Some students get so nervous before a test. 【小题1】 Sian Beilock, a professor at the University of Chicago in Illinois, has studied these highly anxious test-takers. The students start worrying about the results. And when they worry, it actually uses up attention and memory resources (资源).

Professor Beilock and another researcher, Gerardo Ramirez, have developed a possible solution. Just before an exam, highly anxious test-takers spend ten minutes writing about their worries about the test.

【小题2】 They gave them two short maths tests. After the first one, they asked the students to either sit quietly or write about their feelings about the upcoming second test.

Professor Beilock says those who sat quietly scored an average of 12% worse on the second test. 【小题3】 Next, the researchers used younger students in a biology class. They told them before final exams either to write about their feelings or to think about things unrelated (不相关的) to the test. Professor Beilock says highly anxious students who did the writing got an average grade of B+, compared to a B- for those who did not.

“What we showed is that for students who are highly test-anxious, who’d done our writing intervention (干预), all of a sudden there was no relationship between test anxiety and performance. 【小题4】”

But what if students do not have a chance to write about their fears immediately before an exam? 【小题5】