A 10-minute mental exercise helps improve lower-income students’ STEM exam scores. A recent study showed that helping lower-income high school freshmen to manage their test-taking anxiety can actually lower their failure rate by half. When a student worries too much, it doesn’t matter how much they know about that subject but the worries and anxiety can make a big difference in their ability to recall what they know at the most important time. This is most crucial with subjects like science, technology, mathematics and engineering (AKA STEM fields).

Jobs in the STEM fields are more common now, but students from lower-income backgrounds are usually not prepared for them and a lot of this is due to factors which came into play during high school. Most notably, the fact that they don’t take as many STEM classes as other students. Additionally, they are not expected to perform well which only serves to exacerbate their anxiety levels.

In order to help students perform to their utmost potential we have to not only consider their mental acuity but also their emotional well-being. Researchers in the past have shown that writing about anxiety, lowers your anxiety. Also trying to turn
anxiety into excitement is another technique that works.

Exams, especially those relating to STEM subjects can be a persistent source of anxiety.

Lower-income students who received free or reduced-price lunch are also affected and for them these techniques were also useful. What researchers found is that by giving students who have the most anxiety a chance to think differently about their concerns and anxiety, their performance was improved.

This work shows that brief emotion regulation exercise — 10 minutes, twice a year — can dramatically reduce failure rates, and that it can be readily implemented on a large scale in a working school environment. The research also shows that these techniques can be used in different areas of life.

Hypnosis is another way to deal with anxiety and fears in everyday life, by re-wiring the subconscious “not good enough” misconceptions and instead instilling in these youngsters a sense of self-confidence in their own ability, which, in turn becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of success.

Do you or someone you know want to perform better at a given task? Whether it’s for school, work or a hobby, you can learn more about how hypnosis can help you perfect your prowess by visiting me at hypnosishypnotistnj.com.