Test Skills – What are the Best Test Taking Strategies?

By Stuart Ackerman

     Sometimes, doing well on a test has as much to do with test taking strategies as it does knowing the topic and concepts.

     Over the years, I have seen students who seem to know their material yet somehow do poorly on their tests.  The reason for this is due to the fact that they have neglected to study their ‘test taking strategies’.

     Knowing the nature of the test questions can make or break the outcome of a test.

     There are 5 major test question formats.  Students should be aware as to how to answer each of them.

Multiple Choice

The first thing about multiple choice questions, they’re tricky!  Read over the directions and determine if the question is asking you for the right answer or the best answer. This can make a difference when you are deciding upon an answer because when you are looking for the ‘best’ answer, there may be more than one good answer.

Also, make sure that you read the question and answer it in your mind before you read the multiple choices.  This is important because most of the time, all the answers will look good.  Your instincts will usually lead you to the correct answer.  This will prevent confusion if you had just read the question and looked at all the answers.

Look for negative words!  Negative words can change the meaning of the question.  For example, “Light energy can’t bend unless it…”  This can be confusing.  It would have been easier (and not so tricky) if the question said, “Light energy can only bend if it….”

True or False

Sometimes, part of a true or false answer might be true, so, make sure you read the entire question and the entire answer before choosing true or false.  Also, be careful of words such as: some, never, always, and each.  These words sometimes indicate false statements.

Matching

Before answering any matching questions, make sure you carefully read all lists.  Also, check off the answers that you have already matched.  This will help keep you organized so that you don’t use the same answer twice.

Essay Questions

The most important part about answering essay questions is to make sure that you look for the key words, and, make sure that you understand what those key words are asking from you.

For example, such words as: compare, define, explain, list, and prove all require different types of answers (click here for more detail on answering essay questions).

Fill in the Blanks

When answering a fill in the blanks question, it is important to be aware of two things.  Firstly, count the number of blanks in each question.  It might indicate the number of words that you need for your answer.  Second, if you are given a list of words to use for filling in the blanks start with the easiest words, answer other questions in the test, then come back to the harder fill in the blanks.  Often you will find that the fill in the blank that you weren’t able to answer was already answered somewhere else in the test.  Also, you brain might kick in from answering other questions and you will recall facts and be able to answer the tough fill in the blanks.

     It’s good to view a test as a document that is testing two abilities.  The first ability is your knowledge and the second is playing the test game itself.

 ©Tutorgiant.com