April 29, 2009
Top Ten Test Taking Tips
• Practice relaxation such as breathing or closing eyes to concentrate.
• Listen carefully to all of the directions.
• Practice time management during the test. Skip problems you can’t
solve in a reasonable amount of time.
• Eliminate answers you know are wrong. Watch for answer distracters
(obviously wrong answers). In some cases, you must go with the “best answer”
since there sometimes is not a “perfect answer.”
• Mark bubbles completely and stay in the lines.
• Avoid pencils that are too sharp or pressing too hard. The mark
will bleed through the opposite side of the answer document. If it is
aligned with a bubble, the scanner will pick up the wrong mark.
• Practice working alone.
• Organize your desk. Practice using a test, answer document, and
scratch paper. Practice transferring answers from scratch paper to answer
documents.
• Get a good night’s sleep, and eat a good breakfast (low sugar!)
before and healthy snacks during the testing period. (And every other day as
well!)
• Stop watching TV and playing video games 1 week before testing.
Recent brain research from Stanford suggests that a 1-week break from
television media will allow the brain to rest, and the result is that it is
easier to focus on tests!
