Making the Grade
Improve Your Grades and Test Scores
Through Hypnosis
By: Kevin Linehan
Imagine working hard all semester, spending a huge amount of time completing assignments on time and being graded accordingly. Then comes the midterm or final exam, or even a pop quiz. You know the material; you’ve invested the time to keep up only to draw a blank while taking the test. Consequently, your grade suffers.
Picture all the effort that goes into staying near the top of you your class. It’s important to you in order to have a choice of colleges or for scholarship consideration. Then comes the all-important SAT. Are your scores less than expected? Less than you need to support your dreams?
School is over. You’ve been awarded your degree or advanced degree. All that remains to begin your career is your license to practice. Everything you have learned in your chosen field is subject to testing in one day or a series of nerve-racking sessions. Failure will cost you months of delay until the test can be rescheduled.
Maybe you’ve always found test taking to be easy. You’ve been able to show what you have learned in the course. Unfortunately, it was one of those courses that was required yet had zero interest for you. You did okay based on your test taking ability but it was a real chore to do the assignments and the studying never really got done. Your grade suffered.
Testing and grades are a fact of life! From early childhood we are measured on our ability to show how well we have learned the subject matter. While class grades are a mix of participation, effort, assignments and test results, standardized tests are designed to measure what you know (or can recall) at test time. How many times have you left the test room only to have the answer you struggled for pop into your mind as you stepped into the hall?
How can hypnosis help? By addressing stress, memory recall, confidence, study habits, motivation and classroom attention. Every person will have one or more specific issues that if improved would dramatically affect grades and test scores in a positive way. Following are two examples of how this might work for you or someone close to you.
Your career begins as soon as the license is awarded. The license is based on earning your degree and on passing the license exam. You did well in school; you know the material, why can’t you pass that last exam? Are you nervous? If you failed once aren’t you likely to be even more nervous the next time? Stress, anxiety, nerves, whatever you call it will prevent you from accessing your memory at the exact moment you need it. With hypnosis this is addressed in a number of ways. The first way is with stress management. By imparting a sense of calm that can be brought into the test through a number of techniques your memory is more easily accessed. Another is with suggestions to retain more of what you read and study. A third is using hypnosis to rebuild confidence that may be waning or lacking altogether. These are general methods of using hypnosis to improve studying and test taking. When working with a hypnotist a plan addressing your specific needs will be developed and implemented. This plan will include instruction in self-hypnosis so that the positive changes you desire can be worked on daily.
You’re daydreaming again. What was the point the instructor just made? You’re sure it’s important she stressed it more than once. If only you had the slightest bit of interest in being in this particular class. Maybe then you’d pay attention. You could probably figure out what was being discussed in class if you bothered to study this stuff. Instead all your study time is spent on the subjects that interest you. Sound familiar? Hypnosis suggestions related to focus and motivation may be just enough to make certain you stay awake in class and spend some time on homework or studying. Suggestions could be made that will have you digging deeper into the subject matter as a way to bring up your interest. In many cases the lack of interest is due to the superficial level at which you understand the subject. The next level of detail may be what is needed to hold your attention and increased your proficiency. Suggestions related to an ability to focus in the classroom and while doing assignments or studying will also help those that suffer from ADD and ADHD improve their classroom performance.
While I have presented two general situations keep in mind that since everyone has different needs the hypnosis plan developed will vary for each individual. Very often a single session (with a tape of the session provided for continuous reinforcement) is all that is needed to eliminate the stress of test taking or the boredom of taking classes where you have no interest. Wouldn’t it be nice if next time the answer pops into your mind when you need it?
Self-hypnosis classes are held monthly, contact Kevin or Christine at OnTrac Hypnotherapy Inc. at 603.362.8868 or email ontrachypnosis@aol.com. We also offer hypnosis CD’s for Weight Loss, Stress Management, Smoking Cessation and Golf Score Improvement.
Is there anything related to hypnosis that you would like to know more about? Feel free to give me a call; I’ll be happy to address your question in a future article.
