9 Useful Tips for Using Practice Tests
When it comes to taking tests, it’s only natural that many students have plenty of anxiety. Whether it’s in elementary school, middle school, high school, or college, students are always looking for any advantage they can get to achieve a higher test score. For many students, one of the best ways to do so is by taking practice tests prior to sitting down for the real thing. Useful for teachers and professors as well, practice tests are being used more and more in schools and colleges throughout the nation. If you’re a student who is preparing to use practice tests, here are nine useful tips you can use to get great results.
Focus On Weaker Areas
When you take a practice test, the results you get will let you see which areas you are weaker in, and therefore will allow you to focus more on areas that may lead to lower test scores if not improved.
Recognize Your Strengths
Just as a practice test will let you see the areas in which you are weaker, it will also let you see the areas in which you are already strong. By doing so, you can therefore spend far less time on these topics, and instead use your study time more efficiently by emphasizing areas where you need improvement.
Better Retention of Information
Since practice tests enable you to learn information over a period of time, there’s a much better chance you will be able to retain the facts you learn. In fact, educational research has proven time after time that students who use practice tests have much better test scores that those who do not use these tests, so expect good results if you take the time to look over a practice test.
Reduce Test Anxiety
If you are a student who suffers from test anxiety, taking a practice test beforehand can help alleviate or even eliminate this, helping you relax and feel better about your chances of getting a higher score.
Gauging Fairness and Accuracy of Exam
For teachers and professors, offering practice tests to students can help them gauge the fairness and accuracy of the exam they are preparing to give. If their students do poorly on the practice test, or if there are certain questions that many students miss, teachers can go back and look at these areas of the test, making changes if necessary.
Compatibility With Software
If the actual test will be given on a computer, a practice test can let teachers know if there are any problems regarding the computer software used for the test. If any problems are found, changes can be made to the test or software to make sure all goes well during the actual test.
Reinforces Your Learning
When you take a practice test, the information you learn becomes reinforced, enabling you to not only retain it for this current test, but also making it easier to retrieve the information later on if needed. In doing so, it can actually lead to requiring less study time on other tests in the future, which makes any student happier.
Levels the Playing Field
By giving a practice exam to students, teachers actually help level the playing field in many ways. For example, they let students not only see the types of information they will need to know, but also see the styles of the questions, such as true-false, multiple choice, essay, or other types.
Provide Feedback
While practice tests give students the chance to see areas where they need work, they do the same for teachers. If there are certain parts of a practice test where students score poorly, the teacher can go back and re-examine how that part of the course was taught, making changes if needed.
While taking a practice test does not guarantee you will get a better score on the actual test, it greatly improves your chances. Whether you suffer from extreme test anxiety or simply have certain parts of a course where you need improvement, taking a practice test can make any test situation far easier.
