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Testing - Tips and Techniques That  Produce Success

  • Verbal and Math Skills

    • At Home

      • Parents encourage reading

      • Parents stimulate discussions

      • Parents challenge thinking

      • Parents teach reference lookup skills

  • Verbal Skills

    • Study Romance languages

    • Study Latin

    • Study words

      • Roots

      • Prefixes

      • Suffixes

  • All Skills

    • Know the Test

      • Learn the directions ahead of time

      • Learn to completely fill in circles

      • Keep the paper clean, except for answers

      • Watch out for the easy, but wrong answer

      • Weigh the weight of the answer, in low penalty tests, guessing may help you

      • Familiarity can lower anxiety

      • Practice can increase speed

      • Coaching companies may help (est. $800)

      • Use the Internet to practice tests

    • Prepare the Body

      • Plenty of sleep

      • Allow time for a no-stress morning

      • Light meals before

    • Dress for Success

      • Wear clothing in layers

        • Add more for cold testing rooms

        • Shed some for hot testing rooms

      • Wear a watch to monitor timed tests

    • Links

      • College Board - SAT

      • Educational Testing Service -  How to prepare for GRE, GMAT, and TOEFL. Sample questions. Register for tests.
      • GoCollege - A commercial site to sell you Cliff Notes and PSAT/SAT prep materials, but also a place to run computer searches for college and scholarship information. They also have a separate links pages to high schools on the Internet.
      • Kaplan - Coaching company
      • Reader's Digest - Word Power

The full story was published in Reader's Digest, September 1999, pp. 173-178, "How to build confidence, overcome anxiety, and ... Boost Your Child's Test Scores," Edwin Kiester, Jr. and Sally Valente Kiester