Test-Taking Skills for Students

1
Test-Taking Skills for Students
2
Think Like The Testmaker

• As you read, predict what the test makers will
  ask for in the questions. Anticipate the answer
  before you look at the options.
• Notice titles, dates, facts, bold or italic
  words, big words.

3

• Make notes of important parts next to the passage
  (mental and written).
• Keep thinking, They might ask this fact later,
  so I need to remember it or make a note of it.

4
Read the questions first, to give you an idea of
what is important in the reading

• Consider the test to be a scavenger hunt. Look at
  a few questions and be looking for the answers as
  you read.
• Make a list of things you are looking for in the
  reading and check them off.

5

• Mark the place where you left off reading and
  re-read a few lines before that spot when you
  resume reading.
• Answers may end up being out of order, so write
  answers on the exam booklet.

6
Answer all questions in order, without skipping
or jumping around.

• Do not linger too long on any one question. If
  you cannot answer it quickly, cross out any
  options you have eliminated, lightly bubble in a
  possible correct answer, go on to other
  questions, and return later to the not sure
  questions.

7
Read for right answers. Read and answer with
the purpose of choosing the one answer that the
testmaker intended.

• Use the text, not your life, to answer questions.
  There is almost always something in the text that
  will give you a clue to finding the correct
  answer.

8

• Stick to the subject of the reading. When a
  multiple-choice question includes options that
  you dont recognize or seem out of place, then it
  is a good bet that the strange options are
  decoys. Also, you may not recognize a right
  answer, but if you can eliminate the other three,
  choose it.

9

• Circle, underline, and/or write key words next to
  paragraphs to mark the sections.
• Go back to the text to find the answers. Dont do
  everything from memory. Looking back is not
  cheating. Go back to change answers if you doubt
  them.

10
Tricks Of The Test Trade

• Watch out for negative and extreme words.
  Whenever you find negative words such as not or
  except in the stem or in the options, circle them
  so they will stand out.
• But make sure you take them into consideration
  when you choose your answer. Notice qualifier
  words such as most, some, usually, and seldom.

11

• Circle extreme (100) words such as never, no,
  none, best, worst, all, and every and be very
  suspicious of the options in which you find them.
  Be aware of words like always, never, only,
  must, and completely. These are often the
  wrong answers since there are many exceptions to
  rules.

12

• Change double negatives into single positives.
  (e.g. He was not unresponsible. He was
  responsible.
• The option all the above is often correct,
  especially if you see it only once or very few
  times in a set of questions.

13

• Check for look-alike options Test makers
  sometimes include, in one question, two options
  that are alike except for one word. Such a pair
  seems to indicate where the test makers interest
  was focused, so it is logical to assume that one
  of the pair is the correct answer.

14

• Notice longer or more inclusive options In
  multiple-choice questions, the correct option is
  often longer or more inclusive of qualities or
  ideas than the decoys.
• Another test maker tactic is to include a decoy,
  the correct answer, an option that is too
  general, and one that is too specific or limited.

15
Basics of Test-Taking

• Read the directions because they can give
  unexpected helpful info
• Guess! The PSSA counts a non-answer and a wrong
  answer as the same. If you dont have a response,
  there is no way you will get it right. But if
  you guess, you have a 25 chance at a right
  answer.
• Learn the language of test questions.
• Read the entire question and all of the answer
  options.

16

• Persevering
• Students
• Succeed
• At Woodland Hills