New Study Reveals That Students Believe They Can Benefit from Help on How to Study

A study, conducted by International Communications Research, found that 69 percent of students between the ages of 13 and 17 agreed they could benefit from help on how to study and take tests better. The survey also revealed that more students get nervous when they sit down to take the test than when they are studying.

Students experience different kinds of stress associated with the test-taking process – stress during the actual test and pre-test stress while preparing for the exam, especially if the student is cramming the night before. Recognizing that a child's emotional state will affect her score, it is especially important that parents and teachers help students prepare for tests without cramming, in order to reduce the anxiety associated with the exam process.

To help students overcome the hurdles associated with testing, Sylvan Learning, the leading provider of tutoring to students of all ages and skill levels, offers the following test-taking tips for multiple choice, open-ended and essay format exams. Tips include how to prepare for the exam and reduce test day anxiety:

Multiple Choice Test
• Relax. It’s only a test.
• Do a quick review of the entire test – see what kind and how many questions are asked.
• Try to manage your time. Keep a close eye on the clock so you don’t run out of time.
• Make sure you read all directions clearly and carefully.
• Answer ALL questions. If it’s a multiple-choice test, even if you’re not sure of the answer, it’s better to guess than to leave the question blank.
• Go through and answer the easy questions first – they take less time. Save your time for the difficult questions.
• Can’t figure out the answer? See if you can eliminate at least one obviously wrong answer.
• If you finish early, review your answers and be sure you didn’t miss any questions.
• Mark your answers clearly. If you change your answer, erase it completely – you wouldn’t want the teacher to mark it wrong because you had two answers!
• For true or false questions: go with your instinct – it’s often right. And, look for trigger words like “always” and “never.” There are few things you can say never or always about, so the answer is probably false.
• On reading tests, scan for key words that relate to the question, and always be on the lookout for the main idea and for answers to who, what, where, when, why and how.
• On language arts tests, quickly eliminate known misspellings. For fill-in sentences, read the entire sentence and look for context clues before trying each possible answer.
• On math tests, use scratch paper and write down the key information you need to solve the problems, such as number sentences and equations. Check answers by reversing, i.e. adding to check subtraction.

Open-ended Questions
• Do a quick scan of the test. How many questions are there? How many points is each question worth? Remember, a question that’s four points versus 10 will require less detail.
• Write your answers clearly. You don’t want to lose points because the teacher can’t read your writing!
• Do the easy questions first. Then, come back to the difficult ones. Sometimes, the questions you can’t answer immediately make sense when you look at them a second time.
• Don’t lose track of time. You want to be able to answer all of the questions.
• Proofread. Did you answer the question? Check for spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors.
• Plan out what you want to say. It can’t hurt to jot down a couple of quick notes so you know the direction of your answers.
• Mark any questions that you need to come back to. If you want to add additional information to the answer, make a note, so you remember to review it.
• On reading questions, if you’re asked to write an answer that draws a conclusion, use details from the passage to support your idea.
• For math questions, jot down what you know about the word problem and maybe draw a picture to help you solve it. Make sure that your answers make sense – if the question asks how many miles, make sure that your answer is in miles, not feet or meters.

Essay Questions
• Review the question thoroughly. How many parts are there to the question? Make sure you answer every aspect of the question.
• How much time do you have to complete the exam, and how many questions do you have to answer?
• Read the question twice - once to see what’s wanted and then a second time to underline key words.
• If you have a choice of questions to answer, which ones are you most comfortable with? Do you have enough supporting material to answer the ones you want?
• Prepare an outline. Organize your thoughts. If this is one of the questions that you prepared for when studying, you’re already halfway there! Keep your facts straight, and be sure to include supporting details.
• Be concise when expressing your thoughts. Don't ramble.
• Pace yourself. Leave enough time to answer all questions, and time for reviewing and editing. In addition to answering the questions correctly, remember you’ll likely be evaluated on spelling and grammar, too.
• Provide supporting details for major topic areas – create introductory and concluding statements and restate your theme or thesis statement in your conclusion.

Sylvan Learning offers tips on writing, reading, making math learning fun and much more. For tips and information, visit www.SylvanLearning.com.