Give students one practice item per day. Use test language, but make the
item relate to material you are covering in class. The practice item will
be contextualized, which will help students remember any discussion around
it.
The science portion of the SAT-9 is basically a reading comprehension test.
Train students to approach it that way.
When approaching a math or vocabulary question, students should try to
come up with an answer before they read the answers. This way, they are
less likely to fall for the trick answers.
If two answers are the same, both can be eliminated right away. This is
an especially good strategy for math.
Remind students that most standardized tests ask them to choose the
best answer, not the correct answer. There may be more than one “correct”
answer.
We read different ways for different purposes. Tell students it is okay
to read the questions before reading the passage to which they refer. Then
tell them it is okay if they read only the portions of the passage necessary
to answer those questions. This may not work for everyone, but it will
work for some.
Deciding whether a passage is fiction vs. non-fiction can be helpful. It
is often possible to scan or skim non-fiction passages during the test,
but this doesn’t always work for fiction.
Teach students about pacing. Have them do the math for any given portion
of the test to figure out how many seconds they have per question. Then
have them sit quietly at their desks for that amount of time so they get
a feel for it.
Remind students to skip and go on if they are struggling with a particular
question. Sometimes answering other questions relating to a passage will
help with one that was stumping them.
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