annx33

I'm looking for suggestions on helping my teens take tests. They are wanting to participate in things that have testing involved (drivers permit, first aid certification, gun safety certification, placement exams for community college classes). They all feel a fair amount of trepidation around testing. (My sons (twins, 16) are avoiding the activities right now because of the testing issue.)

They already do a lot of the quizzes on popular social networking sites and other websites. That doesn't translate completely for dispelling their fears about a face to face, sit down testing situation. There's something about going to the place and taking the test -- the publicness of it seems to paralyze them.


How have others unschooled test taking?

-Ann
mom to twin ds, 16, dd, 15

Sandra Dodd

Maybe you could practice. Sometimes there are practice tests
available. Or tell them to eliminate one or two they know are wrong,
and then the choice is smaller. And if one is stumping them, skip it
and come back.

UNLESS... it's a new kind of public test, with a computer, where you
can't glance down or come back, but you answer the questions one at a
time.

Problems my kids had with tests were not knowing that they didn't want
them to write complete sentences, but just to put the phrase that
answered it. Or I think it was Marty who didn't know that on a
multiple choice there would only be one answer, unless it said "...as
many as apply."

If it's a test they can re-take, maybe you could treat the first time
as practice, and plan on a retake if they needed it.

Sandra

Cara Barlow

We have an older friend who is a former high school Latin teacher. She and
the girls adore each other, and for about a year she's been informally
"tutoring" us in Latin. We're big readers and writers, have a strong
interest in classical history, geography, mythology, etc and like word
games, so it's been fun. There are so many connections to be made.

She suggested that the girls take the entry-level National Latin Exam this
winter. It's in March. I printed off some the past tests from the NLE
website and we've been doing them like they were games. The questions they
(or I) don't understand, we take to Nancy and she explains. She also has
been telling us about test-taking techniques. It's really just logic and
Anna, who's 13yo, is getting a big kick out of figuring out how to outsmart
the test <g>

I don't know if I'm going to register them to take the actual test. It's
depend on what they want to do. They haven't taken a test since I pulled
them from ps 5+ years ago. Right now they like idea, so we'll see.

Best wishes, Cara
Anna (13) and Molly (11)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Jenny Cyphers

***I'm looking for suggestions on helping my teens take tests. They are wanting to participate in things that have testing involved (drivers permit, first aid certification, gun safety certification, placement exams for community college classes). They all feel a fair amount of trepidation around testing. (My sons (twins, 16) are avoiding the activities right now because of the testing issue.)***
 
Chamille, 15, experiences the same thing, but thus far she's decided that she's not wanting to do the test taking.  She's very aware of the fact that if she wants to get her driver's permit, she'll need to take the test.  My experience is that kids will do what it takes when they are truly wanting it badly enough to jump through that hoop.  Until then, the best thing to do is casually talk about it and learn the material on the tests to minimize nervousness over failing.
 
If they are actively asking for help and advice on test taking, I like Sandra's idea of going in with the idea that they will take it twice and the first one is the practice one and if they don't need to take the second one, then even better!





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

misskatenwa

There is state-required testing grades 3-9, so my son was familiar with testing, marking bubbles on answer sheets, etc. So he was surprised that the college entrance exam and driver's written test were on computer. He liked the computer tests much better.

In our area, the driver's test is known to be poorly written and most new driver's retake it 3-5 times average, even if they've gotten good grades from driver's training. So one or two retakes is expected and the officers tell kids that when they show up at the police station.

I've always told my kids that exams are not that important in the big picture, "when you're 30 it won't matter if you got an A or a C, or had to retake the test, so what? Just do as well as you can."

Tests say at least as much about the test writer and the test taker, case in point: AR driver license test.

Kate
Mom to ds 28, ds 18, dd 16, ds 13