TestEdge Interactive Learning Program Software CD)
Grades 6-8
For Home or Classroom Use
Bridging emotions and academics for student successTestEdge® can transform your test-taking experience and help you pass standardized tests. Understand how your emotions and attitudes are affecting your academic work. If learning or test-taking is stressing you, get in sync for your best academic performance. This scientifically researched multimedia course teaches proven tools and strategies demonstrated to overcome test and performance anxiety, reduce discouragement, learning blocks and memory jammers, boost focus and clarity and promote positive feelings about school.
What is Test Anxiety? Test anxiety affects nearly everyone. Anxiety creates a kind of noise or mental static in the brain that blocks our ability to retrieve what's stored in memory and greatly impairs our ability to comprehend and reason. In testing situations, this means we have trouble remembering facts and difficulty with questions that require thinking or problem-solving. A low score or failing a test doesn't always mean a student hasn't learned the material or doesn't know how to think a problem through; often it means the student hasn't learned how to deal with the anxiety caused by taking tests.
Why Heart-Based Education? HeartMath research has identified a measurable physiological state that underlies optimal learning and performance. In this state, our emotions are calm and our brain, nervous system and other bodily systems function with increased synchronization and harmony. In simple terms, we’re highly in sync – physically, mentally and emotionally. In turn, this, facilitates the higher cognitive processes critical for reasoning, creativity and focusing attention – all essential for effective learning, academic achievement and social success.
Scientific Validation: The TestEdge Study was piloted in the Minneapolis Public Schools, conducted by a clinical psychologist and a reading curriculum specialist for 20 high school seniors who had failed the Basic Standards Tests in Reading and Math. According to Dr. Aasen, "The students had the knowledge, but were unable to pass the test because of anxiety and stress." TestEdge helped ease test-taking anxiety, arming the students with the confidence they needed to feel prepared emotionally and academically. The TestEdge program resulted in a 35% improvement in math scores and 14% improvement in reading scores on the Minnesota graduation exit exam. TestEdge, shown to improve test scores by 30% or more, is a highly effective, research based, supplemental test-preparation and learning-readiness program.
Rollin McCraty, Ph.D, says the key to understanding how anxiety inhibits cognitive and physical performance lies in understanding how emotions affect the rhythmic activity in the nervous system. Feelings like frustration, anger and anxiety cause the neural activity in the two branches of the autonomic nervous system to get out of sync. This in turn affects the synchronized activity in the brain, disrupting our ability to think clearly. In contrast, uplifting feelings such as appreciation lead to increased harmony and synchronization in the brain and nervous system and facilitate our ability to think clearly. TestEdge shows students how to use positive emotions to get in sync and stabilize the brain's electrical activity. This results in "cortical facilitation," which is associated with improved comprehension, memory recall and the ability to solve problems – all skills that produce positive test results.
Highlights of Interactive CD-ROM:- Getting the Edge - How attitude, motivation and emotion affect performance.
- Freeze-Frame® - A powerful tool to use before and during high-stakes tests to lower stress and test anxiety.
- Getting in Sync - How to get in the optimal physiological state for learning and test-taking – the zone'.
- Attitude Breathing® - How to shift out of attitudes of anxiety and resignation and into positive, productive attitudes.
- Test Smart Strategies - Eight 'best practice' strategies for addressing test questions.
- Food for Thought - Why diet so strongly influences brain alertness. Identify the ideal foods to eat before a high-stakes test.
System requirements:Win 98 - XP, Mac OS9, Mac OSX
For site license pricing call toll free in U.S. (800) 711-6221 or e-mail
info@heartmath.org Also try the emWave Personal Stress Reliever or emWave PC
Our children are not immune to the increase in stress levels. They have names for their stress as well: 'test anxiety' or 'test stress', 'math anxiety' and 'peer pressure'. There is enormous pressure to do well in school and fit in, not to mention numerous relationship issues with family, friends and teachers. There are effective solutions. The emWave Personal Stress Reliever or emWave PC is based on the principle of learning to change your heart-rhythm pattern and create physiological coherence in the body. You can use this technology with yourself and your whole family. It helps students gain internal awareness and self-regulation while improving their behavior, learning and test scores.
The emWave Personal Stress Reliever® is a portable approach that can help give sustained stress relief and emotional balance anytime, anywhere to people ages 8 and up.
The emWave® PC is a computer-based interactive learning system that helps students generate a state of synchronized inner coherence, helping them 'get in sync'. By seeing the changes in real time they can see how anxiety affects their brains and bodies and then can practice reversing these effects. It's easy to use and noninvasive. Play interactive games and review sessions. For children ages 6 and up.
