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I’ve been reading Blink too, and I am absolutely amazed by Gladwell’s findings. The two studies you are talking about really blew my mind. I’ve heard about studies like this before in other psychology classes, but I was still surprised. (The previous examples I had heard activated a “female” stereotype and then an “Asian” stereotype on the SAME subjects on two different occasions before a simple math test and found very different results (i.e. the female activation trial yielded lower scores than the Asian activation trial)). I think your idea of “if you think smart, you will be smart” goes a long way. I had teachers in high school tell me that if you dressed up for a big exam (“dress for success”) you would feel better about yourself and therefore would do better on the exam. Likewise, the same teacher also told us to take our time when writing our names on exams and to say things like “I deserve to do well on this exam” or “I will get a 100” to ourselves. I never tried these techniques in high school, but I’ve used them in college and I think they work. Try them during final’s week and see what you think!