Mental Fitness and Test Prep

by Loren Deutsch

LAS incorporates mindfulness training, meditation, and self-reflective practices into most individual education plans, particularly for standardized test prep. We have done so since the start of our company and this is why we became interested in LeBron James’ work with Calm.com and mental fitness back in 2019.

Ten years earlier I was developing strategies for my medical students and residents to perform under pressure during high-stakes exams. The strategies incorporated cognitive research by Sian Beilock, Benjamin Bloom, Daniel Seigel, Daniel Willingham, Henry Roediger, and a few others. Much of this research focused on mitigating the stress response, mindsight, learning, and memory, and as important as this research was to my professional work, teaching others how to learn and self-regulate relative to high-stakes exam preparation and high-achieving outcomes, is more important, and became the hallmark of LAS.

“As an athlete, there’s a lot of focus on physical fitness. …The ability to focus and calibrate everything going on inside your mind is a skill that can be strengthened over time, and Calm helps me do that. … This is about mental fitness. It’s something I’ve always prioritized, and it’s just as important to my game, my career, and my life, then anything I can do physically,” […] “ LeBron James.

We tend to think about test preparation in terms of content knowledge. Sometimes, we include test-taking skills, but we don’t tend to incorporate concepts like mental fitness. Nonetheless, like athletes, musicians, and artists, students require mental fitness to perform at their highest levels, particularly on high-stakes exams. Whether intended or not, most tests assess more than content knowledge and test-taking skills. They implicitly evaluate self-regulation, or the ability to manage emotions and behavior.

Directions: This article contains information I often send to our clients. Before you begin, I recommend sitting for 30 seconds with your eyes closed. Engage in a breathing exercise such as box breathing, which includes inhaling through your nose for 4 counts, holding your breath for 1 count, exhaling through your mouth for 4 counts, and holding your breath for 1 count. This process is repeated four or five times before opening your eyes. A helpful visual is to pretend you’re smelling flours as you inhale and pretend, you’re blowing out the candles as you exhale. Remember to be present as you practice optimizing your mind!

• When: Before doing a practice block of questions.
• What: A strategy to promote mental fitness and mitigate stress and symptoms of anxiety. It can be used in a variety of ways, but I designed it to enhance the ability to self-regulate and sustain focus during test prep and test-taking by decreasing stress and promoting more intentional recall practice.
• How: Before starting the strategy, get comfortable (sitting or lying down). If you are prepping for a test, it may be more helpful to sit in a chair so you can practice using this strategy the day of the exam. Make sure both feet are on the floor. Read the directions highlighted above.
• Click LeBron to access Calm.com: Introduction to Mental Fitness by LeBron James. No, I don’t work for Calm.com (or LeBron James).
  • You are welcome to use any type of meditation, guided or otherwise, but I have used this one frequently with practicing physicians, fellows, residents, medical students, and high school students (one-on-one and in small groups). The feedback has been positive but more importantly, the outcomes show an increase in focus and a decrease in stress and symptoms of anxiety during test-taking.
  • It’s free.
  • The first recording is only 3:56 minutes of your time.
  • It provides a good overview of mindfulness practices.
  • Practice after listening to the intro, complete one block of practice questions or if applicable complete your warm-up questions and then one block of practice questions.

If you feel your mind wander or you start to feel stressed or become aware that you are not fully attending to questions during recall practice or test-taking try to turn your attention back to what LeBron James said in his introduction about optimizing awareness, gathering your thoughts, and checking your emotions so you can approach [the moment] with a clear mind. “Mentally fit. Relaxed and ready”.

• • Designate 10-15 minutes before starting practice blocks, practice assessments, and your actual exam, to listen to one of the calm sessions (or other meditation).
  • Practice this strategy every time you prep so that you develop your meditation skills and can incorporate this process as a portable strategy on the day of the test.
  • Below are the Train Your Mind topics from Calm.com, Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Click LeBron to access Calm.com: Introduction to Mental Fitness by LeBron James. The first topic in Volume 1, Introduction to Mental Fitness, is a short listen (under 4 minutes). Before you commit time to this strategy, assess what you think.

Volume 1

Introduction to Mental Fitness

Managing Emotions

A Champion’s Mindset

Pre-Game Prep

The Power of Sleep

Volume 2

Rising Above

Keeping that energy

Routine and Ritual

Being More than the Game

Learning How to Fail

Showing Up for Someone

Building Trust

Need information? Great! Contactus@lorenacademic.com or fill out the LAS contact form.