Tips to Ensure High Scores on Standarized Tests

As a teacher, you do everything possible to ensure that your students perform their best as you prepare your students for state tests. You always feel you could have done more if you had more time, but in preparing students for state tests, time is always a teacher’s worst enemy.

The reality is that a teacher can only do so much, and then, the student has to do his/her part. The old cliché says: You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. We can give students all the opportunities and the knowledge in the world, but they must desire to learn, retain, and apply the information.

Here are ten measures that you can take to ensure your students’ success:

1. Practice Tests

Give students plenty of practice by offering them sample questions. Make sure the questions you provide mimic the wording of the actual test questions.

2. Online Programs

Programs such as USA Test Prep provide students with immediate feedback and give teachers a measure of their students’ performance.

3. Websites

Webster Grammar as well as other sites can be used as remediation for those students who are not performing where they should be performing.

4. Review

If your students complete practice tests, review the tests with your students. If many students choose the wrong answer choice for a specific question, ask students why. If you do, you will understand how your students think and be able to have a better understanding of why they choose the wrong answer choice.

5. Last but not least—Good, Old Encouragement

Tell students what this test means to their future as well as to their ability to graduate high school. Emphasize to students that their test results are kind of like a ghost that will follow them to college or to anyone, i.e. employers, who sees a copy of their transcript. If you give students the reasoning behind why they should do a good job, you may encourage many of your students to perform to the best of his/her ability.