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| Barriers to Test Performance |
 Cognitive Barriers to Test Performance
Before your test or during the test itself, do you spend a lot of time worrying about your performance? Do you think that you can to do poorly on the test no matter how much time you spend in preparation? Do you talk to yourself and tell yourself how badly you are doing? Such self-statements or “self-talk” are barrier to your test performance. Here are some examples of cognitive errors:
1. Overgeneralizations: “I can never get math,” or “I always do poorly on essay tests.”
2. Catastrophizing: “Taking a test in a horrible experience,” or “If I do poorly on this test, I’ll ruin my whole life.”
3. Using an Inappropriate example: “My uncle Larry flunked this course when he was in college,” or “This guy in my Spanish class told me that Professor Johnson gives horrible tests.”
4. Improper inference: “I just have to accept that I will never do well on tests.”
 5. Conflicting goals: “I want to do well on this test, but I just have to make the party on the night before.”
6. Personalization: “If I flunk this test, I’ll consider myself a total failure.”
7. Using a single standard: “I have to get at least a ‘B’ on this test or it won’t mean a thing.”
A lot of other examples are possible. “Self-talk” is as individual as the people who take tests. First listen to what you say to others and then listen to what you say to yourself. Get to know how to ask yourself the questions.
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