So it’s the end of the school year and you need to figure out exactly what you need to do to prepare students for standardized tests. Perhaps it’s just a regular final exam. No matter the type of test: standardized test, final exam, midterm or quarter exam, I have some strategies that will help you.
Standardized testing is such a pain and trying to prepare students for standardized tests is even worse. You constantly wonder:
- What should I review with my students?
- How do I review for standardized tests?
- How do I use the review time most effectively?
The good thing is that you are going to mostly have an idea of what is going to be on the test because it’s standardized and should actually be based in the standards.
Well here in this podcast episode, I outline exactly how I determine what I need to review with my students for our standardized final exam. Here are some of the tips:
Practice Standardized Tests
You can do a lot of different options for your practice test. You can do a full on practice test. To do this you would put your practice under the most identical conditions to the real test. I don’t really like this option. I prefer to do some form of a mini test. In a mini test, you can give a few questions in a similar testing environment. This is a lot less stress on your students and can still give you a good picture of what your students need help with at the end of your school year. This is one of the most common ways to prepare students for standardized tests.
Evaluate Test Data throughout the year
I have a test score tracker (you can grab a copy here). With this tracker, I keep an eye on the scores for each unit and for each kid. In doing this, I can see where kids are having issues. Then at the end of the year, we can look back at specific units and see if the kids still need help with this unit. For example, let’s say a lot of my students struggled with the bonding test, and the retakes only helped their scores a little bit. By the end of the year, I’d evaluate the bonding questions on their practice tests and see if they’ve improved. Learning it late is better than not learning it! If they still need help in this area, this is a place where we would spend our review time.
Ask students where they struggle
Anecdotal evidence is so valuable and overlooked! You can get amazing evidence from your students. They are the ones taking the test, right? This is especially good to do after a practice test. A lot of the time, the kids don’t really know where they struggle. If you give them a practice test and they can identify that question 5 was really tough, you can match that to a review concept.
How to review for standardized tests
The review time is so valuable you want to make sure that you use it wisely. Once you collect some data, whether it’s anecdotal or hard numerical data, you’ll know exactly what you need to review. But the question remains, what is the most effective way to review? The way I see it, you should strategically be choosing topics. The point is to choose topics that allow for multi-topic review just in their nature alone.
Implement Review Games
I have an entire podcast episode about my favorite review games that I play with my students. They are also student favorites, so make sure to check out the list and listen to the episode.
What Not To Do When You Prepare Students for Standardized Tests
Don’t spend any time reviewing things that your students already know. It’s simply a waste of time. There is no reason to spend any time on things they already understand. Think of it like lifting 1 pound weights. It’s easy and doesn’t really contribute to any real growth or progress. Don’t even bother.
