Test Preparation

Test preparation is an ongoing process that needs to be done throughout the semester. If you get in the habit of frequent periodic reviews and use some of the techniques described below, you will soon learn that effective test preparation is more a reinforcement of course material than a relearning.

Test preparation is about more than studying for the big exam, although it is critical to success and higher test scores. Test prep is an important part of education, and students participate in a variety of workshops, sample tests, practice reading tests, and special programs that enhance their test-taking skills. Test preparation is compulsory whenever it comes to graduation.

Sometimes one of the most difficult things about test preparation is maintaining interest and motivation for study guides. If you do not receive your study guide, you are still responsible for attending the test for which you are registered. You and you alone are responsible for your test preparation. It's up to you whether to succeed or fail in your educational endeavors.

Interactive Test Prep Programs

Kaplan, Inc, the leader in test preparation, is helping students and their families get a handle on Georgia's challenging new Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) with the publication of Parent's Guide to the CRCT. This Kaplan test prep is the only one of its kind.

Short-term test preparation programs that emphasize the review and recollection of information previously learned, may be helpful to students if considerable time has elapsed since students completed course work. During the process of test preparation, important information from the notes, labs, and readings should be reduced to the bare essentials and organized into different formats.

Test Preparation Techniques

Organizing information makes it easier to register in and recall from memory the material. The formats used will depend on individual learning styles, the nature of the information, etc. Color coding helps one to discern relationships among separate pieces of information. One of the most common applications of color coding is using highlighters to prioritize information.

Reading comprehension is not a matter of recall but of ability to analyze the passage for its implication, assumption, or inference. Paraphrasing involves restating the information from the notes or reading in one's own words and helps recollection on a practice test, or the real thing.

Auditory learners prefer reading aloud or listening to tapes containing lectures for test preparation. In many classrooms, students spend a good deal of time throughout the year preparing for standardized tests-practicing the specific reading, writing, and math skills that are on the tests; being taught strategies for answering multiple-choice and short-answer questions; learning how to fill in answer sheets.