July 19th, 2021

How to Reduce or Eliminate Test Anxiety and Get an 800 on the SAT Math Subject Test

group of graduating college students moving tassels

I worked with a teenager once who was a good student at a private school, but in timed practice tests for the SAT Math subject test he was only able to get to two thirds of questions, and of those, almost half were wrong. I had him do simple things like putting his right hand to his left knee, then his left hand to his right knee. Then I had him put one hand under his collarbones and the other covering his belly button, then switching hands. I had him unroll the edges of his ears and tug on them.

After completing ten sessions with me, he went on to get an 800 on the SAT Math subject test. Afterward, his grades went up at his high school while putting in the same effort. He applied early decision to the college of his dreams and got in.

What was it about those movements that made such an enormous shift possible?

This student's challenge was the SAT Math subject test, but we all face struggles in life. It might be trauma, weight gain, addiction, a breakup or something else. Most often, we come up with physical or mental protocols to follow--imposing what our conscious mind is sure will be the solution to the problem--like a diet, or pharmaceuticals, or telling ourselves to have more control. 

Those movements I had my client do were meant to help me assess what the body needed by letting it tell me itself. The work I do is a combination of simplified acupressure, chiropractic, and brain training. I could see from the testing that he had activated primary reflexes. I could also see that he needed help with balancing energy flow in his body--two meridians were underactive. His gait reflexes (which help with automatic patterns of walking and running) were off, which meant brain power meant for answering test questions was being used for keeping him safe while moving. Even little things, like shifting side to side as I tested a movement pattern, told me how he was having to compensate to move safely, rather than it being automatic. Once I reset everything, I did brain training to develop synaptic connections and myelinate them in an optimal way. Increased synaptic connections and myelination allows for faster processing speed--in essence, free extra time to think. That's invaluable on a test--or when driving, or at work, or in a social situation. Processing speed is one measure of intelligence. We repeated this three times a week for a total of ten sessions, finishing the month before his test to allow him some time to integrate the work.

Another client, a child, couldn't handle being in the shower. Every night was torture for him, and for his family, to have to go through the process of having him take a shower. (He had PTSD from an incident in a bathroom.) In asking his body for answers using muscle testing, it turned out that he was in shock. It's possible in acupressure to bring up past events and visualize them in a line from the present to the past, so that we can clear them all at once. Later that night, he showered for the first time without complaint. Same thing the night after, and the night after that, and on and on. It was the end of that being an issue for that little boy and his family. 

For another client, a college student, the goal was to improve motivation, reduce procrastination, paralysis, and perfectionism. She struggled with the feeling that if one thing wasn't good, then nothing was good. Her body wanted brain reactivation so she could could heal at a higher level. We cleared holographic perception, linear tracking, sound interpretation, and visual interpretation using acupressure as directed by the response to testing the body. The student felt immediate stress relief and was able to do well on midterms, finishing in the top of her class.

Another wanted help with her chronic pain. The body was able to express its need for brain reactivation, as well as balancing the energetic body through clearing chakras--areas of the body with high levels of nerve impulse traffic--that had gotten stuck in overdrive. She also needed work to deactivate primary reflexes. Over the course of fifteen sessions, she was able to see improvements and stay more and more positive about her ability to stay grounded in the moment. She stopped letting the fear of the potential for pain ramp up her pain reaction, and over time, spent less and less time in pain.

I'm able to get the results I have for clients because I've realized that we overcome our greatest struggles not by imposing protocols on ourselves, but asking the body what it needs to heal. It was what worked for me to heal me from chronic illness.

If you or a loved one needs help with testing, motivation, letting go of perfectionism, and a whole lot more, consider session work with me. We can ask your body what it needs to heal instead of imposing a regimen on it. Quick results and a happy mindset are yours as a takeaway.