Testing is a part of school. Did I say it’s awesome? No. Is it necessary? Maybe. On one hand, it does give us data that can help us drive our teaching. However, it is only a snap shot of how a student performed on a specific day, at a specific moment. So, it depends on your own personal views. No matter how you feel about testing, it’s going to be there. Therefore, we need to make sure we help teach test taking strategies to students.
As a math teacher, you know that test taking can be stressful for students. Add in the high stakes of state testing and that can be even more anxiety inducing for students! There are several strategies and techniques that you can use as a teaching tool to help your students improve their test scores without feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. Here are 5 strategies you can use to empower your students so they can do their best.
Teaching Test Taking Strategies
1: Be Explicit
One thing you need to do is be explicit. When you are teaching test taking strategies, tell your students that is what you are doing. If they roll their eyes, make sure you explain how this can help them be successful and how testing impacts them. If you are a tech-savvy teacher, you can have a topic on Google Classroom all about testing strategies that students can revisit. On this area of your online classroom, you can share practice material, websites with good information or practice tests, notes, and a question area for students as well.
2: Review
A good testing strategy for you to have as a teacher is to go back and review the basics. When you do this, make sure you tell your students what you’re doing and why. In addition, you can have your students repeat specific steps over and over so they know to the same thing on the test because it has become muscle memory. By committing the process to memory, it becomes robotic when seeing a math problem. This will create more positive outcomes. In addition, it could lessen the amount of failing students you have in the classroom.
Read also: 12 Great Ways to Review Math Vocabulary
3: Use Testing Samples
Another great strategy to use is testing samples. When you use testing samples, talk about the type of questions that are on there and work through a few using strategies that would be effective for that question. By practicing actual questions, your students get a chance to see the test which eliminates the mystery. In addition, it gives students an opportunity to ask questions which can help you know what to review.
4: Discuss Time Limits
When you are working on testing strategies, one thing that has to happen is a discussion and practice with time limits. Often times the content doesn’t get students, the time limit does. When you discuss time, make sure you talk about the structure of the test as well. If you don’t know the structure of the ACT or SAT, you can always find information online about both tests. Once you talk about the time limits and how to deal with them, make sure you practice time limits.
Read also: Review Game: Let the Cards Decide
5: Practice the Basics
Practice makes perfect. Therefore, it’s important to not only review the basics, but to practice them as well. By the time we are in high school, we have learned so many different math formulas. Sometimes we forget the most basic rules like you should always multiply or divide before you add and subtract. We use the order of operations all the time, but if we don’t practice it enough, it might slip away. Therefore, give students opportunities to practice. If you use centers, this is a great place to practice the basics.
Read also: 7 Ways to Help Failing Students
Testing, no matter how you feel about it, is going to be a part of life. Therefore, we have to make sure we are preparing our students for it no matter how we feel. You can work test taking strategies into your bell ringers or do nows. Test taking strategies are also great for center work or for those “early finishers” after a quiz or test. No matter when you work on testing strategies, make sure you are explicit with your students about what you are doing and why.
