If your driving anxiety and driving fears happen to revolve around preparing for taking your driving test, psychologists have some helpful hints for you!
A study published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest examined various methods of studying to find out which were most effective and which didn’t do the job. Part of the study’s aim was to help out schools by passing along useful studying techniques, although anyone who has a test coming up may be able to benefit from what the study authors uncovered.
Effective ways to study:
- Practice tests
- Establishing an ongoing schedule of study distributed over a specific time frame, aka “distributed practice”
Crummy ways to study:
- Re-reading the text
- Highlighting all kinds of jazz
- Creating images to go with the text
- Summarizing
- Using keyword mnemonics (no matter how much fun that can be)
Since practice driving tests are easily accessible all over the Internet, you can definitely get an upper hand on kicking out driving anxiety related to test-taking. As for using the concept of distributed practice, that can join your techniques if you set aside a bit of time each day to review the materials and practice your driving instead of cramming everything into the day before your exam.
Read an article on the topic at CBSNews.com: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57563335/whats-the-best-way-to-learn-psychologists-tackle-studying-techniques/
Check out the study: http://psi.sagepub.com/content/14/1/4.full.pdf+html
