my test

[brendonkellyrox]

i keep taking my CDL permit test with all the confidence in the world but i keep failing i know the answers but no good i dont know of im just that dumb or what when im taking ot my anxiety goes trough the roof and after failing my depession just shuts me down its so bad

[Dolphin14]

You aren't dumb

Some people have difficulty taking tests. Stress/anxiety is one of the reasons.

This has happened to me my whole life. The minute I get that test I panic, I take the first few minutes to deep breath and calm myself. Once I get started I do ok

Wishing you the best.

🐬

[brendonkellyrox in reply to Dolphin14]

thanks

[IncognitoC]

I agree with Dolphin14, you are not dumb.

Sometimes we can have all the knowledge about a whole subject but then when put into a test situation our brain becomes completely empty. This is very common.

I am the worst for this, I can talk about a subject with absolute clarity and knowledge prior to taking an exam or test on the subject and I go to pieces.

Don’t beat yourself up about it

[Hidden]

With any form of test or event, even if you know you are competent and are able to complete it or perform well, if you have anxiety in that present moment, it is very difficult to carry out the task. I don't believe you are dumb.

Failing the test previously can make this anxiety worse as you've now tied that event to failure and so your mind relates it to something that should be avoided or put you in an alert state. You may also start to believe it's always going to end badly.

Performance anxiety was my problem and what helped me was to first accept that I'm allowed to fail. To see a mistake as a valuable lesson for next time rather than something I should beat myself up for because I used to be very self critical and it never helped. The most important point was to recognise that I'm not able to perform in the moment because I am thinking too much about it or engaging with the "what if" questions instead of being present and focused on the task. What if it doesn't go well again? Have I done that correctly? Those questions never came before the event it was only at the moment of doing it because before the event I knew I was safe if no one saw me fail alone.

There's also the factor of having your value tied down to one event. We may see it as a significant event that determines who we are and if we don't get it then we believe we have no value. This creates a lot of pressure during the event to succeed. With great pressure and the anxiety as a result of that, our mind can become foggy and we don't think well.

So mindfulness and meditation was what resolved this issue for me. To ignore the doubt and to not dwell in my mind about what could go wrong or try too hard to think. Forcing something produces an opposite effect of what you desire, that is equal to the amount of effort you are forcing. Instead I would engage with my senses more, have faith in that I am competent and to focus on completing the task in a calm state. If the thought came "what if you fail again" I would reply with "Cool, maybe I will or maybe I won't." The mind produces these thoughts as a protective mechanism to make you avoid experiencing a bad event again. It is isn't helpful at times but we can reply to it gently by thanking our mind but reminding ourself that we want to go for this task anyway - without force.