Self-Confidence

[Maggyie]

In the past I have had to see a doctor for anxiety issues. I was a mess.

She taught me how to do cognitive behavioral exercises - that's just a fancy way of saying if you purposefully change your thoughts, you'll change how you feel, and that will change how you behave.

It helps to start by writing out positive thoughts: I'm a hard worker. I have parents and friends as resources who will help me succeed. Millions of people have passed this test before, why wouldn't I be one of them? Am I really that different from everyone else? The vast majority of people who take this test eventually pass it, even if I have to take it several times, chances are excellent I'll pass too if I study hard.

Then you can start repeating the positive statements to yourself. Whenever you catch yourself getting REALLY scared- chances are there is a negative thought behind that. Immediately change the thought into a positive one: I'm feeling super nervous about the GED. That's probably because I'm worried I'm not good enough. Why would I think that? What evidence do I have? I take a long time to write or do arithmetic problems. But, I do write well and I can solve problems eventually, so all I need to do is practice to do it quicker. I don't have any evidence that my hard work will not pay off or that I am doomed to fail. If I am committed, statistically there is a great chance I will succeed.

On a practical level, have you ever been diagnosed with any type of learning disability that might affect this? Even if you haven't, would you consider enrolling in the local high school for the last part of your high school career? Home schooling is great but it's not for everyone, especially for people with special learning needs - there are instructors in the public school who have special training to help students succeed who have learning differences. Even if you don't have that issue, it might increase your confidence in yourself. I would never have done well in a home-schooling environment because I needed that 3rd party (classroom teacher) affirmation that I had scored well and knew the material.

[Maggyie]

By the way, I looked it up: The pass rate in Kansas tops 90% the first time. It is the second highest pass rate in the USA, behind Iowa. You have an excellent chance at passing.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Maggie

[beatitude]

One area where people who are home-schooled may face a disadvantage is in test-taking, as classroom teachers will usually help their students to prepare for tests. It's not enough just to know the information. You've got to have the right exam technique as well. I think you mentioned in another thread that you pretty much choose your own curriculum, and this could also be problematic. I was home-educated for a while due to poor health, and my maths and science really suffered. I was spending most of my time with the subjects that I could understand just from reading, such as history and literature and French. (It helped that I enjoyed these things and was naturally good at them.) Chemistry was a different story. I needed someone to actually explain it to me, and my parents couldn't do that. In the end they found a friend of theirs to tutor me. If you're not already getting tuition from someone, perhaps now would be a good time to look into it.

[Archaeology cat]

It's worth noting that test-taking is a skill just like any other. You can practice for it, you can learn the key words and phrases, you can learn various strategies for different types of questions. My father, a former classroom teacher and principal, and currently working in education reform, taught me how to take tests from an early age, so I'm blessed in that regard. Even so, I have little confidenc in my math abilities if it's on a test. Ironically, this has actually caused me to test better in maths on the SAT and GRE, because I wouldn't guess on those, while I would on the language portions. Anyway, my point is that, overall, confidence comes with practice. I imagine there are some good books on test-taking that might be worth examining. All the best!

[PhuturePriest]

[quote name='SaintOlaf' timestamp='1330756977' post='2395592']
How long did it take you to write this post? 250 words isnt a ton, easy in 45 minutes, chances are they arent even looking at the content but that you know how to structure a paragraph or sentence.

Sounds to me like you need to stop stressing about it right now, take a step back, eat some bacon, go for a run, chop some wood etc... The more you tell yourself youll fail at something the faster youll give up at it.
[/quote]

"250 words isn't a ton" - precisely my point. I'm terribly slow. I'm really fast at typing, but I am absolutely dreadful at writing.

[PhuturePriest]

Well, to clarify, I do not have any learning disabilities whatsoever. However, after reading self-help book on stuttering, I realized I have massive self-confidence issues because I stutter, and since I think that I'm so useless I can't even speak, those feelings eventually go to other areas of my life, including school. I mean, if I can't even speak, how am I to solve a math equation? Why, even barbarians spoke, and they couldn't tell you what 2 + 2 equals! This book says I must have a positive outlook on myself in order to stop (As another poster said), so hopefully I will grow in self-confidence as I re-learn how to speak.