Outlines the benefits of test taking skills, especially for low ability and disadvantaged students, and suggests that achievement tests provide valid assessments only of students with the requisite test taking skills. Offers 13 strategies for teachers to prepare students for testing. Contains 19 references. (SV)

Parents and teachers can help relieve student test-taking anxiety by redirecting the student from fear of failure toward productive study skills. (DF)

The effectiveness of test-taking skills training was studied by calculating test performance quantitative indices of effect magnitude from data in 24 studies. Longer training programs produced significantly greater achievement gains than shorter programs, supporting recommendations for test-taking training in schools. (Author/MT)

Curriculum alignment, which links instructional content to state-designed tests, is destigmatizing "teaching to the test." Ignoring this linkage can have painful consequences. Substandard school performance can cause Texas principals to lose their jobs and Maryland schools to forfeit substantial monetary rewards. Indianapolis schools try…

Surveyed 90 elementary and secondary school counselors to examine strategies employed in test preparation programs, degree to which counselors follow structured curriculum in presenting test-taking activities to students, extent to which counselors target particular strategies, and how counselors evaluate program success. Found counselors more…

SkillsTutor and its competitors (including dot.com companies) are tapping a potentially lucrative market--kids wanting academic coaching to improve test scores. Some experts worry that test-prep could overemphasize skill-building materials or usurp broader-based, critical-thinking classroom activities. The jury is still out. (MLH)

This article discusses how test preparation helps students with deafness to develop the skills required to do well on standardized reading tests by examining test-taking strategies and common language structures used in test items. Common errors made by students are listed and helpful remedial classes are discussed. (Contains four references.)…

Samples of classroom activities designed to provide practice in specific test-taking skills are provided for use by teachers in the New York City school system. This guide provides activities that aid children in following instructions, time management, use of separate answer sheets, answer choice, and scanning and skimming. Unacceptable teaching…

Test wiseness (TW) has been recognized as an important source of variance on standardized achievement tests, independent of content or random error. To help students develop the type of TW skills necessary for optimal performance on reading achievement tests (ie. time using, guessing strategies), a comprehensive TW skills instructional program…

This publication contains six booklets useful to classroom teachers in helping students acquire test-taking skills. These materials are designed to familiarize students with the mechanics involved in taking tests, and teachers with skills which relate to the wider year-long scope of the curriculum. This should minimize format-related problems,…

Describes a test-taking course designed to prepare seventh-grade students for the SAT.

Testing professionals need to work with teaching staff and parents to help students prepare for standardized testing. Year-long preparation involving teachers and parents is a better alternative than teaching test wiseness strategies at the last minute before a standardized test. (Author/PN)

Applies the basic principle of performance to taking tests, poses some alternative views of test performance, and provides some general guidelines that will facilitate improved test-taking. (Author/CM)

It is commonly believed that highly subjective humans ultimately perform all testing and grading efforts and that all testing and grading is completely subjective. However, Quentin Durham argues that there is no such thing as objective testing or grading. With wit and clarity, "The Realities of Classroom Testing and Grading" suggests that all…

A discussion of appropriate ways of preparing students to take standardized tests is presented for school administrators. The point at which preparation practices move beyond the ethical depends on the inferences one wishes to draw from test scores. Inferences drawn from test scores are general in nature and will be inaccurate if instruction is…