Now that high stakes tests have become a reality for public schools across the nation, the issue of test preparation looms large in teachers' and administrators' minds. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires all states accepting federal education dollars (Title I) to test students for proficiency at regular intervals. This means few teachers can escape high stakes testing and all that goes with it.

The primary question at hand for most teachers is: How can I best prepare my students for the tests? While every test is unique, there are some basic strategies that hold true for most standardized tests and are presented here.

Reviewing the Content Covered by the Test

NCLB leaves the task of determining what constitutes the standards of learning and proficiency levels partially to the state. To benchmark standards from state to state, the federal government also requires students to take exams given by the National Assessment and Educational Progress(NAEP).

If there are specific objectives or standards that are tested on the exam your students must take, help them review the facts or skills specified by each standard in advance, to be sure they are proficient in them. You can check with your district or state department of education to find out what the proficiency tests will cover.

Throughout the year, consider integrating one or two test-taking preparation activities with your weekly curriculum. This way, you help students gradually get familiar with the test items, yet you do not risk losing focus on the curriculum.

Learning About the Test

In addition to learning about the subject areas covered on the test, students will benefit from reading about the test and practicing questions similar to those on the test. This will ensure that they are ready for what the test asks and how it does so.

 
Reading About the Test

Inform students of the sources that they can consult to learn about the test. Students should:

• know that they can always prepare for a test. At the very least, students can familiarize themselves with the format of the test, the types of questions that will be asked, and the amount of time they will have to complete the test.
   
• use available materials to learn about a particular test.
   
• read any information the state or testing company releases. Sometimes the test writers will release information through the school. If they do not, students can look for information on the testing company's or state board of education's Web site.

 
Practicing Test Taking

The most important part of a student's preparation for any standardized test is extensive practice. Practice tests allow students to become familiar with the content, format, and timing of the real exam. Reviewing practice tests also allows students to review specific areas covered by the exam, to understand why they chose wrong answers, and to learn to avoid choosing wrong answers in the future. Students should:

• practice all the types of questions they will encounter on their test—multiple choice, short response, and extended response. Students should practice on actual previously released tests whenever possible.
   
• understand the guidelines that will be used to evaluate their constructed responses. Students cannot give the test scorers what they want if they don't know how they are being evaluated.

 
Helping Students Apply What They Know About the Test

Make sure students know that they should pace themselves, use the order of difficulty when it is applicable, guess when it is beneficial, and use the process of elimination to score their highest.

Pacing
Students should pace themselves differently depending on how the test is administered.

• If the test is timed, students should work carefully but not allow themselves to become stuck on any one question. As they practice, they should try to increase the number of questions they can complete correctly within the time limit.
   
• If the test is untimed, students should work slowly and carefully. If they have trouble with an item, they should mark it and come back to it later. Students should keep in mind that they have no time limit, so they should not let themselves speed up unnecessarily.

Using the Order of Difficulty
Not all standardized test are arranged in order of question difficulty, but some are.

• If the test questions are arranged in order of difficulty, then the questions run from easy to medium to difficult, in that order. Students should focus on answering the easier ones correctly before moving on to the most difficult questions.
   
• As they enter the difficult sections of a test that progresses from easy to medium to difficult, students should be aware that answer choices will also become more intricate. The obvious answer is probably not the correct answer to a difficult question.
   
• If the questions are not arranged in order of difficulty (that is, any question at any point could be easy, medium, or difficult), students can chose to skip through the test, answering all the easier questions (and marking the questions they leave for later). They then can go back and answer the more difficult items. With this approach, students need to be diligent in going back and completing every skipped question.

Guessing
Some tests impose a penalty for incorrect answers, usually a fraction of a point. Others do not. Find out if the test your students must take imposes a guessing penalty.

• If there is no penalty for incorrect answers, then students should answer every single question, even if they don't have time to read it.
   
• If there is a penalty for incorrect answers, then students should only answer a question if they've read it, understood it, and are able to eliminate at least one answer choice.

Using the Process of Elimination
For any multiple choice question, students should know how to quickly and effectively use the process of elimination to narrow down the possible answer choices. Even when they are certain they know which answer is best, students should always confirm their knowledge by reading the other choices and eliminating them. Here is a sample geography question.

What is the capital of Norway?
A. Peru
B. Africa
C. Copenhagen
D. New York
E. Oslo

The question above might be difficult for some students to answer. However, most students will easily be able to eliminate choices A, B, and D, leaving them with a 50 percent chance of guessing correctly. If students do not eliminate any answer choices, they only have a 20 percent chance of guessing correctly. (If you chose E, you are correct!)

Students should manually cross out answer choices they have eliminated in the answer book (not on the answer sheet and only when the testing situation allows). This prevents them from mistakenly answering a choice they have mentally eliminated. Crossing out eliminated choices also ensures that students do not waste time rereading an answer that they know is wrong.

If a test has a definite order of difficulty, students should be aware that toward the end of the test it will be harder to eliminate choices, since questions will be trickier and may involve vocabulary and/or concepts with which students are unfamiliar. Students should be sure to eliminate only those choices they understand completely and are certain are incorrect.

Preparing for the Day of the Test

Right before the test students should try to:

• get at least eight hours sleep each night for the week leading up to the test.
   
• eat a nutritious breakfast.
   
• bring any necessary paperwork with them to the test, such as identification and registration forms.
   
• have plenty of sharpened pencils and erasers available.
   
• complete a few warm-up questions the morning of the test, allowing themselves to get into test-taking mode.

Getting the Most Out of Testing

How can you prepare students to meet the challenge of the test, while keeping them interested in the subject? Is it possible to prepare students for tests without jeopardizing the curriculum? Is there a way to make testing a "positive experience" for students?

The answers to these questions are determined by a combination of factors, including your teaching methodology, the school administrative testing plan, the curriculum, the students and, of course, the test itself.

When students prepare for standardized tests, they are more confident and capable test takers. By filtering out some of the variables that can detrimentally affect performance on tests, the results are more accurate indicators of the areas in true need of improvement—the ultimate goal of the testing process.

This article was originally published in 2001. It has since been revised.

Read More About It

NAEP and NCLB
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nclb.asp
Learn more about how NAEP influences the NCLB Act.