Crush the Test by Crushing Your Test Anxiety

In this episode Dr. Ben Bernstein, author of Crush Your Test Anxiety, explains the role of mind, body, and spirit in performance enhancement. [SHOW SUMMARY]While aptitude tests are increasingly optional in graduate admissions, tests are a constant in graduate school and frequently in one’s career. How can you manage your stress and anxiety when facing a test, be it the MCAT, LSAT, MCAT, GRE, licensing exams, continuing education exams, or subject exams while in school? How can you perform at your best during a test? Dr. Bernstein will tell you how.An interview with author, coach, psychologist, and educator, Dr. Ben Bernstein, on how to crush text anxiety to raise test scores. [SHOW NOTES]Welcome to the 521st episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Before we meet our guest, I'd like to highlight the featured resource for today's episode, Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions. Realize that the challenge at the heart of admissions is showing that you both fit in at your target schools and are a standout in the applicant pool. Accepted's free download, Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions, will show you how to do both. Master this paradox and you are well on your way to acceptance.Our guest today is Dr. Ben Bernstein, author of Crush Your Test Anxiety, and presenter of the masterclass by the same name, Dr. Bernstein or Dr. B as he prefers to be known, has been a performance coach for a wide variety of top performers, including Academy Award, Tony Award, and Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as CEOs, athletes, physicians, opera singers, and actors. Dr. Bernstein is the author of Crush Your Test Anxiety and three other books. He also posts regularly on Psychology Today. Dr. Bernstein graduated from Bowdoin College and earned his doctorate in applied psychology from the University of Toronto. In addition, he holds a master's degree in music composition from Mills College. Parallel to his career in psychology and education, Dr. Bernstein has extensive involvement in the performing arts. Dr. Bernstein, thanks for being a guest on Admissions Straight Talk. [2:21]It is totally my pleasure, Linda. Thank you for inviting me.My pleasure. Let's start with something really basic. What is a performance psychologist? [2:29]Well, a performance psychologist is a term that I gave myself because I didn't know that one existed and the reason I gave it to myself was I was trained as a therapist, but when I started in private practice, I found that I didn't really take to that form of work, meaning that I'm a very active guy and I was really wanting to coach people more than do therapy with them, and so that meant I just started looking at where people wanted to perform better in their lives. Early on, it was parents or teachers, but then it became athletes and actors and dentists and doctors, and so that's what I do is that I'm really looking for what a person's potential is and what may be getting in the way of that. So we're looking at their performance, and hence, I'm a performance psychologist.How did you get into it? Was it just a matter of the fact that you didn't care for more traditional forms of therapy or- [3:36]No, thank you though. It's a good question. So I started out, as a young child, I was brought up in New York City, and I was a very prodigious piano player. I love playing piano, and I played very well. However, that got, sidetracked is not quite the right word, but I got pushed into recitals and competitions and national auditions and all the kinds of thing

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