A tutoring expert explains the best tips to help your child ace their next test.

Your child may have cruised through the early years of elementary school. Tests and quizzes were rare, homework was a a breeze, ‎and projects involved simply cutting out images from magazines. Yet as students move through school, the testing demands increase rapidly. With these rising demands often comes stress, anxiety, and that how-am-I-ever-going-to-get-through-this feeling. Help your child build confidence and ace exams with the ideas detailed below.

Create a ‘big picture’ plan

Your child may feel overwhelmed by the quantity of material she needs to learn for a test. With terms to memorize, notes to process, and articles to read, the task of studying can seem downright insurmountable. To combat this feeling, help your child come up with a ‘big picture’ plan, with each topic she needs to learn for an exam detailed on a single sheet of paper. She can start by drawing a large bubble in the center of a page and writing the class name and date of the exam inside the bubble. Then, surrounding the center bubble, she can branch out with a series of smaller bubbles, each containing a topic she needs to learn for the test. Once she has effectively learned a given topic, she should cross out that bubble. The more bubbles she crosses out, the more accomplished she will feel, and the closer she will be to learning all of the material for the exam.

Break down studying into steps

Many of us know students who feel they can squeeze all of their studying into the night before the exam. Yet that “strategy” rarely works, especially as the quantity of material to learn increases.‎ Instead of this no-win plan, help your child learn to break his studying into steps, then put each step in his assignment book. For instance, if he has a science test to study for that covers five text book chapters, have him create a five day plan that includes studying one chapter per day (reading the chapter, taking notes, and perhaps creating flash cards on the material), and designate the fifth day as a review day to review all of the material from each chapter. Creating an organized, daily plan can help him feel fully prepared come test day.

Integrate memory strategies

Your child may feel overwhelmed by the quantity of vocabulary terms, names, dates, and facts she needs to memorize. Encourage her to use memory tactics to learn and retain this information. For instance, she can learn the acronym PEMDAS (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally) to remember the steps involved in solving math equations; the letters of the acronym stand for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, attraction. You can also try encouraging her to draw visual diagrams to visualize and remember information (like a diagram of a heart with its individual parts) or retell material aloud to tap into the auditory modality. Additionally, try having her teach the material to someone else (even a parent) for another layer of memory and understanding.

Integrate technology

Students can now choose from a plethora of online resources to help them study. ‎Quizlet, for instance, is an online option that helps students create virtual flash cards, then test themselves and play games using the material. They can also create study guides using Power Point, where they create a virtual presentation on material they need to learn for a test. This interactive tool taps into the kinesthetic learning modality and can help engage students in the process of studying. Students can even have the computer read the material aloud to them as they listen and (hopefully) retain the information.

Limit distractions

Almost all students—not just those who have ADHD—can have difficulty at times staying focused and on-task. Let’s face it—distractions are everywhere. Many students have not just computers, but often also tablets, phones, video games, and access social media and chatting apps. Let’s also not forget “old fashioned” distractions, like hunger, boredom, and sounds of nature. Help your child learn to anticipate these distractions and come up with solutions for each possible one.‎ She can create a list on a sheet of paper before she begins studying with two columns—distractions and solutions. On this sheet, have her list each potential distraction in the distractions column and a corresponding solution in the solutions column. For instance, if her phone is a potential distraction, a solution might be setting it to silent mode or turning it off entirely. If she thinks she may become hungry when studying, she might want to eat a small snack before she begins. The more she anticipates and solves these potential distractions, the more on-task she will remain.

As students progress through school, they will inevitably encounter increasingly complex tests. Encourage your child to try these strategies to effectively prepare for exams and ultimately achieve academic success.

The post 5 Strategies To Help Your Child Study For Tests appeared first on EBL Coaching.

As students progress through school, they are expected to take countless in-class and standardized tests that include essays. Students are often baffled by this type of exam. How do I begin? How do I write an effective thesis statement? How do I organize my ideas? These are just some of the questions that run through the minds of students who are facing these essay exams. Learning strategies for how to write effective essays for timed tests can help students build confidence, ease anxiety, and ace these exams.

Here is a step-by-step process for how to write a perfect timed essay:

Brainstorm
Even if time is limited, it is always important for students to brainstorm before they begin writing. To do so, students can draw a vertical web diagram with a box on top for the opening and thesis statement, three bubbles underneath it, and a box at the bottom for the conclusion paragraph. They can write their opening sentence inside the upper part of the box and their thesis statement inside the bottom part. Next, they can create branches stemming out of each bubble with ideas for their body paragraphs. Look at the following model as an example for an essay on a prompt that reads: Eating Healthy Food verses Eating Junk Food:

Write the essay
For the introduction paragraph, begin with an interesting, unique remark or story. The paragraph should end with a well-constructed thesis statement to set the organization and tone of the essay. Students can start with a question, general statement, quotation, opposite statement, or story. The thesis statement should always come at the end of the introduction paragraph, and should contain the student’s opinion on the topic and his or her plan for the essay. For example, a well-constructed thesis statement might be as follows: Red House Grill is the best restaurant in town because of its food, atmosphere, and friendly staff. Note that for this thesis statement, the opinion is Red House Grill is the best restaurant in town and the plan is because of its food, atmosphere, and friendly staff. Thus, the first body paragraph of this essay would be about Red House Grill’s food, the second body paragraph would be about its atmosphere, and the third would be about its friendly staff.

The body paragraphs should include details, examples, statistics, quotations, and any other specific information. It is important that the student describes information in detail, with concrete backup from credible sources, rather than just “telling” about it. Remember that if any information is taken from other sources, it must be credited as an outside source.

The Conclusion Should Do the Following:

(1) Restate the Thesis Statement
This is where the student should remind the reader of his or her opinion on the topic and restate the three supporting points. For example, for our Rocking Horse Grill essay, we might start our conclusion paragraph with the following: “Because of its delicious Mexican cuisine, convivial ambiance, and energetic staff, Rocking Horse Grill is one of the best restaurants inChicago.”

(2) Lead-out
he next 2-4 sentences should lead the reader to the author’s final, conclusive remark. The student can reiterate some points about each of the body paragraphs. These sentences should, of course, contain words that are different from those used in the actual body paragraphs.

(3) Concluding Remark
This remark should be conclusive, strong, and perhaps profound. It should leave the reader thinking. For example, a concluding remark for our Rocking Horse Grill essay might be: “The next time you are in town, do not bother with any other restaurants since Rocking Horse Grill has it all.”

Self-check
It is very important that students always self-check their essays when they are done writing. They can do so by using the following acronym:

• Capitalization
• Tense
• Organization
• Punctuation
• Spelling

Students should check for each of these elements, one at a time. By practicing this technique of brainstorming, writing, and self-checking, students can learn to master writing timed essays.

Dr. Emily Levy is the author of Strategies for Study Success, a 13-part student workbook series that teaches students research-based strategies for test taking, note taking, organization, reading comprehension, and writing. She is also the founder and director of EBL Coaching, a tutoring organization based in Manhattan and New Jersey. Learn more at www.eblcoaching.com or call 212-249-0147.

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