Testing Is Not A Popular Studying Technique

(Carey, 2010) Testing is a different way of storing information in your brain. Tests are often challenging which make it the best studying tool because the harder it is to remember something, the harder it is to

By practicing, talking and writing about a topic, this is the only way our brain can make permanent connections about the information we are trying to learn as studies have shown such as the retrieval practice study, that those students in the retrieval practice group overall scored higher over

Preparations for tests should ideally begin much earlier than shortly before the actual test taking period. Indeed, many students perform dismally in their tests because of their failure to understand this and many other principles of test and exam preparation. In addition to discussing how students should prepare for tests, this text will also identify the various strategies which should be embraced by students during test taking in an attempt to enhance performance.

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

Teachers expect their students to work hard for good grades and achieve the highest possible test scores on standardized test. If all teachers are concerned about is the grades their students are getting and not whether or not they are learning the material being taught to them. They can’t expect students to retain the knowledge they are receiving with the pressure of high expectations from teachers. The stress of memorizing for a test is unbelievable. All students care about is how many questions they can get right, what grade they have received, and how much it will affect their grade. A majority of students forgets the material they spent

Many teachers these days are “teaching to the test” and hurting their students in the process. The students are not properly taught to retain information that will be helpful in the future. Many students are taught to memorize the information for the test and to never look back on that information until an exam, where the whole memorizing process starts again. The information is never fully learned or understood. “ students ... have very little idea how they can apply the information throughout their lives” (Source F). Many students cannot remember what they have learned up to the current week, and many researchers have found that since the information is not currently being used, it has been pushed to the back of the mind and in most cases, forgotten. Researchers have found that many students forget up to 60% of material that they learned in high school before moving to a university. The information that has been consumed by students is not being applied in real life situations. And the tests will not help students in the future with getting jobs or any real-world knowledge. “Instead of being able to explain what they can DO with the information they have learned (i.e., order food at a restaurant from language class, determine appropriate change while shopping from math class), students often only cite the technical

Everyone learns to memorize, in some ways it is what the majority of schools teach to their students, especially when dealing with younger ages. Memorization is key to tests all over: SATS, MEAS, NECAPS etc. When learning Macbeth’s soliloquy Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me I used the same techniques that I use to memorize anything. When I was younger I quickly came to realize math was a strong point, with the exception of memorizing the formulas. I would go into a test read a problem and know the basics behind it, although I would be unable to complete the question without a specific equation. From this I created a process to memorize anything.

I try to sit down and study the information for each test a couple of days prior. Yet when I tried to study I get distracted and end up being on my phone for hours instead of studying. I also tried to rewrite my notes as a study strategy but that just left me with two set of notes and an exhausted brain. I even turned to use the study strategies found in Cal Newports’s book “How to Become a Straight –A Student,” like “quiz-and-recall method.” That just caused me to be taking to myself the whole night. I find that when I ask a lot of questions in class about the topic on the current day I understand the information making it easier to connect it to information I already know so I can memorize it better. Some methods I can use to improve my test prep to study look over the notes from the previous day rather than look at it all before a test. Also I should try to get an adequate amount of sleep the day before the test to maximize my memorization ability.

The more time spent on something the better you are. This is the strategy that is being employed in the education system to improve test scores. The latest education reform aimed at closing the gap of test performance has been extended learning time. This reform limits students’ time outside of the classroom and maintains a focus on test preparation. This approach has not been proven to be 100% effective. 42 studies showed no positive impact from year-round school. Every student learns differently, thus the approach should be different for every student.

Welner hits the nail on the head when he states, “The simple truth is that children learn when they have opportunities to learn. When those opportunities are rich, engaging and supported, students learn much more that when those opportunities are narrow, constrained and focused on dry, unengaging test preparation.” What all of those adjectives boil down to mean are exactly how I feel about testing students. I would enjoy learning so much more if my learning wasn’t planned to the last

This article by Doug Rohrer and Harold Pashler explains why cramming hours and hours for a test most likely will not help you in the long run. They go into detail about why you should take breaks, which could be multiple days, between studying. This helps with your long term retention. However, is has been proven through their experiments and others’ that overlearning will benefit you in the short run. Overlearning is very common in students, but what we do not take into consideration is that teachers and textbooks promote this overlearning. Rohrer and Pashler explain that perhaps if textbooks such as math textbooks only put a few practice problems from the current chapter and then spread more throughout the entire book, students would

Teachers “teaching to the test” is something I recall from my childhood. The prevalence of standardized tests obviously wasn’t to the degree that it is in today’s education system, but I distinctly remember occasionally being told that the sole reason for learning something was because it was going to be on the test that we had to take at the end of the year; and I remember consciously and actively hating it. I was always the kid who enjoyed school and, to me, learning information or skills that no one could explain the purpose of beyond its importance on the test was just taking time away from other, more beneficial, more interesting topics. Now, as an adult and future teacher, I can see that I was not alone in these thoughts.

These practice tests are totally different from how the questions on the actual SOLs are worded. Plus we test and test and test and by the time we sit down to take the SOL we do not want to test anymore. The tests before the SOLs are also bad because they don’t always really show what you really know. The tests are long and tricky because of the questions. It would be way easier if you could just talk to someone about the answers instead of sitting in a room staring at a computer

The idea of having students practice answering test questions is ubiquitous and ineffective in raising test scores. Consider focusing instruction on those things that actually make a difference in test performance. Teach kids how to figure out the meaning of words on the basis of morphology and context. Teach them to figure out the meanings of complex sentences by breaking those sentences into parts. Teach them to sustain their concentration during the silent reading of challenging and extensive texts. Teach those things well, and you will see improved test performance; the side benefit to be derived from this kind of test prep would be that your students would become better

Similarly, Tests are a way to ensure students are keeping up with the material. Tests can be worth as much as 40% of the possible grade in the class; therefore, it keeps students fully aware that they must study in order to do good on the test or else receive a negative grade. In my experience, every assignment that has a big impact on my grade is on my high priority list, Therefore I study as much as I can. I even stay up for hours at night.