Do you feel like no matter how much studying you do, tests make you nervous? It’s natural and sometimes it’s even a good thing to get a little adrenaline going. But, you’re probably wondering what you can do to feel more confident going into every test. Here are our top ten test-taking tips and strategies to help you feel confident and perform better. Whether it’s a pop quiz or the SAT, we have you covered.
Test Taking Tips to Feel Prepared and Confident
- Get a healthy night’s sleep, eat a high protein breakfast and drink plenty of water – You want to do everything you can to feel great during your test.
- Don’t cram – This method of staying up all night studying before a test has been shown to lead to worse test performance and lower grades. Instead, make sure to study periodically leading up to the test.
- Think positive – Making yourself think positive thoughts will go a long way in helping you to feel confident. This also means avoiding negative thoughts: “This test is going to be so hard.” or “I’m so nervous.”
- Get to the testing area early – Cutting it too close or arriving late can make your nerves a little worse whereas arriving with a 5-10 minute cushion can help you to feel a little more relaxed going into the test.
- Show up to the class before the test – The class right before the test is the one where teachers are most likely to give out helpful hints about what will be on the test so it is crucial not to miss these classes.
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Test Taking Strategies for Success
- Read the instructions carefully – For multiple choice, there can be more than one correct answer so instructions that say to choose the more correct answer will let you know to consider all the options very carefully. On fill-in-the-blank questions, make sure you’re answering the correct way. For example, tests can ask you to answer in a complete sentence, a certain number of words, or with a yes/no/true/false. Math tests, for example, may ask you to round decimals and simplify fractions.
- Pay attention to negative words – Along with reading the instructions carefully, make sure you read the questions carefully for any negative words such as “not”, “don’t” or “aren’t.”. These words can be easy to overlook and change which answer is correct.
- Don’t stop for questions you don’t know. Simply mark the questions to come back to and move on to the ones you do know. Then come back with the knowledge of how you answered the other questions to make an educated guess.
- On True/False questions you’re not sure about, the answer is more likely “True” – According to William Poundstone’s analysis of many tests in his book Rock Breaks Scissors, on an average, 56% of answers are True and 44% False.
- Plan to finish early and review – If you’ve studied properly and taken all of the advice up to this point, you’ll probably finish your tests with a little extra time. Use this time wisely to do some of the following:
- Check that all questions are answered and complete any that aren’t.
- For essays or essay questions, check spelling, grammar and punctuation.
- On math tests, check that you’ve answered problems in the correct way. Common mistakes are not placing the right sign (positives and negatives) or misreading a word problem.
Wrap up
We know it might seem like a lot to think about, but if you follow all of these tips and strategies to prepare for and take future tests, you’ll be ready for anything that comes your way. Need more help studying? Contact us for a free consultation. FLS Tutors will administer a diagnostic to assess your strengths and weaknesses. Then, we’ll use the results to create and administer a custom study plan that we can administer in-person or virtually. FLS Tutors is a premier educational services provider. We have been family owned since our founding in 1986.
This blog first appeared on the FLS International Blog
