Reply to Test prep as therapy for test anxiety

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[quote=Anonymous]I’m a test prep tutor and often work with kids who have accommodations.

Why was DD’s PSAT “traumatic”?  Did she get her accommodations?

Sometimes accommodations are not given. Sometimes the accommodations are not enough or not the right ones.  Sometimes kids have not had enough practice with accommodations to use them effectively. Sometimes kids have underlying problems that can’t be accommodated - like extreme difficulty memorizing rules and formulas, without which it is impossible to succeed.

Sometimes kids have so many bad experiences they have a learned phobia. Sometimes kids are engaging unconsciously in psychological behaviors like catastrophizing or fear of failure or not trying (as a form of psychological protection) or simply never having been effectively taught or being made fun of or treated as stupid when taught. For these students, I am part tutor and part psychologist.

And, frankly, some kids with extreme anxiety would benefit from meds. Sometimes anxiety is due to the external environment. Sometimes it is really internal chemistry that is out of whack with the external reality and thus not controllable with exposure or therapy.

TBH, as a parent, I would really explore your own rhetoric around college as well.  Good SAT or ACT scores can help tremendously, but are not a golden ticket to any school.  If your kid has good grades, find (google “commondata” plus the school name) the schools where her GPA falls in the top 25%ile of admitted students and which do not require test scores - post-pandemic there are many.  Make several applications to those places, without test scores and emphasizing grades and other aspects of her life. She has to know she has options, even without good test scores and that one can be successful in life without going to an Ivy or even a “good” college.

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