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Kevin A. Doty

🧠 Overcoming Test Anxiety: How to Stay Calm and Focused on Test Day - Kevin's Sunday Newsletter

Published 9 months ago • 5 min read

Kevin's Sunday Newsletter

Kevin A. Doty

I teach students to be amazing learners.

Hi there! If you're a new subscriber, welcome! So glad you're here!

And whether you're new or returning, I hope you get a ton of value from this week's newsletter. As always if you have questions, send me a reply. I'd love to help!

Overcoming Test Anxiety: How to Stay Calm and Focused on Test Day 🧠

Managing emotions is a critical part of test performance.

Managing emotions is aspect of test preparation is often missed in test preparation. In fact, students are mostly left to their own whims and coping strategies when it comes to dealing with these big emotions.

Big emotions around doing important things like high stakes tests are completely normal. Having feelings does not necessarily mean a student has “test anxiety” - rather it means that they care about the test, and it’s important to them.

On the other end of the spectrum, you don’t want your student to be too relaxed either. Being too relaxed can mean that they aren’t well prepared, don’t care or aren’t being honest with themselves about the test.

What do mean by test 'anxiety'?

For most students, “anxiety” in this context means handling emotions that are interfering with their ability to adequately do the test.

On the other hand, if your emotions around a test are crippling your students ability to function - i.e. sobbing, vomiting or other strong physical responses - you should seek an evaluation and care from a mental health professional.

Here are 7 things that your student can do to channel their emotions to succeed on test day!

  1. Acknowledge your feelings - A good first step is to simply recognize that you are feeling something out of the ordinary. They might say that they feel off, or you might ask them how they are feeling. Sometimes just stopping to think about what they are feeling is enough to help them dial in to their emotions.
  2. Name the feeling - Giving names to feelings helps to take away much of their power. By sorting through their feelings - there may be multiple and competing feelings at the same time - students can take control of their emotional life and make big emotions much more understandable and manageable.
  3. Why am I feeling like that? - Feelings don’t usually just spring from nowhere. They are a byproduct of our experiences, our beliefs and our thoughts. Helping students be vulnerable and honest with themselves about why they are feeling each of their feelings will help them to take another step toward understanding and managing their emotions.

More to Read on my Blog

🗞️ For some related articles to SAT and ACT test prep check out these articles:

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Some Things I'm Loving

Being the giant nerd that I am, I’m always intrigued by new things happening in the world or in old thing presented in a curious way. Here are some things I’m enjoying this week:

Product I'm loving 🧾

The Apple AirPods Max are definitely not the cheapest pair of headphones I've purchased. In fact, I was reticent to purchase them specifically for the price. Instead I started with the Beats Studio Pro headphones just to test whether or not I would use over-the ear headphones. While the Beats were a great starter set and proved that I would indeed find lots of uses for them, the AirPods Max are hands down the best headphones I've ever experienced for amazing noise canceling and superb audio. Whether I'm doing work in a noisy classroom or tutoring virtually in a Starbucks, the AirPods Max always deliver. Definitely my favorite purchase of 2024!! (5 out of 5 🚀)

Podcast Episode I’m loving 🎙️

The Tim Ferris Podcast is one of the top business podcasts on the internet. Tim Ferris rose to notoriety with his 2001 book The Four Hour Workweek. In his podcast he interviews a wide variety of highly successful people from various backgrounds and industries to understand the tools and systems they use to be productive. In a recent episode, Tim interviews Sam Corcos the co-founder of Levels a health measurement company. I found the discussion to be incredibly valuable and insightful about the open way Sam runs his corporation and their use of virtual assistants as well as their detailed onboarding process for new hires. Give it a listen! ​

Book I’m reading 📚

If you've never read any Ryan Holiday, you're in for a treat, especially if you love ancient philosophy, history, and the occasional biography.

​ In his newest book, Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds Holiday details the reasons why justice is an imperative and motivating virtue. Using examples from throughout history, he details the nuances of justice and why it is critical to navigating our modern age. This is the third in Holiday's series on the Stoic virtues. Be sure to check out his first book on Stoicism The Obstacle is the Way which is a classic. (5 out 5 🚀)

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PS - Extra bonus, if you love book recommendations Ryan sends out a monthly email of the books he's reading along with a detailed description and review. HIGHLY recommend, especially if you love books. You can sign up here.

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Do you have recommendations of books, articles, or podcasts that have sparked an insight or ignited your curiosity? I'd love to hear from you!​

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Upcoming Testing Deadlines ⏰

If your student is planning to test in 2025, here are a few upcoming test dates and registration deadlines:

SAT Dates and deadlines

​May 3, 2025 SAT (Registration deadline April 18, Late registration April 22)

​June 7, 2025 SAT (Registration deadline May 22, Late registration May 27)

ACT Dates and deadlines

​June 14, 2025 ACT (Late registration by May 26)

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Add these dates to your calendar - test dates and locations often fill up early. For the most convenient location, you want to ensure that you register as early as possible.

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Does your student plan to take an SAT or ACT this spring? Click the button below to take my Test Prep Readiness Quiz and find out the areas your student should focus on in their preparation.

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Share this Newsletter! 🎁

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Hi! I'm sending you Kevin's Newsletter because I think you'll find it super helpful. Kevin is a learning expert and an amazing resource for parents and students. If you want to subscribe to his free newsletter you can register here: www.kevinadoty.com/newsletter-parent.

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Best regards,

Kevin A. Doty

Rocket Scientist turned Master Tutor

P.S. Have any questions? Feel free to reach out—I’m here to help!​

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1075 Broad Ripple Avenue, Suite 266, Indianapolis, IN 46220
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Kevin A. Doty

Rocket Scientist turned Master Tutor

Hi! I am a private tutor who helps students learn test taking skills on the way to being better learners. I have helped students master the SAT, the ACT, calculus, chemistry and physics as well as a host of other subjects.I use what my parents have called "my ridiculous over-education" and over 8000 hours of one-on-one professional tutoring experience to make your student a better learner.You can find me on socials @kadotytutors or on my website at www.kevinadoty.com

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