Alice is so fearful of taking tests for her AP courses that she experiences mild anxiety when registering for an AP course, intense anxiety when studying for a test, and extreme anxiety when answering actual test questions. Her greatest fear, however, is experienced while waiting for a teacher to hand out tests. During the process of systematically desensitizing her test anxiety, the therapist is likely to ask Alice first to imagine

Registering for AP course

Explanation:

Desensitization is the treatment process that is carried out for elimination of emotional responsiveness towards any difficult or negative situation faced by a person.It arises fear in mind of person after getting constant exposure towards situation.

According to the question,desensitization of Alice's s test anxiety will be gone through following step by step mechanism to reduce learned response of Alice at every stage of test .Therapist will begin with registering for AP course step and try to eliminate fear and anxiety at that level which is caused due to constant exposure towards AP course.They can make her calm and induce confidence in Alice.  

answer; the intervening variable;