regents, last year i had a panic attack, a mental break down, and a nervous breakdown. i do study and no matter how long i study nothing is sticking in my head. i can not stay for after school extra help because i have to bring my little sister with me (she is very annoying and sometimes i can not stand her. but then again she is my sister and what are sisters for). i really just want help and maybe some tips for taking these tests, failing is something that i fear and is something that i hate.

P.S i am a 10th grader if you are wondering. sorry for the miss spells and grammar

[Noir-Okami]

Maybe you should talk to one of the people in charge about it. If you need extra time for the tests or accommodations with your little sister, they may be able to help you. Maybe you should also talk to them about how you had a nervous breakdown last year when you took the tests. Either way, they need to know what is going on.

About keeping the facts in your mind, mnemonic devices/anagrams (such as P-MAT being the order of stages in cell division; Prophase-Metaphase-Anaphase-Telophase) or songs/rhymes (In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue) may be useful.

[Sevena]

remember when study'n in long intervals you need to give yourself a proper break.at least a 1/2 hour to just relax or do something completely unrelated to your studies.if you tend to have panic attacks,or just panic in general,try some breathing exercises.just breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth for a few moments can help ease anxiety.dont do it to quickly though, you dont want to hyperventalate.yeah i spell things wrong too but i dont really care.
As Noir-Okami said if your really having trouble talk to your teaches/instructors.if you cant stay after for extra help there maybe online course help that you could do from home.or try teaming up with a class mate(if your sociable)that you can study with online.sometimes another perspective on studies helps you see them in a new way.best of luck

[Scott Gardener]

I agree about breaking it up. It's easier to take in bite-size chunks than all at once.

Public school in the U.S. is one of the worst ways to learn anything. History taught by coaches will tend to read like sports plays--i.e., wars and battles, with stats and who won what, but with little emphasis on why they were fighting. They manage to make even science boring, and I have a great fondness for the subject. They miss out on showing how math is useful by not pairing it with science until you're in college. Indeed, everything is compartmentalized, so you're stuffing inert data in your head rather than really learning. Don't worry. It gets better once you reach college. There, you get more than one opinion of history and more room for thought and interpretation about what really went on. You get more of an appreciation of things at the conceptual level, so things you're having to memorize now will finally make sense. The drudge work will be worth it.

And, don't talk yourself into panic attacks. I work in the ER, and a lot of anxiety problems are self-inflicted, or at least magnified by inner dialogue. I know it's hard and not always realistic to talk yourself out of a panic attack. But, you CAN learn not to talk yourself into one.

[Trinity]

I found out that our minds retain a lot of the information even if we cannot access it at a drop of a hat. This can be frustrating to be sure, but suffice to say I breezed my Geography class and finals with top marks.... and can't remember a blessed thing about it today. ;) At least I can't access that information actively now.

I know how stressful tests can be, and people always wondered why I kept my cool. I actually preferred the tests to the long, boring, tedious, snooze-fest-inspiring lectures. ;) What I did is something that is actually suggested. Take the study guides, notes, etc home with you, and the ones you are going to be tested on that next day, quick review them before bed. Get some sleep, good sleep, wake up a little early and get some breakfast - and just page through the stuff.. don't try to cram that never really works. Just try to find ways to relax.

When you sit for the test don't worry about whether you will get it wrong or right, just focus on each question. And honestly what teachers have told me before, skip questions. Go to the ones that you know the answer to first. I kid you not. You'll get an over all better grade if you hit all the ones you know rather then let them sit empty because you agonized over a question you didn't know. You'll find you answer more that way, faster.

Also don't focus on how many you've gotten done, because it's the ones that are correct that will give you the better grade, right? What's worse? A whole bunch of wrong answers, a whole bunch of blank answers (which for the SATs blank = not counted - a little secret they never tell folks), or a lot of right questions with a few blanks (as some teachers count blanks = wrong anyway)?

[LupusDream]

Noir-Okami thank you i will try that.

Sevena i do give my self breaks but they are normally for about 10-20 min or so not normally that long but, i will try that out, and i i will look for online corses may be that will help me. and thnk you for the luck

Scott Gardener i do agree with you, some of my teachers look like they do not care or they just are plane out boring like my chemistry teacher, the worst part is she gets of topic all the time. last week she had a whole class lessen on squids and mating why i do not know. that and the way the economy is going and the way the budget cut is going i really do not know if college is going to happen any time soon. one thing though i love talking to my self, i have been caught talking to my self to many times now. however i will try not to talk my self into having any attacks.

Trinity i know the secret to taking the SAT my English teacher who is a awesome teacher told us. i also do what i call my little thing before i take a test which is closing my eyes and taking a deep breath when the test starts and eating candy that has a lot of sugar in it so i do not fall asleep through out the test. i also skip questions that i do not know, when i am done with the multiple choice sometimes i go back to the ones i did not answer or i go to the short answer and essay then i go and answer the questions that i left blank.

Thank you for all your help it means a lot to me

[WerewolfKeeper3]

There's something else too...
my dad told me to do this, and surprisingly, it does work...
Study as much as you can up until the night before the test... then, don't do anything. As in, relax. Go see a movie, read a book something that gets your mind away from it.
Why? Because then your brain has a chance to store the information in a way you can retrieve it.
Taking breaks helps too, since it's similar to this, but if you can only get ten to twenty minutes, relax and don't worry about anything. Worst thing you can do, since worrying won't let your mind work...
Believe me, i should know...

[LupusDream]

WerewolfKeeper3 thank you i will do that