78. Test Prep & Test-Taking Strategies

Ellie 0:20

Hey, everyone, welcome to the teaching toolbox. I'm Ellie, and with me is my buddy, Brittany.

Brittany 0:26

Hello.

Ellie 0:27

If you're a teacher looking for ways to better prepare your students for test taking, you're in the right place. Today, we're looking into test prep strategies to help your students feel more confident and prepared for any exam.

Brittany 0:41

That's right, whether you're preparing students for the SAT, the ACT, the GRE or just helping them build strong test taking skills for midterms or even any unit tests, we're going to break down the best strategies to help them succeed.

Ellie 0:59

Love test taking. So before students can even think about answering test questions correctly, they need to fully understand what the question is actually asking them. Reading comprehension and question breakdown are essential skills that many students struggle with, and as teachers, we can help them in that area to make a huge difference in their test performance.

Brittany 1:22

Absolutely, if a student misreads a question or misunderstands the wording, they can easily end up choosing the wrong answer, not because they don't know the material, but because they didn't fully grasp the question. That's why teaching students to break down questions step by step is so crucial.

Ellie 1:41

Right. Research from the National Reading Panel suggests that students who do have strong comprehension skills perform significantly better in problem solving tasks across all subjects. This is because understanding the question correctly allows them to apply their knowledge effectively.

Brittany 1:59

So how do we teach students to break down questions? Well, one strategy is the cubes method for math word problems. You circle, C, the key numbers, underline the question, box the important words, eliminate the unnecessary information, and solve step by step, thus cubes. This technique gives students a structured approach to understanding problems before they even attempt to solve them.

Ellie 2:32

This also, as a side note, just reminds me of when I was teaching language arts, we did things called talking to the text, and so there would be things like questions that you have, connections you can make, defining vocabulary keywords,and that's something they can actually do in any kind of problem. They can take the time to talk to the problem and identify what does this keyword mean? I'm not sure what this is. I need to clarify this before I move on.

Brittany 3:00

Yes.

Ellie 3:01

And so in that way related to that, students can use strategies like rephrasing the question in their own words, identifying those key words, like underlining them, and taking time to actually clarify what kind of answer they're supposed to give. Like, are they supposed to give a definition or an explanation or strictly do a calculation? These techniques help students ensure they're not just reading the words, but actually processing the meaning.

Brittany 3:27

And if students don't develop this skill, it can lead to bigger issues down the road. They may struggle with critical thinking, misinterpret instructions in real world tasks, and even have difficulty understanding contracts, job applications, financial documents as adults.

Ellie 3:48

Absolutely, that's why we need to emphasize the importance of active reading and comprehension from an early age. If we teach students how to approach questions rather than just memorizing answers, we set them up for success in school and beyond. One little thing I used to do with my students in different subject areas, because, you know, you can read an entire page and stop and go, I don't know what I just read, so I would have them maybe read a paragraph at a time with someone, with a partner, and then stop and retell it. Or if they were reading for homework, every single page that they read had to have a couple sentences of a summary or a retell, just to make sure they were stopping and thinking about what it was that they had actually read instead of just mindlessly going through that.

Brittany 4:37

Yeah, if the text is too hard, you do it paragraph by paragraph. And if it's even harder than that, do it sentence by sentence.

Ellie 4:45

Yeah. And so that's just a short way, a quick way of letting them stop and get into that habit of thinking about what they're reading. Along with the importance of reading and breaking down the meaning of questions is the importance of reading directions. Sometimes directions are what tell you if you need to choose all the answers that apply or just the best answer. I remember when our standardized testing kind of changed to have some of some questions, not all of them, but some that said, choose all answers that apply. And that was something we had to practice, because students weren't accustomed to choosing all, they just wanted to choose one, or, you know, the best one. So reading those directions at the beginning of a section will help you understand what to do there. If it's an open ended question, the directions might tell you to list or to explain, so we need to understand if we're just writing a bulleted list, or if we're having to go into deeper explanation. Taking the time to read and understand those directions for a section of a test goes hand in hand with reading and understanding individual questions and these approaches can help students with all of their tests all year round, so practicing those things all year is what's really beneficial for students.

Brittany 6:03

And I think one additional thing is teaching your students that they can write on tests. Write in the margins.

Ellie 6:12

Yeah,

Brittany 6:12

You know, make notes to yourself about what words mean or what it's asking or as you're breaking it down, put the pieces on the side or something.

Ellie 6:22

And if, by some chance, there's a rule that you're not allowed to write in the test, because who knows, maybe it's different, scrap paper is perfect for that. Keep the scrap paper right next to the questions and number the scrap paper.

Brittany 6:34

Number and organize your scrap paper.

Ellie 6:36

And then, you know, they can still take those notes in some way, shape or form. They can't say, oh, I can't write on the test. I don't know what to do.

Brittany 6:44

Yeah, exactly. So too often, test prep is crammed into those last few weeks before an exam, or before the state exams or something like that. But real test readiness starts much earlier. One of the best ways to integrate test preparation throughout the year is by focusing on the art of questioning.

Ellie 7:08

Yes, encouraging students to answer questions thoughtfully and completely every day builds habits that will help them when test season rolls around. Instead of simply accepting short, surface level answers from students, we should push them to explain their thinking, justify their choices, and even anticipate some follow up questions.

Brittany 7:30

And research from the National Institute for Learning Development shows that students who are regularly asked higher order thinking questions perform better on standardized tests. That's because these questions train their brains to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information - key skills that tests are designed to measure.

Ellie 7:52

One great strategy is using Bloom's Taxonomy in daily lessons. Instead of just asking recall based questions like, What is the capital of France? Teachers can push students deeper with questions like, How would you compare the capitals of France and Germany in terms of historical significance?

Brittany 8:11

And then in answering that question, you'll find out whether they know capital of France

Ellie 8:16

right.

Brittany 8:17

Another idea is incorporating more open ended discussions in the classroom. If students get used to elaborating on their answers, citing evidence, considering multiple perspective, they'll find test questions, especially written responses, much easier to deal with.

Ellie 8:35

Absolutely this kind of year round preparation also builds confidence. If students are used to engaging with material deeply and articulating their thoughts clearly, they won't feel as overwhelmed when it comes time for formal assessments.

Brittany 8:50

And let's not forget the role of metacognition, getting students to think about how they think if they regularly reflect on their learning process, they'll be better equipped to adjust their strategies when facing tough questions on a test.

Brittany 9:06

So now that we've covered how to help students understand the questions properly, let's talk about test taking strategies. Ellie, what's one of the biggest mistakes students make on test day?

Ellie 9:19

For many of them, I would say it is rushing through the questions - they just want to get done. According to a study from Harvard University, students who take their time and read each question carefully are 30% more likely to avoid careless mistakes.

Brittany 9:35

Yeah. A great strategy for multiple choice tests is the process of elimination. If students can get rid of two obviously wrong answers, their chances of guessing correctly increase significantly.

Ellie 9:50

Absolutely. And we need to think about teaching students how to budget their time, because although some of them rush, some of them take a long time with each question and then feel like they're running out of time. We were fortunate that most of our state tests were not time constrained. We had a block of time, but if they didn't finish, they were taken somewhere else to finish while the other students could, you know, proceed with the day. So they weren't time constrained. But if you are time constrained and you don't finish, you know, everything that's not done, and you're out of luck. So a good rule of thumb is to look through the entire test before they start, identify the questions, that are easy and that can be answered quickly, and maybe get those out of the way, and then the harder ones that take more time, and then try to think about how much time can I spend on each question? Not that we want them doing this lengthy math problem and saying I have this many minutes divided by this many questions, and I can only spend this much on each one, but to have a general idea of how much time they can spend is helpful.

For any test really, always encourage your students to double check their work. A University of Chicago study found that students who review their answers catch and correct mistakes 15% more often than those who don't.

And when it comes to checking work, now this was more in math than other places, but I found that many students looked at checking their work as making sure they had an answer for every single question, not actually looking at the work. So I always tried to teach my students that checking your work means actually going through the problems again as much as time will allow, and checking the actual work for the problem, or even doing the problems again on a separate piece of paper to see if they got the same answer they did the first time because some students would close their testing booklets and then have half an hour or more before the testing time was over and they could have sat and now they could have checked everything. So that's what I always encouraged.

That's actually what I do whenever I take a test, and I would try to teach my students this, but, you know, you can only lead a horse to water, right? But I would try to take every test twice. I cover up my first answers, I complete every question again, and then I compare them, and then if I need to, I complete a question a third time or a fourth time, and, you know, confirm my answer before I move on. And this method has saved me numerous times.

I believe it. Even, you know, sometimes you read a question and you miss a word or something just doesn't register correctly, and then the next time you read it, you're like, oh, shoot, that's what it meant. That's what it meant, and I didn't read it right the first time, and that can change your answer.

And some students don't have that luxury, because they do have a slower process,

absolutely, yep.

But if they've got the time, have them use it,

yep. If you are looking for a tool to help your students keep these strategies in mind, I have a test taking strategies wheel that breaks down the strategies we're talking about today, and we'll link those up in the show notes. If you don't know what a wheel is, you'll find out.

A wheel is a great way to take notes in a new - in a different way than most people think of just lines on a paper.

Okay, so students know their information, they know the test taking strategies, they feel prepared, but when they get to the test, some of that preparation just seems to disappear because they are so anxious. That was my daughter, my youngest daughter. Test anxiety is real, and it can seriously impact student performance. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, up to 40% of students experience significant test anxiety. Wow, that seems high. But there are ways we can help, in addition to the test prep strategies we've talked about.

First, a deep breathing exercise can be a game changer. Studies have shown that slow, controlled breathing can lower stress hormones by up to 20%. Just inhaling for four seconds, holding for four seconds, and exhaling for four seconds can make a huge difference.

Is it weird that I just did that? Another trick you can use is visualization. Encourage students to picture themselves walking into the test room, feeling calm, answering questions confidently, and finishing strong. Olympic athletes use this technique, and it works for test takers too.

And let's talk about positive self talk. Instead of saying I'm gonna fail, students should reframe it as I've prepared for this, I'm going to do my best. Research from Stanford University shows that students who practice positive affirmations before an exam perform up to 10 percent better than those who don't.

Wow, that's fantastic. Okay, we've covered a ton of ground today, from helping students break down questions to year round test prep, test taking strategies, and managing test anxiety. It's a lot of tools for your teaching toolbox.

And if there's one key takeaway, it's this. Test prep isn't just about the final review before an exam, it's about building strong analytical thinkers all year long.

Thanks for joining us on the teaching toolbox. If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe and share it with other teachers who could use these strategies.

We'll see you next time. Keep empowering your students.

Bye.