Teaching Test-Taking Skills

Ch. 14, p. 521

Teaching Test-Taking Skills

As standardized testing has taken on increasing importance in the evaluation of students, teachers, and schools, so too has the preparation of students to take these tests. Of course, the best way to prepare students for tests is to do a good job of teaching them the material. However, schools also need to help many students to become test-wise, to show what they really know on standardized tests, and to get as good a score as possible.

Many ethical issues are involved in helping students do well on standardized tests (Popham, 2001; M. L. Smith, 1991). For example, one way to help students score well would be to know the test items in advance and teach students the answers. Clearly, this would be cheating. A much more ethically ambiguous case arises when teachers know what subjects will be on the test and teach only material that they know will be tested. For example, if a standardized test did not assess Roman numerals, a math teacher might skip this topic to spend more time on an objective that would be tested. This practice is criticized as “teaching to the test.” It could be argued that it is unfair to test students on material that they have not been taught and that instruction should therefore be closely aligned with tests (Popham, 2001). On the other hand, a standardized test can assess only a small sample of all objectives that are taught in school. Gearing instruction toward the objectives that will be on the test, to the exclusion of all others, would produce a very narrow curriculum.

Because of the temptation to limit instruction to the content of upcoming tests, it is important to maintain test security. Specific items on a test should never be shared with teachers in advance of the administration date. Beyond matching instructional content with test objectives, there are many ways to help students learn to do well on tests in general. Research has found that students can be taught to be test-wise and that this increases their standardized test scores (Bangert-Drowns et al., 1991; Scruggs, White, & Bennion, 1986). Students can also be taught coping strategies to deal with their anxiety about testing. These strategies can sometimes help children approach tests with more confidence and less stress (Schutz & Davis, 2000; Zeidner, 1995).

Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of programs that prepare students for the SAT. Since the SAT measures cognitive skills, it is perhaps to be expected that instructional programs can improve scores. The consensus among researchers is that coaching (especially long-term coaching) is effective for the SAT, particularly for minority and low-achieving students (H. J. Becker, 1990a; Messick, 1982) when it focuses on the skills the SAT measures.

Some ways of helping students to prepare for standardized tests follow (see Hill & Wigfield, 1984):

1. Give students practice with similar item formats. For example, if a test will use multiple-choice formats, give students practice with similar formats in routine classroom quizzes and tests. If a test will use an unusual format such as verbal analogies (e.g., Big:Small::Honest: ______), give students practice with this type of item.
2. Suggest that students skip over difficult or time-consuming items and return to them later.
3. If there is no penalty for guessing on a test, suggest to students that they always fill in some answer. If there is a penalty for guessing, students should still be encouraged to guess, especially if they can narrow down the options by eliminating one or more choices.
4. Suggest that students read all options on a multiple-choice test before choosing one. Sometimes more than one answer is correct but only one of them will be the better answer.
5. Suggest to students that they use all available time. If they finish early, they should go back over their answers.