Test Taking Tips and Strategies
- Think positive thoughts.
- Make a conscious effort to relax your neck, shoulders and upper back.
- Don’t start writing immediately. Look over the entire test to learn the number and kinds of questions.
- Budget your time; allow yourself time after you have finished the test to check your answers.
- Read all the directions twice. Circle key words and be careful not to read more into questions than is actually there.
- Deliberately ignore the pace of classmates and proceed with a steady pace.
- Answer all questions. Intelligently guess the answers to the questions you are unsure of and flag these questions and come back to them to recheck your answers.
- Never change an answer unless it is clearly wrong.
- “Flag” questions you are unsure of and come back to them later.
- Your subconscious will continue to “work” on questions about which you are unsure. Sometimes a question or answer will trigger recall for another answer.
- If you get “stuck”…
¨ Reread the question and break it down into small units.
¨ Search for the “cue” or “clue’ words and define them mentally.
¨ Carefully reread the answer choices (read the stem first and then each answer with it – the stem is the “question” above the answers)
¨ Brainstorm associated concepts and try to recall similar information.
¨ Put the question into your own words for better understanding, being very careful not to change the meaning.
¨ Draw a picture or diagram to really “see” it.
- Check your answers.
¨ Are they readable?
¨ Do your answers, answer the questions asked?
¨ Are they in the correct answer spaces?
¨ Have they been transposed correctly from “workspace”?
¨ Have they been written well (if an essay)?