With the PARCC exams around the corner, many students (and parents) are feeling those all-too-common pre-test jitters. Palms are sweating and heart rates are rapidly pulsing. You can help your child feel more prepared and at ease with the standardized test taking tips and strategies detailed below.

Strategies for multiple choice questions

Many students feel “stuck” when answering multiple choice questions. Some become overwhelmed by the number of choices and others just can’t decide which is the correct answer. Try relaying the strategies below to help your child better answer multiple choice questions:

-For starters, cross of any answers you immediately know are incorrect. This one is a no-brainer.
-Read the question more than once (at least twice) to make sure you fully understand what is being asked.
-Cover the answers. Always read the stem, or body of the question first, before looking at the answers. Try to answer the question in your mind just by reading the question, then see if you can find your answer in one of the choices.
-Look for clue words. Answer choices that have “hard” words like never, always, or definitely‎ are generally less likely to be correct than “softer” words such as usually, sometimes, or probably. Underline these clue words to help you decide on the correct answer.
-If “all of the above” is an option and you are confident that two or more answers are correct, select the “all of the above” choice.

Strategies for short essays

For some kids, writing in an untimed setting is daunting. Yet having to write a structured, well-thought-out written response in a timed setting can seem downright insurmountable. Help your child effectively answer short answer questions using the TAG strategy, as follows:

This strategy helps break down short essay response writing into these steps-

T-Turn around the question to form your answer.
A-Answer the question.
G-Give details to describe and support your answer.

For example, say the prompt is: You just read two articles in support of and against school uniforms. Based on your reading, do you feel school uniforms should be required at all schools? Support your essay with information from the articles you read.

You can answer using the TAG strategy, as follows:

T-Yes, school ‎uniforms should be required.
A-School uniforms should be required because classrooms will be more orderly, kids will feel more equal to one another, and students will focus more on their learning rather than on their clothing.
G-Here your child would provide more details, elaborating on the three reasons ‎why she feels school uniforms should be required.

SAFER strategy acronym

If your child still feels anxious on test day and you’re looking for some final tips, try sharing the SAFER acronym:

S-Save the hard questions for last; complete the problems you know how to do confidently first.
A-Add details and examples to your writing to elaborate on your ideas.
F-Fix your answers (if needed) when you go back to self-check your work.
E-Ease your mind. If your nerves kick in, take a few deep breaths, visualize the ocean or a peaceful garden, and try to relax.
R-Read (and re-read if necessary) passages to find the information you need in order to best answer the questions.

Standardized tests can nerve wrecking experiences for many students. Ease your child’s pre-test jitters with these tips and tools, and he will be well on his way to testing success.

The post Test Taking Strategies for PARCC appeared first on EBL Coaching.

As final exams approach, help the kids manage stress with these tricks from a local education expert: The night before an exam, many students feel “sick”–their head is aching, their stomach hurts, their back is sore. Others feel angry, or possibly even depressed. Some are irritable and others lose focus. While these symptoms might seem like ones that need medical attention, they may just be implications of test anxiety–especially if a big exam is looming. Try some of the strategies below to reduce your child’s anxiety and help her feel relaxed, prepared, and positive come test day.

‎1) Deep breathing exercises: When we feel anxious, our breathing often moves from deep abdominal breathing to shallow chest breathing. Help your child relax and breathe deeply to reduce anxiety before an exam with the following exercise:

Have your child lay down or sit in a comfortable spot with his eyes closed. Tell him to focus on his breathing, and rest his hands on his stomach to feel his breath move up and down. Have your child count backwards from 10 (or another number of your choosing) in the following manner: he inhales deeply while saying the number “ten.” He then exhales while saying out loud “relax.” Then he inhales again deeply and says “nine,” and exhales while saying “relax.” He continues to follow this pattern until he reaches zero. As he performs this exercise, his breathing should move from shallow chest breathing to deeper abdominal breathing, helping him to relax and reduce his anxiety before an exam.

2) Journaling:  Encourage your child write in a journal about her test worries. On the morning of the exam, have her sit in a quiet room free of distractions and write about her worries and concerns for 10 minutes. She can even decorate her journal with colors or stickers to make it feel comforting and familiar. A University of Chicago Study found that this type of journaling can help students reduce their anxiety and improve their overall performance on exams.

3) Memory strategies: Remind your child to use memory strategies when preparing for exams, including acronyms, checklists, and other mnemonics. For example, he can also use an acronym such as PEMDAS (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally) to remember the sequence in solving math equations: Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. Likewise, when learning the planets, your child can create a silly sentence such as “My very eager mom jumped straight up near Paris!” to represent Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. As soon as he is given his test, he should write down the acronyms‎ and/or other mnemonics that he memorized.

4) Rewards: Give your child a reward to look forward to once the exam is over, whether it’s a movie, dinner out at her favorite restaurant, an ice cream date, or a similar treat. Providing your child with something exciting to look forward to can help her stay calm and positive.

5) During the exam, encourage your child to use test-taking strategies. For instance, she should answer the easiest questions first and determine an allotted amount of time to spend on each question. For multiple choice questions, she should read the question in its entirety before looking at the answer choices, try to answer the question in her mind before looking at the choices, and cross out answers she knows are incorrect. For essay exams, she should map out a schedule, carefully look at the directive words when reading the question, and create an outline before beginning to write.

Taking tests–whether standardized or in-class–can be daunting for many students. By teaching your child strategies and encouraging him to use these strategies on a regular basis, he will learn to relax, stay confident, and improve his overall performance on exams.

The post 5 Strategies For Combating Test Anxiety appeared first on EBL Coaching.