The exact change
"The thought patterns that maintain test anxiety are not unique to anxious individuals..." -- Aaron T. Beck, Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective, 1985 ||| "Exposure to feared situations without the feared outcome is the most reliably effective method of reducing anxiety..." -- Foa and Kozak, Psychological Bulletin, 1986 ||| Most certification retake rates show that candidates who fail once pass on subsequent attempts with targeted preparation.
The thought patterns that maintain test anxiety are not unique to anxious individuals. They are the same cognitive distortions that maintain all anxiety disorders, and identifying them by name reduces their power and creates the opening for cognitive restructuring, a principle central to Beck's cognitive model of anxiety. ||| Exposure to feared situations without the feared outcome is one of the most reliably effective methods of reducing anxiety, a principle grounded in Foa and Kozak's emotional-processing theory of fear. ||| Many candidates who fail a certification exam once go on to pass on a subsequent attempt with targeted preparation.
Suggested change
De-attributed both quotes to plain, appropriately-hedged prose connecting the claims to the real underlying theories without inventing verbatim quotations; softened the retake-rate claim to remove the unsupported blanket framing.
Why this is better
De-attributed an unverified verbatim quote attributed to Aaron Beck's 1985 book with no page number. De-attributed a quote attributed to Foa & Kozak (1986) that grafted test-anxiety-specific language onto their general emotional-processing-theory paper, connecting the claim to their real underlying theory without inventing a verbatim quotation. Softened an unsupported blanket claim about "most certification retake rates" to remove the unsupported blanket framing.
More by Emir Baycan in Exam Prep
- Correction Pomodoro Technique for Certification Study
- Correction How to Build a Realistic Certification Study Schedule Around a Full-Time Job
- Correction What Test Anxiety Actually Is: Physiology and Psychology Explained
- Correction Test Anxiety and Online Proctored Exams