Ways to Help Your Child for State Standardized Testing.
1. Stay optimistic about the test.
There is no reason to give your child testing anxiety that can follow them till adulthood. Understandably, you want your child to do well, but making them anxious will do the exact opposite. As soon as they reach a question they may not feel confident in, they will become paralyzed on this one question and before they know it times up. To avoid this be positive and encouraging to your child about their upcoming test.
2. Have your child take practice tests
Practice tests are a great way to introduce your child to the questions they are expected to see on the upcoming tests. If you are having trouble looking for resources, go to your state’s Department of Education website, and they should have practice tests listed from previous years that your child can practice with.
3. Time your tests
It is not necessary at the beginning of taking these practice tests, but timing your child is a great way to ease them into finishing their tests within the time limit. Just check your state’s website or your child’s teacher to ask how much time is given for each test and ease your way into setting the time that you want your child to finish. For instance, at week 1 you might give your child 90 minutes to finish a practice math test. However, you should be giving your child 60 minutes to finish the same test, so they will have a better understanding of how much time they will have during standardized testing.
4. Test Corrections
What is the point of taking practice tests if you are not checking to see what you missed and got correct? After your child is done taking their tests you should review with them the questions they got wrong, so you can see the areas your child is struggling in and how they are getting correct.
5. Systematic Strategies
Finally, you should also teach your child systematic strategies for test-taking. For instance, for multiple choice cross out the answers you know are wrong and just focus on usually the two that may be correct. Also, Make sure the answer you choose relates to the question being asked and not just factual information. One of the wrong answers may be a factual statement, but not relevant to what the problem was asking for, which is especially seen in social studies. If you want to read more about systematic test-taking strategies, click here.