Press Releases Fall 2005

CONTACT: Cathy Summa, Director, Marketing & Communications
(831) 479-6158
casumma [at] cabrillo.edu

November 22, 2005

New Class Is Designed to Reduce Test Anxiety

The role of the heart in learning and performance

Aptos, CA--According to a UCLA survey of college freshman, students today are dealing with more stress than students did 15 years ago. More than 30 percent of college freshmen report feeling overwhelmed a great deal of the time. Forty percent of female college students report feeling overwhelmed by school and other pressures.

Testing is often a high anxiety producer in students and mathematics exams even more so. The effects of mathematics anxiety have been shown by several researchers to result in lowered achievements, low self-esteem, and avoidance behaviors. While almost everyone experiences some level of anxiety, test anxiety can result in poor performance and impede a student’s efforts.

Cabrillo College Counselor Patti Tomnitz wanted to help her students achieve better results in tests and be successful in their academic pursuits. During her recent sabbatical Tomnitz researched methodologies to help her students overcome their anxieties and succeed in school.  The result of her research will be a new math study skills lab designed to help reduce students’ fears about taking math exams. The lab, LS 200L, can be taken at Cabrillo College with the Math Study Skills Class starting this spring 2006 semester.

Tomnitz and Cabrillo Learning Disabilities Specialist Richard Griffiths have been piloting the HeartMath technology in the Cabrillo College Learning Skills Lab over the past few months with a handful of students and volunteers. So far the results have been very positive.

Kimberly Sweat is one of nine students participating in the pilot program using special computer software and hardware designed to help reduce the physical symptoms of stress.

“I found coming to school on Monday mornings very stressful. I was so stressed out that I was crying,” Sweat, a returning student, said.

For the past few weeks Sweat has been hooking up to an ear sensor that measures her heart rate and displays it on the computer screen. She has learned a simple breathing and visualization technique designed to stabilize her heart rhythms and induce a state of relaxation. She can see the results of her efforts on the computer screen as well as feel the results. As she enters a more relaxed state the software interprets her heart rhythm and displays it on the screen using a graphical interface.

Sweat says she now uses the techniques in a variety of situations to help her stay calm and focused. “It is not difficult and it makes a huge difference, I feel that I can accomplish more,” she said.

The computer technology was developed by the Institute of HeartMath, a research and education nonprofit based in Santa Cruz County. The software works by giving students tools to develop an awareness of how their heart, brain and nervous system work together to create emotional states. You can see a visual representation of either your agitated or your calm state of mind and how you can change the visual by what you think.

"It's like seeing yourself meditating," Cabrillo learning disabilities specialist Richard Griffiths said.

Cabrillo is the first college in the area to offer the HeartMath technology. Other schools using HeartMath include a number of K-12 schools, Brigham Young University, Claremont University, the University of San Diego and Stanford University.

 “The tools from HeartMath are really a do-it-yourself kit to step back for just a moment,” says Bruce Wilson, M.D., Chief of Cardiology, Columbia/St. Mary’s.

For more information on the Math Study Skills Class go to www.cabrillo.edu.