success if a student's outlook is positive," she further explained.

In other words, a student's perspective can determine success or failure. Students can change their outlooks by writing about their anxieties before a test and "off-loading" their fears, or simply thinking about a time in the past when they have succeeded, her research has shown.

Taking an exam brings on a different kind of pressure than when a student recites a memorized speech before classmates or an athlete plays before a packed stadium, other research by Beilock and her team demonstrates.

Why people choke under pressure

In another paper published this month in the "Journal of Experimental Psychology," Beilock and her colleagues identify, for the first time, different ways in which people can fumble under pressure. They also suggest remedies. The work,work a computer. However, that is not what I found at all. The students are great, and just like me they are working while going to school. I enjoy dispelling myths about what older people are supposed to be like,” she says.

She began attending County College of Morris (CCM) when her son was also a student there, obtaining the same degree. They, and her daughter, would all sit around the kitchen table at night doing homework, a sight that made her husband, George, laugh with delight.

It was during this time that Washington reignited her love of exercise and joined a local program that over time would lead to a 100-pound weight loss. She did not realize the ongoing important role that exercise would play in her life.

At the