That social studies and, to a lesser degree science, have become something of orphans in K-6 instruction is an open secret. The system of schooling in the US has increasingly become objectives and standards based. As this edifice has grown, it has demanded more measurability and thus more accountability. That accountability, through testing, is…

Brazil is a country that does not invest enough in basic education, thus leaving a gap in the knowledge of young people studying in public schools and jeopardizing their future. One of the main ways to get into college in Brazil is through the National High School Exam (ENEM), a multiple-choice test administered by the National Institute of…

In the paper we present a software platform for applying gamification to the Unified State Examination (USE) preparation activities in the Russian Federation. The USE is a final examination at school as well as a university entrance examination. Students' preparing for the examination takes a long time and is accompanied by solving a large number…

A study involving 18 boys and 20 girls attending Grade 1 in a rural elementary school was conducted to determine if a program designed to develop test-taking skills would result in higher standardized achievement test scores than would one focusing on the content assessed by the test. Each student was assigned to one of two groups and administered…

The study was designed to develop a greater understanding of how test preparation practices/activities have changed in a state with an established testing program that has recently begun to use test scores for school-level accountability purposes. Teachers within 24 public high schools completed a questionnaire related to the use of test…

Although many students and teachers may believe otherwise, answer changing can be helpful in test taking. This study examined the effects of having a teacher lecture on answer changing as a beneficial test strategy. Participants (N=470) were college students randomly assigned to intervention or nonintervention treatments. In the intervention…

This paper provides information about the efficacy of a model for preparing teacher candidates for the Arizona teacher licensure examination (i.e., Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments [AEPA]). The model includes test familiarization, drill and practice with feedback, training in strategies for specific item types, and general test…

This review of the literature examines the effectiveness of instructing students in various test-taking strategies, particularly in reference to multiple choice questions. Among findings reported are that while test-wiseness strategies may be taught, these strategies have limited generalizability across exams and learners who proactively process…

A quantitative method, meta-analysis, is used to integrate research findings from a representative group of 38 coaching studies. Because different studies reported results on different scales, effect size was used to transform all results to a common metric. This meta-analysis showed that there are two distinct literatures on the effectiveness of…

An anagram test administered under varying time parameters was used to evaluate the effectiveness of test-wiseness strategy. The relationship between test and state anxiety, and specific test-wiseness skills was explored. Students completed an anagram test in 15 or 25 minutes. Two groups received time-using directions and assistance during the…

This study investigated factors associated with medical students performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step One examination. The USMLE Step One emphasizes basic mechanisms and principles that are typically covered in the first 2 years of medical school. The study examined the relationship among student performance…

The stability of a two-factor model recently proposed for the Gibb Experimental Test of Testwiseness was assessed, using confirmatory factor analysis. Designed to measure seven specific testwiseness skills with 10 items per skill, Gibb's test has been shown to discriminate between persons trained and untrained in selected testwiseness skills. Such…

This paper provides preliminary findings on the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) Test given to all Texas public college and university freshman, particularly regarding minority student performance. Of all students, 81% passed all three sections of the test, mathematics, reading, and essay. The passing group represented 87% of Anglos, 59% of…

The intervention in this study focused upon effective test taking, defined as the capacity to use acquired subject matter knowledge to achieve test scores consistent with an individual's knowledge level. This approach also emphasized self-assessment and self-directed learning. The procedure was employed in efforts to enhance a class of medical…

In the social sciences, evaluating the effectiveness of a program or intervention often leads researchers to draw causal inferences from observational research designs. Bias in estimated causal effects becomes an obvious problem in such settings. This paper presents the Heckman Model as an approach sometimes applied to observational data for the…